Janis Vuguls

• Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava"

Damage to birch (Betula spp.) trees after an extensive freezing rain and snowing event was assessed in hemiboreal stands aged from 2 to 30 years. Tree diameter, height, and stem bending were measured, stand age and time of thinning were obtained from inventory data, and the relative distance from a sample plot to the nearest adjacent stand was calc...

Forests play an important role in climate change mitigation. Usage of harvested wood products (HWP) can extend the carbon cycle by retaining carbon as well as preventing new fossil emission via substitution. We compared carbon balance of different management strategies of birch spruce mixed stands over an eight-year period: unmanaged, representing...

Forest plantations, particularly high-density planted stands, are considered to be more prone to wind damage compared to naturally regenerated stands. The wind resistance (mechanical stability) of plantations can, however, be improved by close-to-natural management, for example, combining pioneer and shade-tolerant species. Presumably, the stabilit...

In the Eastern Baltic region, severe windstorms increase both in frequency and magnitude, particularly during the dormancy period, increasing wind damage risks even more for silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.), which is considered to be less vulnerable forest tree species. Tree anchorage, particularly the properties of soil–root plate, determines t...

Under the intensifying cyclonic activity, the wind resistance of European forests could be increased through science-based adaptive forest management, which requires the quantification of tree stability. In this regard, the dimensions of the soil–root plate can be directly attributed to tree wind resistance; however, naturally uprooted trees might...

In Northern Europe, the ongoing winter warming along with increasing precipitation shortens the periods for which soil is frozen, which aggravates the susceptibility of forest stands to wind damage under an increasing frequency of severe wind events via the reduction in soil-root anchorage. Such processes are recognized to be explicit in moist and...

Strong wind is the major natural disturbance in European forests, that periodically causes tremendous damages to forestry. Yet, factors that affect the probability of wind damage for birch ( Roth and Ehrh.), the most common deciduous tree species in hemiboreal forests, are studied scarcely. This study aimed to assess the effects of several tree- an...