The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak Forests
Background and Purpose: The drought-induced vitality loss of sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) has been continuously observed in Hungary for more than three decades. The decrease in stand density as a consequence of drought-induced mortality has not been taken into consideration in most o...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Croatian Forest Research Institute
2016-12-01
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| Series: | South-East European Forestry |
| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1811266344784494592 |
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| author | Imre Berki Ervin Rasztovits Norbert Móricz László Kolozs |
| author_facet | Imre Berki Ervin Rasztovits Norbert Móricz László Kolozs |
| author_sort | Imre Berki |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background and Purpose: The drought-induced vitality loss of sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) has been continuously observed in Hungary for more than three decades. The decrease in stand density as a consequence of drought-induced mortality has not been taken into consideration in most of the monitoring methods.
Materials and Methods: Forest stands without any forest intervention during the last 30 years were selected. Quadrats were designated for the analysis in 18 sessile oak stands along a climatic transect in which foliage transparency and stand density were measured. Drought stress was defined by the water balance approach. By combining the foliage transparency and the relative stand density, a new cumulative assessment method of stand level vitality was introduced to get a more realistic picture about the effects of long-term drought (lasting for several decades) on the sessile oak forests in South-East Europe.
Results: The calculated health status (100% - vital; 0% - dead) of the sessile oak stands was between 70-90% in the moist South-West Hungary and below 50% close to its xeric limit. The individual tree-based vitality assessment method gave considerably higher values on 17 out of 18 sites.
Conclusions: Forest monitoring should also consider stand level-based tree mortality in oak forests while assessing health condition especially close to its xeric limit. The proposed new method provides a more realistic picture about the effects of climate change on sessile oak stands particularly for forest managers interested in changing in the wood stock of forests. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T20:40:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3a86c56b848c4f4a824708f5d2e8ba53 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1847-6481 1849-0891 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T20:40:17Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Croatian Forest Research Institute |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South-East European Forestry |
| spelling | doaj.art-3a86c56b848c4f4a824708f5d2e8ba532022-12-22T03:17:25ZengCroatian Forest Research InstituteSouth-East European Forestry1847-64811849-08912016-12-0172919710.15177/seefor.16-14The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak ForestsImre Berki0Ervin Rasztovits1Norbert Móricz2László Kolozs3University of West Hungary, Institute of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky 4., H-9400 Sopron, HungaryNational Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Forest Research Institute, Várkerület 30/A, H-9600 Sárvár, HungaryNational Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, Forest Research Institute, Várkerület 30/A, H-9600 Sárvár, HungaryNational Food Chain Safety Office, Keleti Károly 24., H-1024 Budapest, HungaryBackground and Purpose: The drought-induced vitality loss of sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) has been continuously observed in Hungary for more than three decades. The decrease in stand density as a consequence of drought-induced mortality has not been taken into consideration in most of the monitoring methods. Materials and Methods: Forest stands without any forest intervention during the last 30 years were selected. Quadrats were designated for the analysis in 18 sessile oak stands along a climatic transect in which foliage transparency and stand density were measured. Drought stress was defined by the water balance approach. By combining the foliage transparency and the relative stand density, a new cumulative assessment method of stand level vitality was introduced to get a more realistic picture about the effects of long-term drought (lasting for several decades) on the sessile oak forests in South-East Europe. Results: The calculated health status (100% - vital; 0% - dead) of the sessile oak stands was between 70-90% in the moist South-West Hungary and below 50% close to its xeric limit. The individual tree-based vitality assessment method gave considerably higher values on 17 out of 18 sites. Conclusions: Forest monitoring should also consider stand level-based tree mortality in oak forests while assessing health condition especially close to its xeric limit. The proposed new method provides a more realistic picture about the effects of climate change on sessile oak stands particularly for forest managers interested in changing in the wood stock of forests.Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.droughtmortalitystand densityforest monitoring |
| spellingShingle | Imre Berki Ervin Rasztovits Norbert Móricz László Kolozs The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak Forests South-East European Forestry Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. drought mortality stand density forest monitoring |
| title | The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak Forests |
| title_full | The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak Forests |
| title_fullStr | The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak Forests |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak Forests |
| title_short | The Role of Tree Mortality in Vitality Assessment of Sessile Oak Forests |
| title_sort | role of tree mortality in vitality assessment of sessile oak forests |
| topic | Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. drought mortality stand density forest monitoring |
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