Gintautas Mozgeris

Vytautas Magnus University

Natural forest regeneration on non-forest land in Lithuania is only recognized as a forest after it reaches the age of twenty years. If these areas are not properly inventoried and registered, they may be treated as abandoned agricultural land. Consequently, this can lead to legal sanctions or a decision of landowners to clear large areas leading t...

This paper aims to demonstrate the use of qualitative research methods, specifically in-depth interviews, to explore the intangible and often difficult-to-quantify needs for forestry scenario modelling in Lithuania, which are frequently not adequately perceived. The study involved informants representing key actors in forest policy, forest manageme...

Understanding the change dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) is critical for efficient ecological management modification and sustainable land-use planning. This work aimed to identify, simulate, and predict historical and future LULC changes in the Sohag Governorate, Egypt, as an arid region. In the present study, the detection of historica...

In forestry, growth functions form the basis of research and are widely used for the mathematical modeling of stand variables, e.g., tree or stand basal area, stand height, stand volume, site index, and many more. In this study, to estimate five-dimensional dependencies between tree diameter at breast height, potentially available area, height, cro...

Stochastic differential equations and Copula theories are important topics that have many advantages for applications in almost every discipline. Many studies in forestry collect longitudinal, multi-dimensional, and discrete data for which the amount of measurement of individual variables does not match. For example, during sampling experiments, th...

The poor condition of surface water is still a problem in many countries, including Lithuania. To assess the impact of organic agricultural production on groundwater and surface water quality in Lithuania, surface water samples from rivers and other bodies of water are usually studied, leaving the properties of groundwater in agricultural fields un...

With the publication of the European Green Deal, the European Union has committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The envisaged reductions of direct greenhouse gases emissions are seen as technically feasible, but if a wrong path is pursued, significant unintended impacts across borders, sectors, societies and ecosystems may follow. Without...

This chapter gives a theoretical overview of various contact, proximal and remote monitoring solutions available for precision agriculture. Visual inspection of crop damage, which can be detected using these sensors, are introduced at first. Precision agriculture methodologies and sensors are reviewed with particular emphasis on variable rate ferti...

Landscape naturalness is an important indicator for supporting sustainable development-driven policies and suggesting associated decisions in land management. This study used CORINE Land Cover data to estimate the changes in land cover naturalness in Lithuania since 1995. All the land cover types were ranked according to naturalness level, ranging...

Forest site (FS) and meteorological conditions are recognized as the main factors affecting tree growth and whole-stand sustainability. This study aims to detect the combined effects of FS and meteorological conditions on tree ring formation of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), the most common tree species in Lithuania and hemi-boreal forests of no...

This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special issues/sustainable forest management).

Primary forests, defined here as forests where the signs of human impacts, if any, are strongly blurred due to decades without forest management, are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear. Despite these losses, we know little about where these forests occur. Here, we present a comprehensive geodatabase and map of Europe’s known primary forests...

The demand for timber, bioenergy feedstock and other forest products, leading to intensified forest harvesting, is expected to increase in the coming decades in European Union. A reduction in the delivery of forest ecosystem services and, specifically, biodiversity, including the provision of habitats for mature-forest-dwelling raptors, has been at...

The spatially explicit assessment of land use and land-use change patterns can identify critical areas and provide insights to improve land management policies and associated decisions. This study mapped the land uses and land-use changes in Lithuanian municipalities since 1971. Additionally, an analysis was conducted of three shorter periods, corr...

Forests are of major importance to people, providing fundamental ecosystem services (ESs). Increasing the supply of an ES might negatively affect the supply of another ES. For example, increasing game densities might reduce timber production. Such trade-offs among ESs may lead to conflicts between actors interested in prioritizing different ESs. Th...

Effective management decisions regarding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may be hampered by the lack of scientific tools for modeling future land use change. This study addresses methodological principles for land use development scenario modeling assumed for use in processes of GHG accounting and management. Associated land use policy implications...

Intensified forestry can be seen as a solution to climate change mitigation and securing energy supply, increasing the production of forest bioenergy feedstock as a substitution for fossil fuels. However, it may come with detrimental impacts on forest biodiversity, especially related to older forests. The aim of this study was to assess the sustain...

