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Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources

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A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 16878

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Dr. Mihai-Leonard Duduman

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Forestry Faculty, ”Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Universității Street 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Interests: integrated forest management; forest health; forest protection; forest ecology
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Dr. Ciprian Palaghianu

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Forestry Faculty, ”Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Universității Street 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Interests: forest and landscape ecology

Dr. Liviu Nichiforel

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Forestry Faculty, ”Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Universității Street 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Interests: forest policy and governance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The integrated management of forest resources has become a critical strategic action considering the multiple roles that forests play in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, nature conservation, bio-economy, and renewable energy strategies. The newly released European Union (EU) Forest strategy (2021) recognises forests’ central and multifunctional role in the European Green Deal. Forests could significantly support a sustainable and climate-neutral economy while ensuring that natural ecosystems are restored, resilient, and adequately protected.

The generous idea to have one forest strategy embracing all the EU level strategies impacting forest management requires essential efforts in policy and research to identify and integrate the existing synergies and solve complex trade-offs and conflicts. In this context, specialists from various domains (e.g., Forest Ecosystems and Landscape Ecology; Silviculture and Forest Health; Forest Assessment, Modelling, and Management; Environmental Economics and Policy; Forest Operations Engineering and Forest Products) are invited to present their contributions to this Special Issue aiming to highlight the various research approaches concerning integrated management of forest resources.

This Special Issue brings together some of the contributions presented at the 5th Edition of the Integrated Management of Environmental Resources Conference Suceava—Romania (29 October 2021). In addition, other research papers presenting new approaches used in the integrated management of forest resources are highly welcomed.

Dr. Mihai-Leonard Duduman
Dr. Ciprian Palaghianu
Dr. Liviu Nichiforel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

integrated resource management
forest ecosystems
forest strategy
climate changes
ecosystem services
forest health
forest management
forest modeling

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3388 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Patterns of Forest Species Association in a Broadleaf Forest in Romania

by Ciprian Palaghianu and Cosmin Coșofreț

Forests 2023, 14(6), 1118; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14061118 - 28 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1196

Abstract

Ecological patterns of species distribution can reveal essential information on the spatial and functional relationship between species or species and their environment. Various approaches can be used to assess species associations, and our study aimed to compare three methods at different scales: the co-occurrence indices for binary presence–absence data, principal component analysis (PCA) on species abundance and point process analysis. Our goal was to gain a deeper understanding of the species’ co-occurrence patterns and notice if the three methods capture roughly the same spatial distribution trends. Our observational study of the analysed sapling community displayed several positive relationships between species (e.g., the association between ash and linden). However, many relationships were inconsistent across different scales. Furthermore, attraction between species was more prevalent than repulsion. Overall, there is a positive association trend, with more relationships being significantly positive across all scales. This trend is consistent with other recent studies of tree–species interaction. Nonetheless, the results suggest that the scale significantly influences spatial patterns of associations. Positive associations tend to be more prevalent on larger scales, while negative associations are more commonly found on smaller scales, regardless of the analysis method used. While the PCA results are less consistent, the point process analysis allowed us to detect more refined patterns of species associations based on the distance of their interaction. In addition, the binary presence–absence analysis provided solid results, with a coarser spatial perspective but with significantly less sampling effort. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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22 pages, 6768 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Overview of Extreme Years in Quercus sp. Tree Ring Records from the Northern Moldavian Plateau

by Viorica Nagavciuc, Andrei Mursa, Monica Ionita, Victor Sfeclă, Ionel Popa and Cătălin-Constantin Roibu

Forests 2023, 14(5), 894; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14050894 - 26 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1397

