The recent research has indicated that restoration of old-growth attributes such as large-sized living trees and snags contributes to sustaining biodiversity on the landscape level. The extent to ...which these attributes are restored, maintained, or diminished by total salvage logging, selection silviculture, and strict protection has been partly investigated in the past. However, studies examining the influence of partial salvage logging are largely absent. Thus, we compared long-term structural and compositional changes in three montane beech-fir-spruce stands in Serbia that were exposed to different management regimes for five decades (partial salvage logging, selection silviculture, and strict protection). Tree species composition of partly salvaged stand and selection stand significantly differed from that in the adjacent unmanaged stand. However, the diameter distributions of compared stands often exhibited the same structural forms in certain periods, despite the greater share of large-size trees in the unmanaged stand. The study indicated that managing for old-growth attributes such as large trees may be possible by applying not only rotated sigmoid and negative exponential structures, but also the increasing-q diameter structure as high basal areas in studied beech-fir-spruce stands did not impair the ingrowth of young trees when conifers dominated the upperstory. The study further revealed that partial salvaging may serve as a sound alternative to promoting old-growth attributes such as large veteran trees and snags.
The Košutnjak forest in the city of Belgrade, Serbia, with an area of 259 ha, provides ecological and social benefits to its inhabitants, but its composition has changed in the last 20 years: forest ...areas have decreased, people have become irresponsible towards the forest and forest soil, and forest degradation is evident. The question is whether the forest has the potential to regenerate and survive. The horizontal assessment of attributes was carried out using data from the official forest database of the administrative unit “Košutnjak (2007–2016)”, which, in conjunction with the basic forest, defines indicators of change, stability, and self-renewal, which assume sustainability and can be a useful tool for sustainable forest management. The attributes and indicators are processed on a three-level alphanumeric scale in Microsoft Excel, and the data collected and analyzed are mapped using ArcGis 9.3. The ability of forests to survive without human intervention was evaluated using the EEFS method of ecological assessment of forest sustainability, which was used for the first time in this study. The results showed that forest change was significant, stability was medium, and self-renewal was low on most sections, so forest sustainability was rated as unlikely. The EEFS method used provided results that can form the basis for a forest management strategy in the city and a platform for the long-term monitoring of forest condition.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of different degrees of mixing on the diversity structure in stands left to spontaneous development. The research included two communities of species ...endemic to the Balkan Peninsula—the Serbian spruce (Picea omorika Pančić Purk.) and the Macedonian pine (Pinus peuce Griseb). Data from eight sample plots were used in the research. The changes in diameter and height structure, spatial arrangement of trees, and diameter differentiation were analyzed. The analyzed parameters of structural diversity show relatively low to moderate values. Results showed an increase in mixing was reflected in the width and shape of distributions. A spatial analysis of stands with a higher degree of mixing showed a tendency towards a random to regular distribution of individuals, in contrast to stands with a lower degree of mixing which showed a tendency towards a clump distribution. The pronounced species’ dimensional and spatial diversity confirms their importance to the condition of modern forest management. Significant differences in the change of structure are shown by stands with a share of admixed species of above 20% by volume. The obtained results refer to stands left to spontaneous development, suggesting than an active research and management approach must be assumed to realize the goal of protecting rare forest ecosystems.