Lithuanian forestry has long been shaped by the classical normal forest theory, aiming for even long-term flow of timber, and the aspiration to preserve domestic forest resources, leading to very conservative forest management. With radically changing forest management conditions, climate change mitigation efforts suggest increasing timber demands...

The prerequisite for sustainable management of natural resources is the availability of timely, cost-effective, and comprehensive information on the status and development trends of the management object. An essential source of such information has always been the application of remote sensing. Data and algorithms to use remote sensing in forestry...

Within forest governance research, the transfer of power from governmental actors to civil society and market actors has been subject to intense scientific debate. We move forward on this debate by analyzing how ongoing transformations and power shifts in forest governance affect the power relations of actors with interest in various ecosystem serv...

Europe's forests provide vital habitat for biodiversity and essential ecosystem services whose provision must be sustained or enhanced over the coming century. However, the potential to secure or increase forest ecosystem services, while securing the habitat requirements of taxa remains unclear, especially within the context of uncertain climate an...

In Lithuania, forests are managed by Lithuanian State Forest Enterprise, municipalities, ministries, etc. and private forest owners. About 50% of all forest land is State importance, privately owned forests cover 40% of forest land, and about 10% of forest land belongs to forests reserved for restitution. Forest management of private ownership forc...

The possibilities of use of urban objects spectral library as an important component of city’s knowledge database are extensive. They are used for the recognition, characterisation and identification of the urban objects and spaces in different towns. But their geographic accuracy is dependent on the study’s area, and possibilities of using in anot...

Primary forests are critical for forest biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services. In Europe, these forests are particularly scarce and it is unclear whether they are sufficiently protected. Here we aim to: (a) understand whether extant primary forests are representative of the range of naturally occurring forest types, (b) identify forest ty...

There are significant inter-annual fluctuations of growing stock volume changes of living trees estimated by the Lithuanian National Forest Inventory (NFI). In the current study, we compared two sources of information on forest productivity: conventional NFI data and dendrochronological data based on tree cores collected in parallel with the measur...

The abundance of grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) in Atlantic and Baltic waters has been increasing in recent years. It is important to understand factors affecting this growth and how the growing population can influence the behaviour of individual seals. Individual behaviour during the lactation period is important for later development in many ma...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by trees in response to abiotic stress evoke high levels of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) compounds. Few techniques exist to provide chemically-resolved submicron (PM1) particle mass concentrations and source apportionment of stress-induced emissions from trees and SOA formation. The chemical composition...

Research Highlights: Validating modelling approach which combines global framework conditions in the form of climate and policy scenarios with the use of forest decision support system to assess climate change impacts on the sustainability of forest management. Background and Objectives: Forests and forestry have been confirmed to be sensitive to c...

Sympatric species are likely to compete with one another unless there is a low degree of overlap in their resource use, in which case these species are able to coexist. Disclosing of biotic interactions between sympatric species is important from both theoretical and practical perspectives, especially when the species are of conservation concern. H...

Sustainable forest management is driving the development of forest decision support systems (DSSs) to include models and methods concerned with climate change, biodiversity and various ecosystem services (ESs). The future development of forest landscapes is very much dependent on how forest owners act and what goes on in the wider world; thus, mode...

Forest planners in former Eastern Block countries tend to provide conservative forecasts of timber supply, based on a rigid area control under the legislated rotation ages, and often assuming uniform forest management behaviour irrespective of the owner type. This study, in contrast, explores timber supply in a multi-disciplinary approach that anal...

The monitoring and management of urban vegetation is an important issue nowadays due to the multiple benefits of vegetation for people well-being and for maintaining the balance of ecosystem. In that context, the following study explore to what extent remote sensing imagery could be used to detect and to characterize urban vegetation. Two types of...

Demands on forest bioenergy feedstock are expected to increase in many countries due to climate change mitigation. However, sustainable use of forest biomass resources can be ensured only if local and landscape conditions are taken into account, linking energy use to its resource base. The aim of this study was to analyse the forest biomass potenti...

The chemical composition of submicron aerosol particles was characterized using an aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) at a mixed-mature forest site at the Aukštaitija Integrated Monitoring Station in the eastern part of Lithuania. Four organic aerosol (OA) factors were determined by positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis applied for t...

This paper discusses the potential of visible and near-infrared hyperspectral imaging to describe properties of conventionally and organically grown carrots. 140 samples of four Lithuanian carrot cultivars were scanned using a VNIR400H hyperspectral camera, capable of covering the spectral range of 400-1000 nm with a sampling interval of 0.6 nm. Ha...