Abstract

In this study, we made use of a regional oak tree-ring network from six stands that cover the northern Moldavian Plateau (eastern Europe) to analyze how different tree ring parameters (i.e., early wood tree-ring width, late wood tree-ring width, and total tree-ring width) of Quercus sp. are influenced by the occurrence of extreme climatic events (e.g., long-lasting drought events). In order to explore the influence of extreme hydroclimatic events on tree ring width, we have selected each of the six most extreme positive and negative years of tree growth and addressed the seasonal cycle of tree growth in comparison with the main climatic parameters, then evaluated both the current and lagged consequences of extreme hydroclimatic events on tree ring width and the capacity of trees to recover. Our results indicate that the variability of oak tree ring width from the Moldavian Plateau is mainly influenced by the availability of water resources, and that an important limiting growth factor for Quercus sp. is the occurrence of long-lasting drought events, e.g., at least two years in a row with severe drought conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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21 pages, 7651 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Variation Patterns of Forest Structure Diversity after Set-Aside in Rarău-Giumalău Mountains, Romania

by Cătălina-Oana Barbu, Gabriel Duduman and Cezar Valentin Tomescu

Forests 2023, 14(2), 251; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020251 - 29 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1116

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze the set-aside effect on the current structure diversity of mountain temperate forests from the Natura 2000 site Rarău-Giumalău. In the past 80 years, the area of entirely protected forests successively increased to up to 77% of the site. The description of past structure diversity was based on the analysis of management plans drawn up for these ecosystems after 1940, while their current structure diversity was based on a tree census carried out in 2015. The forests’ structure diversity was described in relation to: tree dimensional heterogeneity; wood volumes homogeneity of the living trees throughout the site; variability of the standing and lying dead wood volume; number and basal area of large trees; natural regeneration. The results show that forest stands where no harvest has ever been registered record the highest level of tree size heterogeneity, while in previously managed forests, the current structure diversity was influenced by the harvesting intensity. The dimensional diversity of trees also depends on the structure, density and age of forest stands at the moment when they are set aside. We observed that the volume of dead wood on the ground greatly increases after abandonment of timber production and that there is a progressive decrease in the number and percentage of large trees in the first 40 years after the last timber harvest, accompanied by a significant decrease in living trees volume. Nevertheless, the number of large trees in stands where the last timber harvesting occurred more than six decades ago is 1.8 times higher than that of the corresponding number in stands where no harvesting was ever performed. The time elapsed since the last harvest generated important changes in the regeneration process, which seems to stabilize after three decades. The forest stands’ reaction after set-aside very much depends on their characteristics at the time of exclusion from timber production, especially their age and structure. After 80 years since set-aside, the ecosystem processes and descriptors begin to look very much like those in the forests unaffected by human actions, but the old-growth characteristics have not entirely recovered. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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17 pages, 5463 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Diversity of Beetles Captured in Pitfall Traps in the Șinca Old-Growth Forest, Brașov County, Romania: Forest Reserve versus Managed Forest

by Gabriela Isaia, Ionuț-Marian Dragomir and Mihai-Leonard Duduman

Forests 2023, 14(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14010060 - 28 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1748

Abstract

Natural forests have unique, very stable structures and host a large number of endemic species, making them of high conservation value. The Șinca Old-Growth Forest in Brasov County (Romania) is no exception, being a flagship natural forest of mixed beech and silver fir among European mountain forests. Knowledge of the diversity of beetles living in this ecosystem and of the conservation degree of the species can be obtained by comparing it with the diversity existing in a managed forest, similar in composition and structure. Thus, the present study allowed a first analysis of the terrestrial coleopteran communities captured in pitfall traps both in a forest reserve and in a managed forest. The abundance of captured beetles was about 17% higher in the forest reserve (16,393 individuals) than in the managed forest (14,008 individuals), while species richness was higher in the managed forest (44 species), where 19.1% more taxa were identified than in the forest reserve (37 species). There were significant differences between the two beetle communities indicated via a PERMANOVA test; these differences are most likely due to the presence of certain beetle species only in a certain stand type, but also due to large differences between populations of common insect species. Analyses of the Shannon, Simpson, Evenness, and Berger–Parker diversity indices showed a similar diversity between the two terrestrial beetle communities. The presence of rare species such as Carabus variolosus (Fabricius, 1787), Ceruchus chrysomelinus (Hochenwarth, 1785), and Rhysodes sulcatus (Fabricius, 1787) indicates the high value of this ecosystem and illustrates the importance of its conservation. A more in-depth analysis of beetle diversity in the Șinca forest may only be possible after further research based on additional beetle sampling methods capable of capturing dead wood-dependent insects in particular. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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15 pages, 3746 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Growth and Mortality of Hybrid Poplar Short Rotation Culture (AF8 Clone) in Response to Clostera anastomosis L. (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae) Defoliation

by Daniela Lupaștean, Gabriela Isaia, Iulian-Constantin Dănilă, Cosmin Coșofreț, Ramona Elena Scriban and Mihai-Leonard Duduman

