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Query: "keywords" (beech-silver fir forest) .

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1.
Post-harvest forest herb layer demography : general patterns are driven by pre-disturbance conditions
Janez Kermavnar, Klemen Eler, Aleksander Marinšek, Lado Kutnar, 2021, original scientific article

Abstract: Timber harvesting constitutes extensive anthropogenic disturbance in temperate forests, producing a broad range of ecological impacts that most often enhance the demographic processes of vegetation. This study monitored post-harvest herb layer demography over a 6-year period in mesic Dinaric fir-beech forests (Slovenia), a vascular plant diversity hotspot among European forests. Three experimental harvesting intensities, i.e. full harvest (FH), partial harvest (PH) and a control treatment (NH), were each applied over a circular area of 4000 m2 and replicated three times at each of three study sites. Vegetation sampling was conducted before harvesting (in 2012), and two (2014) and six (2018) years following it, in a 400 m2 circular plot positioned in the centre of each treatment area. We focused on identifying general demographic patterns and evaluating the effects of various pre-disturbance abiotic and biotic predictors on compositional responses to disturbance. Two years after harvest (2012-2014), compositional shifts were larger than those in the next 4-year period (2014-2018), confirming the general theoretical prediction that species turnover rate decreases along a successional gradient. The degree of compositional shifts in gaps (FH) and thinned stands (PH) was affected by local abiotic factors (geomorphology of karst sinkholes) and community attributes, such as pre-harvest species richness. Our results indicate that compositional stability is positively associated with pre-disturbance species richness. Over the whole study period, increases in plot-level species richness (alpha diversity) and overall enrichment of the species pool (gamma diversity) were accompanied by compositional convergence, i.e. a decline in floristic dissimilarity (beta diversity) between and within study sites. However, the observed tendency towards homogenization was rather weak and would have been even more pronounced if the demographic type of persistent resident species had not shown a high degree of resistance, thus leaving a strong imprint on post-harvest vegetation development by preserving the forest characteristics of the herb layer community.
Keywords: forest succession, demographic types, community assembly, pre-disturbance factors, floristic convergence, fir-beech forests
Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2022; Views: 450; Downloads: 282
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2.
Evaluating short-term impacts of forest management and microsite conditions on understory vegetation in temperate fir-beech forests : floristic, ecological, and trait-based perspective
Janez Kermavnar, Aleksander Marinšek, Klemen Eler, Lado Kutnar, 2019, original scientific article

Abstract: Forest understory vegetation is largely influenced by disturbances and given local abiotic conditions. Our research focuses on the early response of understory vegetation to various forest management intensities in Dinaric fir-beech forests in Slovenia: (i) control, (ii) 50% cut of stand growing stock, and (iii) 100% cut of stand growing stock. Apart from identifying overstory removal effects, we were interested in fine-scale variation of understory vegetation and environmental determinants of its species composition. Vegetation was sampled within 27 karst sinkholes, which represent a dominant landform in studied forests. Within each sinkhole, five sampling plots, varying in slope aspect (centre, north, east, south, west), were established (135 in total), where pre-treatment (in 2012) and post-treatment (in 2014) floristic surveys were conducted. The sampled understory species were characterized in terms of Ellenberg's indicator values (EIVs) and plant functional traits (plant height, seed mass, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content). Diversity metrics (species richness, total cover, Shannon index) increased in plots where the silvicultural measures were applied. Tree species richness also increased in 100% cutting. A redundancy analysis revealed that species composition was related to environmental variables, which are directly influenced by management interventions (overstory canopy cover, microclimate maximum daily temperature, soil properties thickness of organic soil layer) as well as by topographic factors (slope inclination and surface rockiness). EIVs for light were significantly affected by treatment intensity, whereas soil-related EIVs (moisture, reaction, nutrients) depended more on the within-sinkhole position. Canopy gaps, compared with uncut control plots, hosted a higher number of colonizing species with a higher plant height and smaller seeds, while leaf traits did not show a clear response. We found a negative correlation between pre-treatment species (functional) richness and post-treatment shifts in floristic (functional) composition. Plots with higher richness exhibited smaller changes compared with species-poor communities. Incorporating different perspectives, the results of this study offer valuable insights into patterns of understory vegetation response to forest management in fir-beech forests.
Keywords: canopy gap, microsite environment, Ellenberg indicator values, plant functional traits, compositional resistance, karst topography, fir-beech forest
Published in DiRROS: 06.12.2019; Views: 2445; Downloads: 1522
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3.
Analysis of the influece of ungulates on the regeneration of Dinaric fir-beech forests in the research site Trnovec in the Kočevje forest managementregion
Kristjan Jarni, Dušan Robič, Andrej Bončina, 2004, original scientific article

Abstract: In the period 1970-2000, 152 fenced-in areas were built in the Kočevje Forest Management Region with an aim to protect tree seedlings and saplings from ungulatesć activity and to monitor the influence of roe and red deer on natural regeneration. The average surface area of fenced areas is 0.71 ha. Using the pair comparison technique (fenced vs. unfenced areas), the structureand the composition of the natural regeneration of tree species as well as complete shrub and herb vegetation were analysed in the research site Trnovec. Furthermore, the vegetation was investigated using the Braun-Blanquetmethod. The research results show significant differences between fenced and unfenced areas, both in tree species composition and in theheight structure of the sapling community. In fenced areas the total numberof saplings taller than 50 cm is higher and an increase is also evident in the number of saplings of silver fir Abies alba, sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus, elm Ulmus glabra and other minor tree species. There are also significant differences in species composition and in the abundance of plant species in the herb layer. The results show that natural regeneration of Dinaric fir-beech forests is successful, provided the influence of ungulates is excluded.
Keywords: natural forest regeneration, Fagus sylvatica, roe deer, fir-beech forest, Abies alba, fenced area, seedling browsing, Kočevje forest region, research site Trnovec
Published in DiRROS: 12.07.2017; Views: 4454; Downloads: 2006
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4.
Light response of Fagus sylvatica L. and Abies alba Mill. in different categories of forest edge - vertical abundance in two silvicultural systems
Matjaž Čater, Andrej Kobler, 2017, original scientific article

Abstract: In managed Dinaric montane fir (Abies alba Mill.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests, the light response of young beech and fir in gap microsites was studied during three consecutive growing periods (2009, 2010, and 2011) under controlled environmental conditions in stands of single-tree and irregular shelterwood silvicultural system. According to maximal quantum yield, the different response between species in microsite light categories was evidenced for silver fir on microsites with predominating diffuse light and for beech on microsites with predominating direct light, respectively. Abundance and change of share in microsite light categories was compared over different elevation belts on comparable sites between two silvicultural systems. The share of forest edge area was bigger in the irregular shelterwood system. Change in width of forest edge (20, 30 and 40 m) did not affect the proportion and share of the microsite in both regions of different silvicultural system. Separation of microsite areas between both silvicultural systems, evident in lower elevation belts was not evident in the most conflict and highest elevation zone, while the absolute values of all categories above 700 m in both systems were almost identical, indicating the same, small-scale irregular shelterwood system, known also as the freestyle silvicultural approach.
Keywords: Fagus sylvatica, Abies alba, Dinaric silver fir and beech forests, Dinaric forests, forest edge, silviculture, selective system, irregular shelterwood system
Published in DiRROS: 12.07.2017; Views: 2923; Downloads: 1193
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