Effects of changing growth conditions on tree increment, stand production and vitality – danger or opportunity for the Central-European forestry?

The project ACECZECHFOR addressed the issue of changing growth environment on production and vitality of trees grown in the conditions of Czech forests and open landscape. The project built on woody biomass and forest soil data collected in the pilot statistical landscape inventory in the Czech Republic (2008-2009) and performed a repeated inventory of trees grown in forest and open landscape. Repeated tree biomass inventory, complemented with dendrochronology and isotopic analysis (d13C, d18O), provided quantitative data on current and recent changes in tree growth, production and vitality indices and water use efficiency. These data were subsequently analyzed using in-depth correlative approaches and modeling to discern the contribution of key environmental and site variables (N-deposition, climate, stand and soil characteristics). The project brought a wealth of quantitative information on tree responses to changing environment and improved our understanding on actual contribution of individual factors in elevation gradient and conditions of the Czech landscape and practical forestry. This project aimed at analyzing and quantifying the effects of actual and recent changes of growth environment on tree and stand growth and vitality, discerning the relative contribution of N deposition, temperature and moisture in elevation gradient of the Czech statistical landscape inventory grid.

The repeated field survey and sampling was performed in 2014 and 2015, immediatelly followed by laboratory and statistical analyses. Key publications in fields of forest ecology, tree-ring studies and air pollution are being published since 2015.

This project was funded by the Czech Science Foundation (Reg. No. 14-12262S)