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Introduction
Forest tree ecophysiology
Publications
Publications (76)
Science-based approaches in addressing future risks and challenges for forests require close collaboration among the communities operating different monitoring and research networks as well as experts in process and large-scale modelling. Results of the COST FP0903 conference which took place in October 2010 in Rome, reveal valuable results from di...
We assessed the probability of three major natural hazards--windthrow, drought, and forest fire--for Central and South-Eastern European forests which are major threats for the provision of forest goods and ecosystem services. In addition, we analyzed spatial distribution and implications for a future oriented management of forested landscapes. For...
As a part of a broader research into the nutrition of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), the variation of calcium concentrations was investigated in needles and soil in two subsequent, climatologically diverse years. Statistically significant differences between plots were determined in Ca concentrations in soils. Concentrations of Ca in needles were s...
Stress on tree vitality is expected to increase due to climatic extremes in European forests. The decline in vitality of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) that has been reported recently, makes it necessary to rethink its future adaptive potential under ongoing climate change. Here we performed a pan European assessment of defoliation chronologie...
Ash dieback (ADB) has been threatening populations of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior & F. angustifolia) for more than three decades. Although much knowledge has been gathered in the recent past, practical conservation measures have been mostly implemented at local scale. Since range contraction in both ash species is likely to be exacerbated alre...
Forests are increasingly affected by global change. Building resilient forests requires – amongst others - leveraging the wealth of knowledge from existing ground-based, field inventory and monitoring programs as well as Earth Observation systems to better assess the status, detect changes, understand processes, predict future
dynamics, and guide f...
Ash dieback (ADB) is threatening populations of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior & F. angustifolia) for more than three decades. Although much knowledge has been gathered in the recent past, practical conservation measures have been mostly implemented at local scale. Since range contraction in both ash species will be exacerbated in the near future...
Recurrent climate-driven disturbances impact on the health of European forests that reacted with increased tree dieback and mortality over the course of the last four decades. There is therefore large interest in predicting and understanding the fate and survival of forests under climate change. Forest conditions are monitored within the pan-Europe...
Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) spanning over five European biogeographic regions from 2005 to 2018. Average values for VFS were calculated accounting for the number of species present and their observed frequency. Spatial and temporal variation of ozone concentrations, VFS, and their relationships across Europe were then investigate...
The increased frequency of climate change-induced droughts poses a survival challenge for forest trees, particularly for the common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). Drought conditions adversely affect water supply and nutrient uptake, yet there is limited understanding of the intricate interplay between nutrient availability and drought stress on the ph...
European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is an important component of forests in the alpine and continental biogeographical regions of Croatia. This study aimed to (1) analyze the long-term response of beech to climate, (2) identify potentially critical climatic conditions that could negatively affect the radial increment (RI) and vitality of beech, and...
Back in the beginning of the year 2021, when the work on this Special Issue started, it was quite clear that the topics of tree stress response and the ecophysiological indicators of tree vitality were both current and important, but the attitude of the scientific community towards the idea of a Special Issue on the subject was yet to be determined...
Despite being adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, the vitality of European beech is expected to be significantly affected by the projected effects of climate change, which we attempted to assess with foliar nutrition and crown defoliation, as two different, yet interlinked vitality indicators. Based on 28 beech plots of the ICP For...
Mediterranean forest ecosystems in Croatia are of very high significance because of the ecological functions they provide. This region is highly sensitive to abiotic stresses such as air pollution, high sunlight, and high temperatures alongside dry periods; therefore, it is important to monitor the state of these forest ecosystems and how they resp...
Risk factors for natural tree mortality in managed forests, excluding wind and snow induced breakage, fires and thinning, can be difficult to identify due to correlated confounders of long- and short-term weather patterns with tree age. This study quantified the association of annual and long-term 30-year average temperature and precipitation effec...
Simple Summary
In 2020 and 2021, the world underwent the COVID-19 crisis, and in 2022, it is going through another war crisis. These crises have greatly affected the global economy and raw material supply chains, and trade is either disabled or very slow. The wood industry and other industries that depend on primary raw materials feel this effect s...
European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and narrow-leafed ash (F. angustifolia) are keystone forest tree species with a broad ecological amplitude and significant economic importance. Besides global warming both species are currently under significant threat by an invasive fungal pathogen that has been spreading progressively throughout the continent for...
