scholarly journals Applying landscape ecological principles in sustainable forest management of the floodplain forest in the temperate zone of Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo Machar
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Floodplain Forest ◽  
Temperate Zone ◽  
Floodplain Forests ◽  
Landscape Processes ◽  
Ecological Principles ◽  
Landscape Ecological

AbstractMachar I.: Applying landscape ecological principles in sustainable forest management of the floodplain forest in the temperate zone of Europe. Ekologia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 4, p. 369-375, 2013.European floodplain forests of the temperate climatic zone are an example of an ecosystem in the cultural landscape characterized by an exceptionally high biodiversity. In this usually heavy deforested landscape of the Central and South European river floodplains, which are subjected to intensive agricultural use, the preserved ecosystems of floodplain forests represent important refuges for biotic biodiversity and are invaluable for the ecological landscape stability of the entire floodplain and the wider river basin. Unlike other Central European communities, whereby constant ecological conditions of habitats tend to be preserved even upon changes in ecosystem, the floodplain forests are characterized by a long-term continuous development of ecotopes, conditioning the complex interconnected succession series of ecosystem. The ecological floodplain phenomenon is created by fluvial landscape processes and the conservation of the natural development dynamics of the said fluvial landscape processes is essential for its protection. The landscape structure of floodplain forests is significantly affected by forest management measures, including regeneration methods, silvicultural measures and felling. Floodplain forest management radically affects the biodiversity of the given ecosystems which are listed among habitats of European concern in the Natura 2000 network. Since understanding of the biological nature of forest ecosystems is essential for landscape and ecological planning and sustainable forest management, it is imperative to study ecological processes taking place in the various floodplain forest biotopes in order to be able to define the principles of their management. This article aims to contribute to the process of formulating principles of biodiversity protection and the management strategies for floodplain forest ecosystems, while applying some theories and methods of landscape ecology. The Results section of the article comes in the form of case studies for each topic and draws on original data which were published in the scientific journals or presented at scientific conferences (see References). Some of the presented case studies focus on the Protected Landscape Area Litovelske Pomoravi.

scholarly journals Sustainable management of mountain forests in the Czech Republic

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (No. 11) ◽  
pp. 526-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Vacek ◽  
V. Balcar
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Mountain Forests ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
The Czech Republic

Forest management in the Czech Republic (CR) was not shaped in the environment of natural forests but in the territory that was influenced by unregulated felling and animal grazing for a long time. Hence the fear for sustainable and balanced benefits from forests endangered by long-term uncontrolled exploitation was legitimate. Almost after three centuries of application of the sustainability principle, forests are considered not only as a source of renewable wood raw material but also as a tool of the environment formation. Mountain forests are an important landscape component of this country. They are an object of specific importance from the aspect of natural environment conservation, stabilization of natural processes and general landscape homeostasis. In addition, they fulfil a number of production and non-production functions. Cardinal elements of sustainable forest management in the CR conditions are as follows: management of the forest as an ecosystem, i.e. transition from exclusive care of forest tree species and their stands to care of the whole forest ecosystems; restructuring (conversion, reconstruction) of damaged and declining forests; optimum (species, genetic, spatial, age) structure of forest ecosystems differentiated according to site conditions and management targets; differentiated transition from general management to group or individual methods; utilization and support of spontaneous processes such as natural regeneration, competition and other principles of self-regulation. The above cardinal elements of sustainable forest management are applicable to forests of the CR in general, but their importance considerably increases in mountain forests where many species survive on the margin of subsistence. Moreover, mountain forests of CR have been heavily destroyed by anthropogenic factors, especially air-pollution ecological stresses, during the last three or four decades.

Method for determining the optimum land use

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-130
Author(s):  
Сушков ◽  
Oleg Sushkov
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Environmental Consequences

The article describes the approach to determining the size of the forecast of forest management in the development of forest bases tenants based on sustainable forest management. The approach to determine the environmental consequences of the intervention in forest ecosystems.

scholarly journals Disturbances and biodiversity in forest ecosystems: A temperate zone perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Bark Beetle ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Temperate Zone ◽  
Permanent Plots ◽  
Native Forest ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Natural Disturbances ◽  
Forest Stands ◽  
Biodiversity Protection