The beginning of the 21st century has witnessed a growth in our understanding of the importance of planning urban landscapes in the context of urban population growth and unpredictable climatic ...conditions. In the search for responses to the challenges set by the development of contemporary urban landscapes, researchers have offered solutions based on the concept of sustainable and resilient cities, whose spatial development would be based on an interdisciplinary approach to strategy development: biodiversity, urban ecological networks and connectivity, multifunctionality and modularity. Although the concepts of a green infrastructure, in their spatial and functional dimensions, allow the application of such strategies, there are still problems when it comes to implementation and measuring the results achieved. At the same time, there is a growing discussion of the important role played by urban forestry in the context of the collaborative planning of urban landscapes and the application of the ideas of a green infrastructure. The key question is: what are the modalities of application of the concept of green infrastructure in the process of planning the development of the modern city and how can the resulting benefits be evaluated? With the modalities of application of the concept of green infrastructure in mind, we discuss its multi-scale and multifunctional dimensions as applied in the case of Serbia. The realisation of the green infrastructure concept is presented through the example of the Urban Forest Management Plan for the City of Belgrade - Mladenovac Municipality. The results of using the spatial-ecological approach in creating the plan and establishing connectivity as a new aim in forest management planning show that the implementation of the green infrastructure concept, and the achieved multifunctional ecosystem values, can be presented on the basis of the parameters of landscape metrics. In light of the new urban world, future research should focus on the application of the landscape ecological approach of the green infrastructure concept in collaborative planning at the urban landscape scale, which allows the creation of ecosystem services and benefits to human well-being.
A period of stagnation in silver fir development has been recorded in all felled trees in selection forests of Serbia (233 trees on Mt. Goc and 451 trees on Mt. Tara). In the selection forests on Mt. ...Goc, the stagnation stage ranges between 40 and 330 years, but on Mt. Tara, it ranges from 15 to 185 years. It was concluded that the duration was caused not by the ecological and productivity potential (site class) of the soil for fir development, but primarily by the growth space, resulting from the application of single-tree selection or group selection systems. It was also found that the duration of latent state and tree sizes attained over that phase (except for height, and that was to a lesser extent) did not affect the silver fir tree development in the post-stagnation period.
The primary goal of this research was to analyze the structural, production and dynamic changes of theforests of beech and fir in permanent sample plots of Mt. Goč, excluded from regular management ...fora period of 35 years (1977–2011). The established principles of spontaneous development and selfregulatoryprocesses could have implications on the regular management in these forests located in thearea of Mt. Goč and other areas.The results of this research in the permanent sample plots indicate that the mixed forests of beech andfir have suffered a number of changes in terms of structure and production in the investigated period.Structural disruptions have been the result of a decrease in the share of small and medium-diametertrees, as well as an increase in the share of trees of large dimensions in the total number of trees. Thecurves of distribution have been moved to the right and in terms of shape they differ from the lines thatare typical of selection forests. A relatively large number of trees per hectare and the described distributionby diameter classes have resulted in the high values of basal area and stand volume. In addition,a high volume increment has also been recorded. The quality and incremental capacity of the standshave been reduced due to a significant share of old beech and fir trees. The accumulation of volumeslowed down the dynamics of stand development and hindered rejuvenation and recruitment, as thenecessary prerequisites for structural stability and functionality in selection forests.The observed trends of development in these forests in the sample plots clearly indicate that a structurallystable, socio-economically and ecologically valuable selection forest is possible to achieve only withan active and continuous implementation of a set of management procedures, which primarily refersto selection cutting. Self-regulatory processes that are allowed over time, as in the case of the analyzedsample plots, are increasingly distancing us from this goal.
Regression of conifers in European mixed old-growth mountain forests has been observed for a long period and studied from different aspects. Old-growth (OG) forests in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) ...have not experienced heavy air pollution and chronic overbrowsing that have affected many other European OG forests, while climatic and anthropogenic disturbances have been well documented. We analysed stand structure in the Janj OG forest, compared it with inventories of Lom and Perucica OG forests (BiH) and with earlier inventories of the same reserves. At present, OG forest Janj is characterized by a high growing stock (1215 m3∙ha−1). This is due to good site quality, prevalence of conifers (84%) and dominant endogenous processes in recent decades. In all three OG forests, indicators of structural change exhibited progression of European beech over time. Historical evidence revealed the occurrence of warm summers and droughts followed by bark beetle outbreaks in the 1920s, 1940s and early 1950s, which in turn influenced a marked conifer decline. It seems likely that repeated canopy opening released waves of European beech regeneration. These stand structural changes have delayed the rejuvenation of conifers and can help explain the early observations of conifer decline.
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