Forests 2023, 14(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14010020 - 22 Dec 2022

Viewed by 2020

Abstract

The increasing worldwide interest in renewable energy and carbon storage has led to the development of relatively fast solutions to obtain wood biomass. The cultivation of fast-growing tree species in short-rotation crops, such as hybrid poplar clones, is one such solution, at least in temperate areas. Sometimes these monocultures are affected by disturbing factors, including severe insect defoliation, with strong destructive effects. The impact of defoliation on the growth and productivity of poplar crops is often estimated in the context of artificial defoliation. There have been few studies in which the effect of defoliation was calculated after natural defoliation. Among defoliating insect species, Clostera anastomosis L. is one of the most important defoliators of young poplars. This species developed severe defoliation in a 4-year-old poplar clone AF8 crop, from the northeastern part of Romania, in the spring and summer of 2017. The study aimed to assess the impact of defoliation both on the growth and mortality of defoliated trees and the productivity of the affected crop. To reach this goal, the height and radial growth of 150 trees with different defoliation rates (50 non-defoliated, 50 partially defoliated, and 50 completely defoliated) were measured and the defoliation symptoms and mortality were also evaluated for 4780 poplars (10% of the analyzed population). The defoliation caused a significant decrease in the annual height growth (28.6% of the partially defoliated trees and 38.5% of the completely defoliated trees) and a severe decrease in the radial growth, between 82.2% and 90.4%, respectively, depending on the defoliation rate. These strong decreases led to a significant decline in tree-level biomass accumulation, approximately 74.8% for partially defoliated trees and 83.1% for completely defoliated trees, for the year of defoliation. As a result, the loss in total biomass (for the four years of the rotation) was between 28.1% and 34.6%, respectively, depending on the defoliation rate. Therefore, the total biomass loss was 5 t·ha⁻¹, representing approximately 70% of the forecasted production for 2017 only (approximately 7 t·ha⁻¹). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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17 pages, 1365 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Productivity of Short-Rotation Poplar Crops: A Case Study in the NE of Romania

by Iulian-Constantin Dănilă, Cristian Mititelu and Ciprian Palaghianu

Forests 2022, 13(7), 1089; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13071089 - 11 Jul 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1465

Abstract

In Romania, the productivity of the new clones of hybrid poplar has not been tested in recent years. This case study aims to fill a gap on the productivity map of the new poplar clones, estimating, by biomass measurements, the productivity of two clones (AF2 and AF8) with different planting densities (from 1333 trees·ha⁻¹ to 2667 trees·ha⁻¹). The short-rotation woody crops (SRWCs) were established in homogeneous conditions, in North-East (NE) Romania and the northern part of Suceava County. Using a specifically developed method, biomass production was estimated using destructive methods, with 190 poplar trees being harvested, measured, and weighed to compute the accumulated biomass for each growing season The biomass production of the crops with 1667 trees·ha⁻¹ planting density highlighted significant differences in productivity in favour of the AF2 clone after five growing seasons. The crops shared similar annual growth patterns, and the stem biomass represents approximately 73–80% of the total biomass of the trees. The second research question concerning planting density influence on productivity showed fluctuations of biomass accumulations at different planting densities (1333 trees ha⁻¹, 1667 trees ha⁻¹ and 2667 trees ha⁻¹) for a 5-year rotation. The outcomes emphasized the influence of the annual weather conditions—primarily the rainfall in May–June—on poplar growth, showing that productivity also depends on the genotype, density and biotic disturbances. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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17 pages, 4825 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Reintroduction Analysis of European Bison (Bison bonasus L., 1758) in the North of Romania and the Identification of the Most Favourable Locations

by Gabriel Dănilă, Sebastian Cătănoiu, Valerian Simioniuc and Sanda Roșca

Forests 2022, 13(6), 920; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13060920 - 13 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3172