European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests provide multiple essential ecosystem goods and ser-vices. The projected climatic conditions for the current century will significantly affect the vital-ity of European beech. The expected impact of climate change on forest ecosystems will be po-tentially stronger in southeast Europe than on the rest of th...
ICP Forests has monitored the European forests since the late 1980s. This Brief describes temporal and spatial developments in tree defoliation, a widely adopted indicator of forest health and vitality. The defoliation data were obtained from the transnational crown condition surveys (ICP Forests Level I) carried out annually between 1990 and 2019...
SAŽETAK Obična jela najoštećenija je i najugroženija vrsta crnogoričnog drveća u Republici Hrvatskoj. Odumiranje stabala obične jele pripisuje se različitim uzročnicima, stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja bio utvrditi mortalitet stabala obične jele po broju stabala i volumenu za različite skupine uzroka mortaliteta, među kojima su najvažniji bili klim...
European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and narrow-leafed ash (F. angustifolia) are keystone forest tree species in Europe with a broad ecological amplitude and significant economic importance. Besides global warming both species are currently under significant thread by an invasive fungal pathogen that has been progressively spreading throughout the con...
Silver fir is one of the most threatened conifer species in Croatia, especially at the western edge of its spread in Croatian Dinarides, where the decline in fir trees has resulted in significant ecological and economic issues. The aim of this study was to determine, over an 18-year monitoring period, the relationships of silver fir crown defoliati...
Soil erosion has a destructive effect on soil quality, structure, stability and texture, plant
diversity, water dynamics and can degrade downstream water quality. Climatic, hydrological, topographic, geological and vegetation conditions, as well as the land use management are basic natural and anthropogenic factors largely responsible for erosion o...
Criterion 2 considers and quantifies the exposure, risk, and impact on forest health posed by biotic and abiotic stressors. Environmental conditions, such as air and soil quality, influence the health and vitality of forest ecosystem and, subsequently, the provision of forest products and services. Appropriate management practices can improve the c...
When studying forest responses to climate change it is important to consider tree nutrition. Enhanced atmospheric deposition of nitrogen, atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment, and higher temperatures and longer growing seasons have stimulated tree growth in many parts of Europe. Increased tree growth can lead to increased nutrient demand. In fores...
Interrelations of various common beech vitality indicators (crown defoliation, foliar chemistry, radial growth) as well as their possible dependencies on climatic conditions were investigated over the course of 12 years in a mature and healthy beech stand. Our results confirm the importance of temperature variables for defoliation, as high temperat...
Considering the fragility of the Mediterranean environment, there is an increasing need to improve the knowledge of this forest environment. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of air pollution on the forest ecosystem’s condition by analyzing tree vitality. The study area was chosen to represent the most important and the most common s...
Mast seeding, the synchronised occurrence of large amounts of fruits and seeds at irregular intervals, is a reproductive strategy in many wind-pollinated species. Although a series of studies have investigated mast year (MY) patterns in European forest tree species at the regional scale, there are few recent evaluations at a European scale on the i...
When planting trees in urban environment, often there is a need for enhancing the soil quality, which can be achieved by the use of mineral fertilizers (for enhancing chemical soil properties) or soil conditioners (influencing both soil chemical and physical properties). Amur maple (Acer tataricum L. ssp. ginnala Maxim.) is a broadleaved bush or a...
This poster presents an ongoing research project which is carried out in the Mediterranean forests of Croatia. We show preliminary results and presents future tasks.
When we talk about risks for Mediterranean forests we put forest fires on first place and on second storm winds. On European level damages caused by forest fires make 16% and storm winds 51% of all forest damages (assessment for period 2005-2010) but for Mediterranean part the ratio of damages caused by forest fires is much more higher than one cau...
In this paper we investigated potential of portable chlorophyll meter CCM-200 (Opti-Sciences, Tyngsboro, MA, USA) to estimate total nitrogen concentration in different types of Pedunculate oak leaves. Research was conducted on 30 plants grown in field trial, during two vegetation periods (in years 2009 and 2010). Fertilization treatment (carried ou...
Activity under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) focuses on developing and implementing clean air policies across Europe and North America. There has been great success in reducing sulphur emissions over the past decades, but the concentration of nitrogen (N) compounds in the atmosphere, the level of N deposite...
