Search

Our current goals in forestry involve safeguarding the land and environment, optimizing the forest's ability to absorb CO2, maintaining the health and integrity of forest ecosystems, and preserving biodiversity and landscape variety. Ensuring the long-term productivity, socio-economic viability, and environmental functions of European forests and woodlands, including coppice woodlands, is crucial. Addressing these challenges can be effectively achieved by utilizing a combination of various management methods. The main focus of this study is on traditional forms of management such as coppicing, grazing, and litter raking. To facilitate this research, designated plots were established within the Training Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest Křtiny. These plots, where sheep grazing and litter raking have been implemented since 2018, are exceptional and provide exemplary illustrations of diverse coppice management practices in Central European coppices.

This one-year study focuses on the responses of a soil environment to the implementation of traditional forest management practices in oak-hornbeam stands with the following treatments: cut (C), cut + litter raking (CR), cut + grazing (CG), cut + litter raking + grazing (CRG) and control (Ctrl). The cut was conducted in 2018 through extremely heavy thinning. In autumn of 2017 and 2018, we sampled the soils, focusing on microbial functional diversity (FD) assessments using BIOLOG EcoplateTM. After one season, the FD was the highest in the Ctrl stand and the lowest in the CRG stand. Furthermore, we detected significant seasonal differences in soil reaction, nitrate nitrogen content, phosphatase activity and microbial biomass among the treatments. In particular, the Ctrl stand was defined via FD indices and biochemical and biological soil properties that contrasted mainly with those of the CRG stand defined by the content of mineral nitrogen forms. The soil properties did not differ substantially in the remaining treatments. Of the 31 carbon sources defining FD, 6 were treatment-specific (putrescine, L-arginine, L-serine, L-threonine, D-cellobiose and glycogen), while the remaining carbon sources mainly displayed either uniform high or low activity across the treatments., info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

The objective of the article was to model the economic efficiency of coppice and compare it with that of an oak high forest (primarily for the territory of Křivoklátsko Forest Park). The model calculations were based on actual expenses and revenues from the area of interest to the maximum possible extent. The calculations included methods both with time factor (dynamic methods, namely the method of net present value) and without time factor (static methods). For the area of Křivoklátsko Forest Park, the examined data showed that the economic efficiency of coppice could be greater than that of high forest or over-mature coppice., info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Research Highlights: The influence of litter raking and livestock grazing on the development of juvenile sessile oak and European hornbeam sprouts as well as on sessile oak standards were studied. Such experiments are very rare, especially in central Europe where these activities have been prohibited for several decades. Little is known on how these ancient management activities affect tree growth. Background and Objectives: Traditional management practices in coppice forests such as grazing and litter raking have been abandoned, but have recently been studied as to whether these practices can substantially contribute to an increase in the species diversity of coppices. The important question is, however, how these practices influence the growth of coppice-with-standards. Therefore, this study focused on the effect of grazing, litter raking, and their combination on both sprouts and adult trees in a coppice-with-standards system one year after harvest. Materials and Methods: The experiment was carried out in the area of the Training Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest Křtiny, Czech Republic, in a forest stand dominated by sessile oak and European hornbeam. We analyzed 132 oak polycormons, 132 hornbeam polycormons, and 163 oak standards. Results: The number of sprouts per stump was affected by the stump size and management practice: (A) coppice-with-standards, litter raking, and sheep grazing; (B) coppice-with-standards and sheep grazing; (C) coppice-with-standards and litter raking; and (D) coppice-with-standards), but not by tree species. The number of the sprouts as well as their height increased with the stump size. In contrast, grazing resulted in a smaller height of the sprouts while thinner sprouts were found under a combination of grazing and raking. When comparing the species, the oak sprouts were higher and thicker when compared to the hornbeam sprouts. The increment of standards increased after stand harvest. This, however, was not the result of grazing or ra, info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

The effects of thinning and reduced throughfall on soil moisture and the diameter and height increments of sessile oak and European hornbeam sprouts were studied in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic. Thinning was performed by reducing the basal area by 50% in each stool. Reduced throughfall (a reduction of 30%) was achieved by constructing parallel drainage channels. Diameter and height increments and soil moisture were measured. Reduced throughfall had no statistically signiffcant effect on the diameter relative growth rate (RGR) of sessile oak and European hornbeam one year after thinning. However, thinning had a statistically signiffcant effect on the diameter RGRs of sessile oak and European hornbeam. The height RGRs of sessile oak and European hornbeam were not influenced by thinning and reduced throughfall. Soil moisture was statistically signiffcantly affected only by thinning. The reduced throughfall and the available water capacity reduced by the stoniness and thickness of the soil genetic horizon (AWCred) was used as a covariate had no signiffcant effects on soil moisture. The effect of thinning on the diameter RGR was statistically signiffcant for both studied species. The effect of thinning on soil moisture was statistically signiffcant. Currently, published data on the effect of reduced throughfall on oak-hornbeam coppice in Central Europe are unique.

We observed the growth of juvenile sprouts at stool level in an oak-hornbeam selective coppice after selective thinning. We tested the relations of sprouting probability, number and height of new sprouts, and stool biometric characteristics with thinning intensity and light conditions. We compared the results between the two species. The sprouting probability, number of new sprouts, and height of new sprouts were modelled using different types of regression (logistic, generalized linear, and multiple linear regression) evaluated from 84 sessile oak (Quercus petraea Matt. Liebl.) and 139 European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.) stools with the same site conditions. There were no significant relations between sprouting probability and the tested parameters because nearly all stools re-sprouted. The growth (number and height) of new sprouts depended on the stool basal area before thinning and on thinning intensity. Light conditions (indirect site factor) only influenced the number of new European hornbeam sprouts in 2016 and the height of new sessile oak sprouts. The number of new sprouts in European hornbeam was higher than in sessile oak., info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

We used the Gini index for evaluation of the 40-year transformation to selection forests in the Training Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest Křtiny (Czech Republic). The Gini index values for particular forest stands were compared with the reference values derived from the diameter distribution model curve (type E) by Meyer. From a total of sixteen stands which were evaluated in 2013 (the last periodic inventory), only two stands reached the desired diameter structure. Four other stands reached the desired diameter structure at least once during the transformation period. We recommend the application of Gini index for determination of a success rate of even-aged stand transformation to selection forest.