21. A system for quality assessment of forestry contractorsMatevž Triplat, Nike Krajnc, 2021, izvirni znanstveni članek Povzetek: Skilled contractors are needed to meet the increased demand for wood and to maintain a competitive edge in forestry. The structure of the forest industry has changed significantly. Today%s situation favours smaller contractors that are more flexible. Worldwide contractors are important for forest operations, but there is often limited knowledge about how well they fulfil demands about resource efficiency, social responsibility and environmental protection. The aim of this paper is to present the guidelines for the assessment of forestry contractors following sustainability principles and to present a recently developed system. In addition to the requirements for professional competences and legislative obligations, the system proposes a number of additional requirements such as corporate social responsibility, participation in the local community and greater environmental responsibility. The forestry contractor and the certification body sign a cooperation agreement to obtain the expert assessment. The expert assessment is performed by an evaluator authorised by a certification body. A web service has been introduced with the purpose of serving as a communication tool between professional evaluators and forestry contractors, as well as providing a new possibility for forest owners to get direct contact with forestry contractors. The system enables its users to exert influence on the assessment of forestry contractors by assessing the quality of their services. Private forests would greatly benefit from customer feedback information on the service quality. By now, 1584 forest contractors have registered in Slovenia, where 67% provide the service of cutting and skidding, 8% provide woodchipper service, 7% transport of round wood, 5% cable crane yarding and 4% fully mechanised harvesting. Until June 2020, 142 forest contractors have gone through the process of quality assessment.
Ključne besede: services, entrepreneurs, sustainability, evaluation, operations, management
Objavljeno v DiRROS: 26.01.2021; Ogledov: 1324; Prenosov: 887
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22. Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function researchCarlos A. Guerra, Anna Heintz-Buschart, Johannes Sikorski, Antonis Chatzinotas, Nathaly Guerrero-Ramírez, Simone Cesarz, Léa Beaumelle, Matthias C. Rillig, Fernando T. Maestre, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Tine Grebenc, 2020, izvirni znanstveni članek Povzetek: Soils harbor a substantial fraction of the world's biodiversity, contributing to many crucial ecosystem functions. It is thus essential to identify general macroecological patterns related to the distribution and functioning of soil organisms to support their conservation and consideration by governance. These macroecological analyses need to represent the diversity of environmental conditions that can be found worldwide. Here we identify and characterize existing environmental gaps in soil taxa and ecosystem functioning data across soil macroecological studies and 17,186 sampling sites across the globe. These data gaps include important spatial, environmental, taxonomic, and functional gaps, and an almost complete absence of temporally explicit data. We also identify the limitations of soil macroecological studies to explore general patterns in soil biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, with only 0.3% of all sampling sites having both information about biodiversity and function, although with different taxonomic groups and functions at each site. Based on this information, we provide clear priorities to support and expand soil macroecological research.
Ključne besede: soil, biodiversity, ecosystem services, blind spots, macroecological research
Objavljeno v DiRROS: 27.08.2020; Ogledov: 1770; Prenosov: 1631
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23. Evaluation of forest edge structure and stability in peri-urban forestsDavid Hladnik, Andrej Kobler, Janez Pirnat, 2020, izvirni znanstveni članek Povzetek: In the presented research, we studied the forest edge structure of urban and peri-urban forests on the outskirts of Ljubljana (Slovenia) consisting of a number of patches covering the collective surface of 1884 ha. They differ from each other according to the degree of fragmentation and by the share of the interior forest area. On the basis of LiDAR data, we conducted an analysis of the edges of the persistent forest patches and estimated them with regard to the land use they bordered on. The horizontal estimation of forest edges and the changes of forest edges, in the last decades, were estimated using digital orthophoto images of cyclic aerial surveys of Slovenia, from 1975 to 2018. The data, provided by LiDAR, were used to obtain an accurate estimate of forest edges and the metrics of their vertical canopy structure. On the basis of the canopy height model (CHM), we determined the height classes, the heights of the tallest trees, and indices of canopy height diversity (CHD) as variables subjected to a k-means cluster analysis. To determine the forest edge and trees stability, their heights and diameters at breast height (DBH) were measured and their canopy length and h/d (height/diameter) dimension ratios were estimated. In the study area of the Golovec forest patch, more than half of the forest edge segments (56%) border on residential buildings. After the construction of buildings, 54% of the newly formed forest edges developed a high and steep structure. Unfavorable h/d dimension ratio was estimated for 16% of trees, more among the coniferous than among the deciduous trees. Similar characteristics of newly formed forest edges bordering on built-up areas were determined in other sub-urban forest patches, despite the smaller share of such forest edges (19% and 10%, respectively). Tools and methods presented in the research enable the implementation of concrete silvicultural practices in a realistic time period and extend to ensure that adequate forestry measures are taken to minimize possible disturbances.