Key messageExceedance of critical limits in soil solution samples was more frequent in intensively monitored forest plots across Europe with critical loads for acidity and eutrophication exceeded compared to other plots from the same network. Elevated inorganic nitrogen concentrations in soil solution tended to be related to less favourable nutriti...
Key messageAtmospheric deposition of nitrogen compounds and soil and foliar variables related to N deposition resulted important factors accounting for the variability of defoliation in European forest plots.ContextNitrogen (N) deposition has increased in the northern hemisphere because of anthropogenic-related emission of N compounds. Increased N...
Key message Foliar phosphorus concentrations have decreased in Europe during the last 20 years. High atmospheric nitrogen deposition and climate change might be responsible for this trend. Continued decrease in foliar P concentrations might lead to reduced growth and vitality of beech forests in Europe. Context Increased forest soil acidification,...
Biotope-related stress is mostly limked to the low availability of elementary plant requirements, such as water and nutrients. Reduced volume stock production of poplar clones 'M1҆' (P. ×canadensis) and 'S1-8' (Populus deltoides) in Slavonia (eastern part of Croatia) is attributed mainly to the recent lower water table along the Drava river. These...
The response of forest ecosystems to increased atmospheric CO2 is constrained by nutrient availability. It is thus crucial to account for nutrient limitation when studying the forest response to climate change. The objectives of this study were to describe the nutritional status of the main European tree species, to identify growth limiting nutrien...
The dynamics of nitrogen and phosphorus in current and one-year old needles of Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) has been monitored during two vegetational seasons. The research was conducted on five plots marked by different edaphic and climatic conditions, and sampled trees had different defoliation degrees. The aim was to determine the nutritional s...
Background and Purpose: Forest cultures in continental part of Croatia are mainly based on bracken-covered areas and moors on deserted agriculture soils and pastures. Successful afforestation i.e. establishment of forest cultures depends among other things on the understanding of habitats and ecology of forest trees. The choice of best species of f...
In this paper the results of the experiment testing the influence of various growing substrates (Lithuanian peat, Humofin substrate, Stender A400 substrate) and slow-release fertilizers (Osmocote Exact Standard 5-6 M and 12-14 M)on the growth and physiological parameters of Common beech (Fagus sylvaticaL.) seedlings in a nursery and in the field co...
In this article, several findings on socio-economic conditions derived from national reports and a web-based questionnaire are discussed and related to the changing role of forestry and the future forest policy development. A number of Central and South-eastern European countries taking part in a SEE-ERA-NET project ReForMan project (www.reforman.d...
Austrian pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) was commonly planted during the last century in Croatia. Afforestation took place on various sites to prevent land from erosion and, or to restore forest vegetation, mainly in karst areas. Since 1992 the study on health status of Austrian pine plantations in Croatia revealed significant dieback symptoms in some ar...
In the region of Gorski Kotar 6 sites (localities) of Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) were selected to investigate the health status of trees, the infestation by common mistletoe (Viscum album L. ssp. abietis /Wiesb./ Abromeit), and to reveal the nutrition status of fir trees and mistletoes. Three localities were selected on soil sub-types based on s...
The data of 45 soil profiles from a 16 × 16 km grid across Slo-venia was analysed to develop a local pedotransfer function (PTF) for bulk den-sity (ρb) estimation. In total, 106 soil horizons were considered. Concentration of organic carbon (OC) was found to be well correlated (r = -0.861, p < 0.001) with ρb. Two separate line segments were fitted...
Although growing of conifer seedlings in containers is nothing new, our knowledge is deficient when it comes to various combinations of substrates, container types and different fertilizers and fertilizer doses, especially with tree species aimed at planting in the coastal zone of Croatia.
This paper presents the results of the experiment testing t...
In this paper the results of two nursery experiments dealing with the influence of preparation for foliar application “Hungavit” on the growth and development of common beech and pedunculate oak bare-root seedlings are given. The experiments were set up as randomized blocks with three treatments and three repetitions. A generally positive influence...
In response to widespread concern that air pollution could affect forest condition, the International Co-operative Programme on the Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) was established by the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe i...
In this article, several findings on socio-economic conditions derived from national reports and a web-based questionnaire are discussed and related to the changing role of forestry and the future forest policy development. A number of Central and South-eastern European countries taking part in a SEE-ERA-NET project ReForMan project (www.reforman.d...
Within the framework of International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests), research and chemical analyses of plant material has been carried out in Croatia on seven intensive monitoring plots with typical forest communities. In order to monitor the reliability of methods of laborator...
