Róbert Sedmák

Róbert Sedmák
Technical University of Zvolen · Department of Forest Management and Geodesy

PhD.

About

75
Publications
19,543
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1,158
Citations
Introduction
I try to discover some interesting biological facts concerning forest ecosystem via inductive research and at the same time, I try to support decision making in forest management by means of deductive optimization techniques. Available as the supervisor for Ph.D. topics: - Proposal of alternative functionally integrated management models - Optimization of tactical planning in commercial forests in small ownership units - Mapping supply and demand for ecosystem services
Additional affiliations
October 2018 - present
Technical University of Zvolen
Position
  • Professor

Publications

Publications (75)
Article
Full-text available
Gap dynamics are driving many important processes in the development of temperate forest ecosystems. What remains largely unknown is how often the regeneration processes initialized by endogenous mortality of dominant and co-dominant canopy trees take place. We conducted a study in the high mountain forests of the Central Western Carpathians, natur...
Article
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Damage caused by cloven-hoofed game and wild animals is a serious problem in Slovakia and neighboring countries. In 2022, the damage to forests in Slovakia was estimated at a level of almost EUR 2.9 million. Despite several implemented measures, the situation is so severe that successfully restoring some trees in some heavily attacked stands is imp...
Presentation
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The rapid and turbulent changes in our world create significant uncertainties on myriad factors, which present themselves in many ways, such as the climate, market conditions, legal frameworks, and their impacts. Faced with an unpredictable and fast-changing world, maintaining and promoting sustainable forest management in Slovakia in the coming de...
Article
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Key Message As the number and extent of wildfires are increasing due to climate change and human impacts, the demand for effective risk reduction strategies is growing. Due to limited resources or management capabilities in Slovakia, appropriate multistakeholder participation could help decrease the risk of wildfires while continuing to implement t...
Article
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The goal of the European project ALTERFOR was to find robust strategies concerning forest management that would be resistant to challenges of the 21st century, and support their transfer into practice. The Research, Integration and Utilization (RIU) model was applied to organize the transfer. While this model was applied in nine countries, this pap...
Technical Report
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Akčný plán na presadzovanie ochrany lesov na území Bratislavského samosprávneho kraja v zmysle Memoranda o spolupráci a spoločnom postupe pri ochrane lesov-návrhová časť
Article
Long-lived tree species optimize resource allocation processes, and there are more than likely trade-offs between the growth and response to environmental stressful conditions. The study aims to investigate the growth of healthy and damaged Norway spruce trees using dendrochronological analysis. We have selected a natural high mountain spruce popul...
Article
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The effectiveness of small reservoirs in a mountain landscape continuously decreases over time due to the gradual siltation. We examined two hypotheses about the enhanced siltation rate and the constant relative contribution of unpaved roads to the siltation of a small water reservoir in the period 1990–2014, with pronounced climate change, compare...
Article
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Intra-seasonal growth responses of co-occurring European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) to weather variability in montane forests can provide useful information on their future growth trends. To improve growth predictions, we aimed to identify (i) the main seasonal windows during which weather variability inf...
Article
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Curly birch (Betula pendula Roth. var. carelica [Merklin] Hämet-Ahti) is a disappearing representative of the Betula genus facing a regeneration failure in a large part of its natural distribution in Europe. The unique long-term study of clonal replications originating in heterogeneous environments enabled the evaluation of long-term survival and p...
Article
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As long-lived, slow-growing tree species, European yew (Taxus baccata L.) has considerable potential for dendrochronological use. The increasing probability of decline and the worsening of yew health status endanger the species diversity of temperate forests. In 2015–2017, we sampled adult yew populations with scattered occurrence in limestone beec...
Article
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Significant increase in 25 anthropometric variables of the Slovak and Czech population in time are defined in the paper. A total of 691 respondents from Slovakia and 688 from the Czech Republic were analyzed. Arithmetic means and standard deviations to characterize the anthropometric variables and their variation were defined and compared. Subseque...
Article
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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...
Article
Covering large parts of Europe, Norway spruce (Picea abies L Karst.) plays an important role in the adaptation strategy of forest services to future climate change. Although dendroecology can provide valuable information on the past relationships between tree growth and climate, most previous studies were biased towards species-specific distributio...
Article
Full-text available
Sustainability and the optimal provision of the various ecosystem services is an essential task in forest management. In this study, we deal with the optimization of forest tending to achieve the maximal long-term provision of financial incomes from wood at a minimal level of ecological risks for selected small ownership unit. The methods of intera...
Research
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Zo všeobecného pohľadu základným problémom riešeným v predkladanej štúdií bol prieskum produkčných a rekreačných možností lesného celku Lesy SR Bratislava (LC Lesy SR Bratislava) a následná optimalizácia plnenia produkčnej a rekreačnej funkcie lesa na definovanom území. Územie LC Lesy SR Bratislava predstavuje priestorový rámec štúdie. Časový rámec...
Research
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Štúdia má za cieľ pripraviť podklady pre tvorbu akčného plánu na presadzovanie ochrany lesov na území BSK na najmodernejších vedeckých základoch s použitím originálnych metodík z ekonómie, hospodárskej úpravy lesov, geografických informačných systémov a verejnej politiky. Autori veria, že štúdia môže poskytnúť relevantné informácie, ktoré budú dôle...