In the temperate zone windstorms and bark beetle attacks represent the main natural forest disturbances; in steep mountain areas snow avalanches also may “destroy” forest stands completely. In the densely populated and intensively used temperate zone of Europe affected forest stands will be cleared and reforested immediately after such “catastrophes”. Therefore we have only little knowledge about the influence of such natural disturbances on both the stand development and the biodiversity of native forest ecosystems. And we do not have quantitative data on to which degree forest management changes the biodiversity compared to the natural disturbances. Since about two decades several permanent plot studies have been running in European forests affected by such natural disturbances, mainly with focus on plant species. Here we first outline the importance of disturbances for biodiversity in forest ecosystems and then discuss whether it is possible to combine both biodiversity protection and forest management. For that we use four recent case studies carried out in the two oldest national parks in Germany, three of them being long-term observations on permanent plots for up to two decades. Disturbances like wind throw, bark beetle outbreak and snow avalanche strongly influences the tree layer structure, creating micro-habitats for many plant, animal and fungi species, which naturally belong to the forest ecosystem. Such disturbances in future should be included into management schemes in forestry to improve biodiversity. We found evidence that it is really possible to combine timber utilization with biodiversity protection. As long as the management impact is reduced (e.g. single tree harvesting, using natural regeneration), species diversity of several taxonomic groups (in our study: vascular plants, soil living Carabidae, and soil living fungi) may not be different significantly from a pristine forest. Interconnecting resource use with biodiversity protection will be a main task for both foresters and conservationist in the decades to come – and it seems to be a possible option for a sustainable land use in many parts of the world.doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/botor.v8i0.5552 Botanica Orientalis – Journal of Plant Science (2011) 8: 1-9

scholarly journals Dominance and Diversity of Bird Community in Floodplain Forest Ecosystem

2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 825-833
Author(s):  
Karel Poprach ◽  
Jana Vrbková
Keyword(s):  
Forest Ecosystem ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Floodplain Forest ◽  
Community Interest

The paper is aimed to assessment of diversity and structure of bird community in floodplain forest ecosystem. Authors present results of analyses data on bird communities obtained at two transects in the Litovelské Pomoraví Protected Landscape Area (Czech Republic) in the period 1998–2012. Research of bird communities was carried out using the point-count method. The article deals with qualitative and quantitative representation of breeding bird species, including their relation to habitat type (closed floodplain forest, ecotone). Altogether 63 breeding species were recorded at the Vrapač transect and 67 at the Litovelské luhy transect, respectively. To be able to detect all recorded species, 11 out of 14 years of monitoring were needed at the Vrapač transect and all 8 years of monitoring at the Litovelské luhy transect, respectively. Authors show that the values in dominant bird species change significantly among the particular census dates within one season, mainly with respect to their activity and detectability. Results are discussed in the frame of sustainable forest management in floodplain forest ecosystems. The presented article can promote to discussion aimed to management strategy for floodplain forest ecosystems, which ranks among natural habitat types of Community interest protected under the Natura 2000 European network.

scholarly journals Environmental Modelling of Forest Vegetation Zones as A Support Tool for Sustainable Management of Central European Spruce Forests

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Ivo Machar ◽  
Veronika Vlckova ◽  
Lubomir Salek ◽  
Vilem Pechanec ◽  
Arkadiusz Nowak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Norway Spruce ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Forest Vegetation ◽  
Central European ◽  
Vegetation Zones

Abstract The impact of climate change on forest ecosystems may manifest itself by a shift in forest vegetation zones in the landscape northward and into higher elevations. Studies of climate change-induced vegetation zone shifts in forest ecosystems have been relatively rare in the context of European temperate zone (apart from Alpine regions). The presented paper outlines the results of a biogeographic model of climatic conditions in forest vegetation zones applied in the Central European landscape. The objective of the study is a prediction of future silvicultural conditions for the Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.), which is one of the principal tree species within European forests. The model is based on a general environmental dependence of forest vegetation zones on the long-term effect of altitudinal and exposure climates defined by the mean and extreme air temperatures and the amount and distribution of atmospheric precipitation. The climatological data for the model were provided by a validated regional climate database for 2010 – 2090 according to the SRES A1B scenario, bound to specific geo-referenced points in the landscape. The geobiocoenological data in the model were provided by the Biogeography Register database which contains ecological data on the landscape bound to individual cadastres of the entire Czech Republic. The biogeographic model applies special programs (the FORTRAN programming language) in the environment of geographic information systems. The model outputs can be clearly graphically visualized as scenarios of predicted future climatic conditions of landscape vegetation zones. Modelling of the regional scenario of changes in the climatic conditions of forest vegetation zones reveals that in the prediction period of 2070 and beyond, good and very good climatic conditions for the cultivation of forests with dominant Norway spruce will be found only in some parts of its today’s native range in forest vegetation zones 5 – 8. Based on the results provided by the regional scenario, the authors of this paper recommend fundamental reassessment of the national strategy of sustainable forest management in the Czech Republic, stipulating that the current practice of spruce cultivation be reduced only to areas specifically defined by the biogeographic model. The paper shows that biogeographic models based on the concept of vegetation zoning can be applied not only in regional scenarios of climate change in the landscape but also as support tools for the creation of strategies of sustainable forest management.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document