Радіальний приріст ялини європейської (Picea abies L.) в осередку її всихання (Горгани, Українські Карпати)

In recent years, there has been an intensive drying of spruce forests in the Ukrainian Carpathians. This process causes economic damage, and leads to deterioration in the living conditions of spruce forests, and also reducing their ecosystem services. In order to define the dynamics of the radial growth of European spruce, as well as further justification of forestry measures, dendrochronological studies were conducted in the Gorgany Massif in a mixed forest stand with a very weakened sanitary state and complex structure in 2019. The analysis of the width of tree rings from the selected core samples of spruce trees was performed. Based on it, in the 100-year-old (1918-2018) absolute individual radial increment values were obtained by individual, generalized dendrochronology, as well as their indices. A sharp decrease in the growth of spruce was revealed starting from the first age class, which may be associated (among other factors) with interspecies competition (spruce and fir). The average growth of the stand for the study period is 1.97 mm/year. Even less radial growths of spruce (on average 1.05 mm/year) were recorded during the period from 1980 to 2000, which is explained by the presence of the stand at the disorder stage. Over the past 20 years, the average growth has increased slightly (1.19 mm/year), apparently due to rarefaction of the stand to a fullness of 0.66. Fluctuations in relative growth indices are in the range of 84.24-115.52 %.The average duration of growth of cycles is 8 years. Since the middle of the last century, the frequency of growth fluctuations has increased and indicates that the environmental conditions for spruce growth have not become very favourable. In the future, a change in the biocenosis will take place at the experimental facility. Thus, the current composition of the undergrowth indicates the upcoming change in the composition of the stand. When conducting dendrochronological studies in places of drying of spruce, comprehensive information is needed on natural and anthropogenic factors that can affect the radial growth of trees and its variability.