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Ecologically based height growth model and derived raster maps of Norway spruce site index in the Western Carpathians

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find the ecological factors that most affect height growth of Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) over the Western Carpathians. The specific aim was to find climate and soil parameters which are influenced by climate change and can thus be used to make a forest growth model more sensitive to climate. From the results, a regression model was built which can predict top height growth of Norway spruce from ecological parameters. Data collected on 201 plots established within National Forest Inventory of Slovakia were used. The plots selected for the study were distributed almost over the whole Western Carpathians. Mean height of the 20 % largest spruce trees was used as dependent variable. From all investigated ecological factors, the growing season length explained as the number of days with temperature over 5 °C, the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and soil acidity were shown to have the major impact on top height growth of Norway spruce. Finally, 76 % of total variability in top height was explained by the mentioned site variables. To obtain a user-friendly output, a probability matrix was developed showing the likelihood of a discrete site index to occur on different combinations of site factors. Moreover, raster maps showing the site index of spruce and its probability distribution were developed.

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Acknowledgments

The data used for investigation came from National Forest Inventory and Monitoring of Slovakia forests, which was supported by Slovak Ministry of Agriculture. We would like to thank professor Štefan Šmelko, DrSc., who is the author of the Slovak National Forest Inventory. The data processing was supported within the project “Center of excellence for the support of decision making in forest and land,” ITMS: 26220120069 (20 %), on the basis of support from Operational Programme Research and Development funded by European Regional Development Fund, project APVV-0255-10 granted by the Slovak Agency for Research and Development, and the long-term research development project no. RVO 67985939.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Forest Centre, Forest Research Institute Zvolen, T.G. Masaryka 22, 960 92, Zvolen, Slovakia

    Michal Bošeľa, František Máliš, Ladislav Kulla & Vladimír Šebeň

  2. Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 1176, Suchdol, 165 21, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Michal Bošeľa

  3. Department of Phytology, Forestry Faculty, Technical University, T.G. Masaryka 24, 960 53, Zvolen, Slovakia

    František Máliš

  4. Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Lidická 25/27, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    František Máliš

  5. Research Group of Plant and Vegetation Ecology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium

    Gaby Deckmyn

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  1. Michal Bošeľa
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Correspondence to Michal Bošeľa.

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Communicated by G. Kändler.

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Bošeľa, M., Máliš, F., Kulla, L. et al. Ecologically based height growth model and derived raster maps of Norway spruce site index in the Western Carpathians. Eur J Forest Res 132, 691–705 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-013-0708-z

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