Current climate scenarios predict rising air temperature along with increasing frequency and intensity of summer drought in the Central and Eastern Europe. Severe drought episodes affect physiological processes in trees such as transpiration, photosynthesis and carbon allocation. Understanding gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere is impor...

Predicted climate changings can affect hemi-boreal forests especially for soil conditions with low water-holding capacity and susceptibility to soil water deficits. In our study, species-specific sap flux, transpiration and water use efficiency of growth (WUE) were investigated at a mixed hemi-boreal forest ecosystems, especially during temporary m...

Aerosol particle observations are needed to determine the conditions of particle formation and growth in different environments. This research focuses on new particle formation (NPF) events in the hemi-boreal forest environment at the Aukštaitija Integrated Monitoring Station (IMS) (55°26ʹN and 26°04ʹE, 170 m above the sea level). The parameterisat...

One may consider the application of remote sensing as a trade-off between the imaging platforms, sensors, and data gathering and processing techniques. This study addresses the potential of hyperspectral imaging using ultra-light aircraft for vegetation species mapping in an urban environment, exploring both the engineering and scientific aspects r...

This study investigates an imaging system based on a Rikola hyperspectral (HSI) and Nikon D800E (CIR) cameras installed on a manned ultralight aircraft Bekas Ch-32 for applications involving precision agriculture. The efficiency of this technical solution is compared with that of using Canon PowerShot SX260HS camera images acquired from helicopter-...

Fast urbanization requires complex management of green spaces inside districts and all around the cities. In this context, the use of high-resolution imagery could give a fast overview of species distribution in the considered study zone, and could even permit species recognition by taking advantage of high spectral resolution (i.e. superspectral/h...

The present study considers temporal variability in concentrations of the throughfall fluxes and bulk fluxes of sulphate, nitrate, and ammonium in precipitation in Lithuania evaluated employing a non-parametric Mann-Kendall test along with Sen’s slope estimator during the period 1995–2015. Decreased air concentrations of sulphur species and ammoniu...

The development and expansion of urbanized areas around the cities, brings new challenging issues about the organization, the monitoring, and the distribution of green spaces within the cities (e.g. grass, trees, shrubs, etc.). Indeed, these spaces brings better life quality for population and preserve biodiversity. This study, aims to 1) investiga...

Aim Primary forests have high conservation value but are rare in Europe due to historic land use. Yet many primary forest patches remain unmapped, and it is unclear to what extent they are effectively protected. Our aim was to (1) compile the most comprehensive European‐scale map of currently known primary forests, (2) analyse the spatial determina...

The management of urban green spaces became crucialbecame crucial with the growing of the environmental and climatic issues nowadays; insofar as they provide multitude of services for the well-being of citizens, and contribute to the environment regulation. Remotely sensed data offers an abundance of environmental and urban information needed for t...

Global changes occurring under different environmental conditions have changed stand competition, as well as nutrient and light availability, which has resulted in changes in productivity. Therefore, in the present study, the characteristics of tree-ring width formation of the prevailing Lithuanian tree species, Norway spruce, Scots pine and silver...

The aim of this study was to test the usability of airborne laser scanning (ALS) data for stand-wise forest inventories in Lithuania based on operational approaches from Nordic countries, taking into account Lithuanian forest conditions and requirements for stand-wise inventories, such as more complex forests, unified requirements for inventory of...

The presentation is aimed to introduce imaging system based on simultaneous use of frame-type Rikola hyperspectral and RGB/CIR cameras applied for inventories and monitoring of urban green spaces. The system is run from a manned ultra-light aircraft, equipped for aerial photography missions. An aerial imaging campaign over the city of Kaunas, Lithu...

Genetic diversity is an important component of biological diversity and therefore there are attempts to search for effective solutions that increase the effectiveness of genetic diversity assessment methods. The article represents the study that aims for genetic differentiation of Scots pine seedlings based on data, obtained using the hyperspectral...

This chapter introduces the Lithuanian large-scale forestry scenario simulator Kupolis, explaining the source data, projection methods and links with National Forest Inventory (NFI). The system is built upon detailed Standwise Forest Inventory (SFI) and reliable NFI data on growing stock volume and gross mean annual increment. It allows long-term (...