Article
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Background: Population data are gathered using the sampling unit at the appropriate time and due to various reasons (e.g. nutrition survey of the population, style of living, etc.), they can be changed due to trends for longer periods of time. Objective: The aim of the paper is to analyse selected anthropometric parameters relevant to the design...
Article
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Forest management mimicking natural processes represents an approach to maintain mixed, uneven-aged stands at small spatial scales. The reliance on natural processes, especially on natural regeneration leads to the use of gap-based regeneration as a fundamental silvicultural technique. As a baseline for such management, we investigated mixed forest...
Article
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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...
Article
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Scenarios modelling offers to forest management an option how to envision complex future associated with various natural, social, or economic uncertainties. The challenge is what modelling method to choose as many methodological approaches to scenario building exists. Morphological analysis is a basic modelling method for structuring and analysing...
Article
Long-term changes in climate substantially affect the tree growth and species distribution in Europe. In the presented study, the radial growth of Fagus sylvatica (L.) and Picea abies ((L.) Karst.) has been studied along an altitudinal gradient covering six vegetation formations characteristic for sub-montane, montane and high-montane conditions of...
Article
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The crown architecture and structural growth strongly affect the total volume and biomass of Norway spruce trees at a specific age. The main objective of this study was to explore the branching strategy of young spruce trees growing in a highly-dense naturally regenerated forest stand. The level of branching described by the Gravelius order of the...
Book
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The human figure, especially its dimensions and strength, must be taken into account as a primary factor in designing and assessing the spatial layout of the workplaces, as well as in the production of ergonomically correct working tools, machines and furniture (Konrád, 1989). Therefore, the design of an optimal workplace (furniture, work tools, ut...
Article
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The presented study is focused on the evaluation of the changes in weight and height of the adult population in Slovakia to provide updated information on the secular growth trend. The main objective was to identify and quantify the pace of gradual changes in the dimensions of the Slovak adult population, which is key ergonomic information for mult...
Article
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Under predicted climate change, native silver fir (Abies alba) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica) are the most likely replacement species for the Norway spruce (Picea abies) monocultures planted across large parts of continental Europe. Our current understanding of the adaptation potential of fir-beech mixed forests to climate change is limited b...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Current forest management planning focuses on analysing more management alternatives, especially due to the increasing risk of forest disturbances caused by climate changes and also because prompt adaptation of forest management to forest owner requests is needed as a reaction to changes. The utilisation of growth simulators in the acquirement of t...
Article
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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...
Article
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European forestry is facing many challenges, including the need to adapt to climate change and an unprecedented increase in forest damage. We investigated these challenges in a Norway spruce-dominated mountain region in Central Europe. We used the model Sibyla to explore forest biomass production to the year 2100 under climate change and under two...
Article
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The paper presents an application of structural analysis in search of key drivers and barriers of forest management in two Slovak regions: Podpoľanie and Kysuce. A comparison with factors identified in selected European regions is also presented. First, various relevant factors affecting forest management were selected for both regions. The selecti...
Method
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Metodický postup funkčně integrované optimalizace výchovy na úrovni lesního porostu na taktické a strategické úrovni plánování
Article
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The main objective of the study is to facilitate cross-dating of sensitive tree-ring series from living European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) trees in the absence of a regional chronology. The main idea lies in the preliminary dating of marker rings or ring patterns visually identified on the wood (before the ring-width measurements), which is indepe...
Article
The contribution of selected sources of uncertainty to the total variance of model simulation results of stem biomass increment – calculated from annual stem biomass predictions – of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) was quantified. Sources of uncertainty were defined as the selected variables that influence the total variance of the model result...
Article
Developments in the past 20 years have changed both the context and the goals of forest management in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in general and Slovakia in particular. One might therefore wonder if introduced " integrative " forestry paradigms on the national level are able to provide assimilation of different forest management cl...
Article
Full-text available
The main objective of this study was to explore the accuracy of Weise’s rule of thumb applied to an estimation of the quadratic mean diameter of a forest stand. Virtual stands of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) across a range of structure types were stochastically generated and random sampling was simulated. We compared the bias and accuracy of...
Article
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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...
Article
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Project COST Action FP 0804 - FORSYS summarizes European experiences in developing and applying decision support systems for forest management. This paper introduces FORSYS methodology for the classification of current forest management problems and for the description of existing decision support systems. The paper identifies the general forestry...
Article
