Branko Stajic

Peatland pines as a proxy for water table fluctuations: Disentangling tree growth, hydrology and possible human influence

Dendrochronological investigations of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing on Männikjärve peatland in central Estonia showed that annual tree growth of peatland pines can be used as a proxy for past variations of water table levels. Reconstruction of past water table levels can help us to better understand the dynamics of various ecological processes in peatlands, e.g. the formation of vegetation patterns or carbon and nitrogen cycling. Männikjärve bog has one of the longest water table records in the boreal zone, continuously monitored since 1956. Common uncertainties encountered while working with peatland trees (e.g. narrow, missing and wedging rings) were in our case exacerbated with difficulties related to the instability of the relationship between tree growth and peatland environment. We hypothesized that the instable relationship was mainly due to a significant change of the limiting factor, i.e. the rise of the water table level due to human activity. To test our hypothesis we had to use several novel methods of tree-ring chronology analysis as well as to test explicitly whether undetected missing rings biased our results. Since the hypothesis that the instable relationship between tree growth and environment was caused by a change in limiting factor could not be rejected, we proceeded to find possible significant changes of past water table levels using structural analysis of the tree-ring chronologies. Our main conclusions were that peatland pines can be proxies to water table levels and that there were several shifting periods of high and low water table levels in the past 200 years.

Dendrochronological research in an artificially established sessile oak stand in the area of Fruška Gora

This paper presents the first regional research of the chronologies of sessile oak trees and definition of the local (master) chronology of sessile oak in the area of Fruska Gora. In addition, the aim of this study is to determine the strength of the common signal in the growth of sessile oak and its dendroclimatological potential under the given conditions. The quality of the local series of radial increment (chronology) and the strength of the common and climatic signals were evaluated using the following parameters: average mean sensitivity, expressed population signal, signal-to-noise ratio and the variance explained by eigenvectors in the procedure of analysis of the principal components. The results have shown that the obtained master chronologies are of satisfactory quality and reliability, and that they contain a sufficient general common ”signal”, which is a characteristic of all analyzed trees that can be processed in all dendroclimatological analyses. It was concluded that, under the investigated site conditions, sessile oak showed low to medium sensitivity of reaction to the modifications of environmental conditions in the past 90 years. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije: Sumski zasadi u funkciji povecanja posumljenosti Srbije]

Pointer years in the growth of beech trees of the NP "Djerdap" area

This paper defines pointer years and years with distinctive tree rings in the growth of beech in 3 sites (ecological units-EU) of the area of Đerdap, in order to observe the reactions of trees to the effects of various factors of growth. The pointer years were determined by the Schweingruber (1983) methodology. The years with distintive tree rings were defined as the years of beech growth with very pronounced distinctive growth rings (annual ring width at least ± 2 standard deviations higher or lower than the arithmetic mean) and pronounced typical growth rings (annual ring width at least ± 1.5 standard deviation higher or lower than the arithmetic mean). The common pointer years for the growth of beech in the site conditions of all three ecological units are 1977 and 1988 (negative pointer years). A particular pointer year is 1988, when in more than 90% of trees under the analyzed environmental conditions the marked reduction of tree rings width of the trees (EUB) or very pronounced reduction in the width of tree rings (EUA and ESV) were observed. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 43007: Istraživanje klimatskih promena na životnu sredinu: pracenje uticaja, adaptacija i ublažavanje]

Structural and productive-developmental characteristics of white willow plantations of different density on humogley in Donji Srem

The study was conducted in two plantations of white willow (Salix alba L.) in Donji Srem on the humogley soil type (hydromorphic black soil), which belongs to a narrow-leaved ash forest with remote sedge (Carici remotae - Fraxinetum angustifoliae Jov. et Tom., 1979). The plantations are located in the same depression. The SP (sample plot)-1 plantation is 21 years old with a 6×6 m planting spacing, and the SP-2 plantation is 27 years old with a 3×3m planting spacing. Elements of stem growth in the SP-1 plantation showed that with the white willow planting spacing of 6×6 m and a planned 25-year production cycle it is possible to obtain about 250 m3•ha-1 of timber volume, with an 80% net share of technical wood and a 20 % share of pulp wood. The plantation in SP-2 is at the age, which is well above the optimum age in terms of rational management, and the total volume at the age of 27 years is about 300 m3•ha-1, with a 53.7% net share of technical wood and a 46.3% share of pulpwood. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 43007: Istraživanje klimatskih promena na životnu sredinu: pracenje uticaja, adaptacija i ublažavanje]

Tree species richness as the element of structure and diversity in mixed stands of beech and valuable broadleaves.

In our forest science and forest operations, the tree species richness and diversity of woody species in forest stands are most often evaluated based on the total number of tree species, which is a methodologically partly inadequate approach. For this reason, the quantification and the evaluation of diversity of woody species in mixed forests of beech with valuable broadleaves in the area of the National Park „Đerdap” were analyzed by five different indices of tree species richness: number of species (S index), two indices of the species richness (R1 and R2), expected number of species in the sample with equal numbers of trees (E(S84)), and expected number of species in the sample with equal areas (E(S0,25ha)). The results showed that the level of woody species diversity in forest stands depended on the applied index characterizing the tree species richness. It was concluded that the tree species richness and diversity were the highest in the stands of ecological unit B (E(S84)=8.6 species) and in the stands of ecological unit G (E(S0,25ha)=9.4 species), and they were the lowest in the stands of ecological unit V (E(S84)=5.8 species, E(S0,25ha)=5.5 species).