Objects recognition in urban environment using multiband imagery is a difficult process, implying the use of elaborated and complex image processing methods, which are used to enhance the detection efficiency. The urban mosaics are characterized by multiple materials (e.g. manmade, urban vegetation, bare soil, transport infrastructure, etc.), which...

The functionality of forest patches and networks as green infrastructure may be affected negatively both by expanding road networks and forestry intensification. We assessed the effects of (1) the current and planned road infrastructure, and (2) forest loss and gain, on the remaining large forest landscape massifs as green infrastructure at the EU'...

For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape scale is considered to be more and more relevant as the stand level approaches its known limitations. This review, which describes the main forest landscape simulation tools used in the 20 European case studies of the European project " Future-oriented integrated management of Eu...

Until now, forest characteristics of capercaillie habitats received very little attention in the southeastern Baltic region, including Lithuania. To fill the gap of ecological study of capercaillie we started to reveal the macro habitat characteristics in 2008. Seventy-one capercaillie leks were identified in southeastern Lithuania during about a d...

Populations of the internationally protected Black Stork Ciconia nigra in the northern parts of the distribution range, located to the east of the Baltic Sea, have suffered decline over recent decades. Since early 1990s, however, logging intensity has increased. In this paper, considering a ten-year period from the mid-1990s, we ask: (a) Did change...

Imaging system based on simultaneous use of Rikola hyperspectral and RGB/NIR cameras installed on a manned ultra-light aircraft is introduced in this study. Simultaneously acquired hyperspectral and color- infrared (CIR) images were tested for their potential to identify deciduous tree species and estimate tree health in Kaunas city, Lithuania. Six...

Key message This analysis of the tools and methods currently in use for reporting woody biomass availability in 21 European countries has shown that most countries use, or are developing, National Forest Inventory-oriented models whereas the others use standwise forest inventory--oriented methods. Context Knowledge of realistic and sustainable wood...

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest certification system is a globally widespread market-driven mechanism that aims at responsible use and governance of forests, and its application is growing. However, the extent to which forest certification contributes effectively to maintaining forest biodiversity is an unresolved issue. We assessed the...

Ample research on private forest owners (PFOs) has established high heterogeneity in owners' objectives, motivations and management decisions. Such heterogeneity is, however, rarely taken into account in forest scenario modelling. This study, in contrast, conducts a detailed forest owner mapping that feeds into simulations of ecosystem services (ES...

The trends of forest cover change in Lithuanian municipalities are introduced in the current paper. Two sources of information on the forest cover in 1950s and today (2013) were used in this study: (i) a geographic forest cover database developed using historical orthophotomaps based on aerial photography, which was carried out in the period just a...

While sustainable forestry in Europe is characterized by the provision of a multitude of forest ecosystem services, there exists no comprehensive study that scrutinizes their sensitivity to forest management on a pan-European scale, so far. We compile scenario runs from regionally tailored forest growth models and Decision Support Systems (DSS) fro...

In contrast to quantitative surveys up to date, this study employs in-depth interviews and qualitative analyses aiming to provide detailed contextualized portrayals of private forest owners (PFOs) in Lithuania, where forest ownership underwent crucial changes in the last two decades. We scrutinized narrations of 18 owners, focusing on the backgroun...

Modern forestry involves balancing multiple and often conflicting demands regarding the use and conservation of forest ecosystems. Protection of the Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila pomarina Brehm) and its nesting habitat in Natura 2000 sites is a good example of conservation solutions being directly connected to significant forest management restricti...

Genetic diversity is an important indicator of forest sustainability requiring particular attention and new methods to obtain fast and cheap estimates of genetic diversity. We assessed the differences in visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR) spectral reflectance properties of detached shoots of several distant Scots pine provenances aiming to ident...

The hypothesis that trees have grown more rapidly in recent years as a consequence of climate warming and the reduced pollution was tested in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests in Lithuania. A hundred of the largest, dominant pine trees, with a diameter at breast height exceeding 50 cm, were selected in three experimental, over-mature stands...

The studies, which involve the potential of imaging spectrometry, are among the most promising ones in forest health assessment. This study estimated crown defoliation and the concentrations of some chemical constituents in the needles of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees using laboratory acquired hyperspectral data. Needle samples from 67 Sco...