Abstract

We analysed the possibility of reintroducing the European bison (Bison bonasus L.) in the north of Romania—in Suceava, Neamț, and Maramureș counties—as well as increasing the wild European bison population in Neamț county to improve the genetic quality of the existing population. Currently, there is a population of over 50 individuals in the wild in Vânători Neamț Natural Park, Romania. At the same time, an attempt was made to identify the connecting corridors between the free European bison in Neamț county and other populations through new nuclei of European bison released in Suceava and Maramureș counties. In this regard, the hunting grounds with the highest ecological potential for the analysed species were identified using GIS spatial analysis techniques. The aim was also to trace possible ecological corridors linking different reintroduction locations, taking into account the ecological claims of the species. The analysis also followed the size of the European bison groups to be released, the sex ratio of each group, and the periodicity of their releasing. In order to reach viable populations, scenarios and simulations were carried out depending on the age, number, and sex of the relocated specimens. In this regard, the dynamics and the minimum viable population that could survive without risk of extinction were highlighted. The analysis showed that the analysed area has a high potential for the reintroduction of European bison in the wild. The release and creation of new European bison nuclei in the wild creates the premises for natural contacts with the existing free populations in the wild, genetic improvement, and increasing fauna diversity with ecological, social, and economic implications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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15 pages, 10965 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Management or Climate and Which One Has the Greatest Impact on Forest Soil’s Protective Value? A Case Study in Romanian Mountains

by Cosmin Coșofreț, Gabriel Duduman, Ionuț Barnoaiea and Olivier Bouriaud

Forests 2022, 13(6), 916; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13060916 - 12 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1552

Abstract

The protective value of forests is expected to be affected by climate change. Applied forest management could absorb or enhance such an impact. In this context, we developed a new protective value index (PVI) that includes biometric and topographical indicators of forest stands. Using PVI and the LandClim model, we simulated 100 years with low- and high-intensity cuttings within three climate scenarios to analyze their influence on the protective value of forests included in the soil protection category. The management types had a low impact on PVI during the simulation period. However, the effects of moderate climate intensified in the second half of the simulation period. In contrast, the extreme climate had the highest impact on PVI and its variables throughout the whole period. The forest stands from lower elevation reached a higher protective value than intermediate and high elevation. Although the low-elevation forest stands are the most vulnerable to climate changes, the ongoing adaptation conducts to stands with higher protective value than stable forests from the higher elevation. The PVI is easily adaptable for different forest landscape models and can be widely applied to provide an integrated assessment of the forest protective value and the management measures to maintain or enhance it. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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12 pages, 4061 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Broad-Leaved Tree Growth Modulated by Industrial Air Pollution in the Northern Romania (Baia Mare Region)

by Cristian Gheorghe Sidor, Cosmin Ilie Cuciurean, Ionel Popa, Ștefan Leca, Radu Vlad and Ovidiu Badea

Forests 2022, 13(5), 807; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13050807 - 20 May 2022

Viewed by 1699

Abstract

Atmospheric pollutants over the last century have led to increased negative impacts on the environment, especially on forest ecosystems. In the Baia Mare region of Romania, the influence of pollution on the neighboring forests of the municipality has been reported since 1970, and its negative effects have been reported mainly in the form of reduced tree growth, which implies significant losses of wood biomass. The objective of this study is to analyze the temporal and spatial effect of industrial pollution on the auxological processes of beech trees in this region. Quantification of auxological changes was performed by analyzing the resilience, recovery and resistance indices. The most intense negative effect of local pollution with heavy metal dusts, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and sulfuric acid vapors, on the auxological processes of beech trees was found in the period 1960–1990, with a maximum in the period 1970–1980, when the mining activity was at its highest intensity. Beech trees responded to the negative effect of pollution by significantly reducing their growth during the period affected by local pollution, and after 1990 they resumed their auxological activity close to normal. In addition, it was noted that the index that best captures the effect of pollution over time is the resilience index. Tree growth resilience, recovery, and resistance assessment and analysis significantly contributes to our understanding of trees response to environment pollution more broadly creating also the base for strategic planning initiatives with valuable insight into the efforts of making the forests more resilient and resistant. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Prospects for the Integrated Management of Central Eastern Europe Forest Resources)

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