In this paper the results of the experiment testing the influence of various growing substrates (Lithuanian peat, Humofin substrate, Stender A400 substrate) and slow-release fertilizers (Osmocote Exact Standard 5-6 M and 12-14 M)on the growth and physiological parameters of Common beech (Fagus sylvaticaL.) seedlings in a nursery and in the field co...
This article presents results of several studies in Middle, Eastern and Southeastern Europe on needs and application areas, desirable attributes and marketing potentials of forest management support tools. By comparing present and future application areas, a trend from sectoral planning towards landscape planning and integration of multiple stakeho...
The large-scale dieback of Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), present in Croatia in the past two decades, has led to atypical growth conditions for young Common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) trees on beech-fir sites. This is in contradiction with recent forestry practice and ecological requirements of beech (skiophytic, drought sensitive). The aim of this...
Background and Purpose: Common beech is a dominant broadleaved tree species in European forests, and also on the Medvednica massif. Since climate is a decisive factor in the development of a certain type of vegetation , it might have an equally important role in its survival. The influence of relief properties on the crown condition of common beech...
Silver fir is the most widely distributed and the most important commercial conifer species in Croatia. However, it is also the most threatened. The first records of its dieback in Croatia date from the beginning of the 20 th century. Dieback has since evolved into a worrying phenomenon and a significant forestry problem. Dieback of silver fir is a...
Background and Purpose: Common beech is a dominant broadleaved tree species in European forests, and also on the Medvednica massif. Since climate is a decisive factor in the development of a certain type of vegetation, it might have an equally important role in its survival. The influence of relief properties on the crown condition of common beech...
Background and Purpose: From a variety of environmental factors that are thought to be a likely cause of dieback of forest tree species, climate prop-erties are surely among the most important. The fact that beech and fir forests on Velebit represent the most southern large complexes of these forests in Croatia makes them especially interesting in...
The dynamics of nitrogen and phosphorus in current and one-year old needles of Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) has been monitored during two vegetational seasons. The research was conducted on five plots marked by different edaphic and climatic conditions, and sampled trees had different defoliation degrees. The aim was to determine the nutritional s...
The research on intensive monitoring plots (Level II) as a part and according to the methods of the International Co-operative Programme for Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (UN-ECE ICP Forests) has been conducted in Croatia since the year 1995. In this paper a comparison is given of data on foliar composition of Common...
Research of crown condition between 1995 and 2004 in the Republic of Croatia showed an increase in the percentage of damage to all trees species. In comparison with 2003, moderate to severe damage to trees of all species increased by 3.6%, from 23.2% to 26.8% (fig. 15). Moderate to severe damage to broadleaves in comparison to previous years also i...
Background and Purpose: The sulfur dioxide emitted from Plomin thermal power plant, Croatia, has been shown to have great influence on sulfur concentration in Black pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) needles. Since 1999 the emission of SO2 has been significantly lowered. Previous investigation (1) revealed that the lowering of S-concentrations in Black pine n...
The aim of the research was to find the reasons for lawn and ornamental plants degradation at the Patriotic War Memorial Cemetery in Vukovar. For this purpose, three representative pedological profiles were opened, from which soil samples were taken for physical and chemical analyses. Seven average soil samples were also taken for determining soil...
Peduncled oak (Quercus robur L.) represents the most valuable and most important species of forest trees in Croatia. With the practice of natural regeneration the forest soil is preserved as the most perfect and important part of the ecosystem, which by its physical and chemical properties differs from soils outside the forest. This paper, therefor...
After a severe outbreak of cold air in mid and late April in 1997, locally occurring damages on twigs and needles of silver fir were recorded in some forests in Croatia. Field examinations in the first half of July 1997 revealed the damages on one-year and older needles while fully developed twigs of current year growth were left intact. Southern a...
This paper presents research regarding the mutual relationship between intra-seasonal variations of tree stem diameter changes, changes of electrical resistance of cambial zone (ERCZ) and groundwater oscillations. Two groups consisting of ten common oak (Quercus robur L.) trees were selected, one group with crown damage status above (healthy trees)...
In this paper the data on crown condition of forests in Croatia is presented for the five-year period 1999–2003, separately for all species, broadleaves, conifers and three most prominent tree species, pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.), common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and silver fir (Abies alba Mill.). A comparison is made of the percentage of m...