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The properties and short-term prediction accuracy of mathematical model of sigmoid time-determinate growth, denoted as “KM-function”, are presented. Comparative mathematical analysis of the function revealed that it is a model of asymmetrical sigmoid growth, which starts at zero size of an organism and terminates when it reaches its final size. The...
Book
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V predloženej monografii uvádzame výsledky slovenskej časti riešenia projektu 7FP Na budúcnosť zamerané a integrované obhospodarovanie európskych lesných krajín (Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes INTEGRAL). Strategické plánovanie obhospodarovania lesov je rovnako ako v celom projekte založené na aplikácií metodiky...
Article
Norway spruce (Picea abies) is one of the most widespread and economically valuable tree species in Europe, however recently it has been experiencing a large-scale decline. In the western Carpathians, particularly forests in the Beskids Mountains have recorded the most extensive health decline ever documented. Climate change during the last several...
Article
Full-text available
In this work we deal with a change of selected anthropometric characteristics of the adult population in Slovakia and its effects on work safety. Slovak population was represented by a sample of students who studied at the Technical University in Zvolen in the years 2000-2014. Selected anthropometric attributes are important for the design of optim...
Article
Full-text available
Information on tree age is often vital for dendrochronological studies, especially when the Regional Curve Standardisation technique is used. Several linear and non-linear methods of tree age estimation using partial increment cores (without the presence of pith) were evaluated and modified to provide more accurate estimations than are currently us...
Conference Paper
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K jedným zo základných konceptov strategického plánovania a na budúcnosť orientovaného výskumu patria scenáre. Scenáre opisujú možný vývoj, alternatívne budúce situácie a predstavujú cestu, ktorá k týmto situáciám vedie od súčasnosti do budúcnosti. Rôzne investičné spoločnosti používajú najprepracovanejšie sofistikované scenáre, ktoré im pomáhajú p...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents two alternative approaches of final cut scheduling for a fifty year strategic planning horizon. One approach is represented by cutting percentage, which is a classical timber indicator commonly used in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The second approach is represented by two optimisation models of integer programming; the first...
Article
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Extracting cores from a tree using an increment borer has been standard practice in dendrochronological studies for a long time. Although empirical rules exist regarding how many samples to take and which methodology to apply, comparatively few studies provide quantification of the similarity of relative tree-ring-widths (TRW) around the stem circu...
Article
Silver fir is one of the most productive and ecologically valuable native European tree species, however, it has been experiencing decline which has periodically occurred over its natural range. This paper aims to investigate the recent climate-growth relationships of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and its temporal change along the course of its lif...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The work compares the current system of developing forest management plans (FMP) in Slovakia with simulation and optimization tools in the context with the planned development of a decision-support system (DSS). The paper presents a case study and aims at multi-criteria optimization of thinning options for forest stands during the rotation period....
Article
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The purpose of this paper is to present a new growth and yield function (denoted as KM-function), which was empirically derived from the cumulative density function of the Kumaraswamy probability distribution. KM-function is theoretically well disposed for the prediction of future growth; however, the function also has other theoretical features th...
Article
Full-text available
We analysed climate change impacts on the growth and natural mortality of forest tree species and forest carbon (C) balance along an elevation gradient extending from the Pannonian lowland to the West Carpathian Mountains (Central Europe). Norway spruce Picea abies, European beech Fagus sylvatica, and oak Quercus sp. were investigated for 2 future...
Chapter
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Beech trees and stands follow the same general patterns of growth as all the other woody plants. Dimensional characteristics as the tree height and volume; stem diameter; and mean height and diameter of the stand show a characteristic S-shaped temporal course (Fig. 12.1). The current increment creation in the average height of beech in Slovakia cul...
Article
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There were investigated possibilities of varying cutting intensities and cycles optimization within shelterwood system applied in beech stands growing in a suitable site conditions. The study was based on dendrochronological analysis of increments on radial discs taken from three different stem heights from sample trees representing the means for i...
Thesis
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Dissertation thesis is dealing with a topic of empirical forest growth and yield modelling founded on the construction and evaluation of growth models based on the long term empirical measurements of forest growth at the selected area. The main issue met in the thesis is the question to which extent is the quality of empirical forest growth models...
Article
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Shelterwood cutting is favourable for natural regeneration of new forest stands. It also enables the remaining individual trees to maximize their growth potential. The paper deals with development of diameter and height of mature submountain beech forest stands and number of trees changing their tree classes. The research subject consisted of four...
Article
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This work is dealing with the analysis of motivation for workers in Slovak nuclear power plant corporation, Mochovce. Motivation is analysed from the view of time and subject aspect. Analysis was performed during the years 2003-2004. Importance of motivators was determined by the application of inquiry, based on averaging of individual importances...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
From an ecological and silvicultural point of view, shelterwood cutting is a basic regeneration cutting. This cutting is not only favourable for natural regeneration of a new forest stand but it also enables the remaining individual trees to maximize their growth potential. The paper deals with height development of mature submontane beech forest s...