Ključne besede: forest ecosystem services, forest edge stability, forest edge structure, LiDAR, urban forests
Objavljeno v DiRROS: 26.05.2020; Ogledov: 2187; Prenosov: 1204
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24. Cultural ecosystem services provided by the biodiversity of forest soils : a European reviewJurga Motiejunaite, Isabella Børja, Ivika Ostonen, Mark Bakker, Brynhildur Bjarnadottir, Ivano Brunner, Reda Iršenaite, Tanja Mrak, Edda Oddsdottir, Tarja Lehto, 2019, izvirni znanstveni članek Povzetek: Soil is one of the most species-rich habitats and plays a crucial role in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. It is acknowledged that soils and their biota deliver many ecosystem services. However, up to now, cultural ecosystem services (CES) provided by soil biodiversity remained virtually unknown. Here we present a multilingual and multisubject literature review on cultural benefits provided by belowground biota in European forests. We found 226 papers mentioning impact of soil biota on the cultural aspects of human life. According to the reviewed literature, soil organisms contribute to all CES. Impact on CES, as reflected in literature, was highest for fungi and lowest for microorganisms and mesofauna. Cultural benefits provided by soil biota clearly prevailed in the total of the reviewed references, but there were also negative effects mentioned in six CES. The same organism groups or even individual species may have negative impacts within one CES and at the same time act as an ecosystem service provider for another CES. The CES were found to be supported at several levels of ecosystem service provision: from single species to two or more functional/taxonomical groups and in some cases morphological diversity acted as a surrogate for species diversity. Impact of soil biota on CES may be both direct % by providing the benefits (or dis-benefits) and indirect through the use of the products or services obtained from these benefits. The CES from soil biota interacted among themselves and with other ES, but more than often, they did not create bundles, because there exist temporal fluctuations in value of CES and a time lag between direct and indirect benefits. Strong regionality was noted for most of CES underpinned by soil biota: the same organism group or species may have strong impact on CES (positive, negative or both) in some regions while no, minor or opposite effects in others. Contrarily to the CES based on landscapes, in the CES provided by soil biota distance between the ecosystem and its CES benefiting area is shorter (CES based on landscapes are used less by local people and more by visitors, meanwhile CES based on species or organism groups are used mainly by local people). Our review revealed the existence of a considerable amount of spatially fragmented and semantically rich information highlighting cultural values provided by forest soil biota in Europe.
Ključne besede: soil biota, forests, soil ecosystem services, Europe
Objavljeno v DiRROS: 20.02.2020; Ogledov: 2051; Prenosov: 1167
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25. Belowground biodiversity relates positively to ecosystem services of European forestsMark Bakker, Ivano Brunner, Francis Ashwood, Brynhildur Bjarnadottir, Tom Bolger, Isabella Børja, Monique Carnol, Pavel Cudlin, Lise Dalsgaard, Amandine Erktan, Hojka Kraigher, Tanja Mrak, 2019, izvirni znanstveni članek Ključne besede: cultural services, provisioning services, regulating services, supporting services, belowground biodiversity, European forests
Objavljeno v DiRROS: 20.02.2020; Ogledov: 2150; Prenosov: 1556
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