Dendroclimatic study of a mixed spruce-fir-beech forest in the Czech Republic

European forests are undergoing an important transition due to the current climate change, as monocultures are being gradually replaced by mixed forests. Understanding tree growth in mixed forests under a changing climate is challenging because of tree species’ adaptation and long-term forest planning. In this study, we evaluate the long-term behaviour of Norway spruce (Picea abies), silver fir (Abies alba) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica) from a low montane range at the Czech-Austrian border. Species-specific tree-ring width chronologies have revealed significantly decreasing growth trends since the 2000s. Temporally unstable climate–growth relationships showed an increasing negative effect of current growing season drought on spruce growth and a positive effect of dormant season temperature on fir and beech growth. Our results suggest that though species’ response to climate change differs in the mixed forest, growth reduction in the last years has been proved for all species, likely due to frequent climate extremes

The palaeoclimatic potential of recent oak tree-ring width chronologies from southwest Ukraine

Better insights into spatio-temporal climate signals are needed to understand more clearly the applicability to palaeoclimatic analysis and dendrochronological dating of the long tree-ring oak chronologies currently being compiled in Eastern Europe. This study investigates the climate sensitivity of two recent oak tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies from Transcarpathian and Ciscarpathian Ukraine and their coherence with 35 oak chronologies from Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary. The new Transcarpathian chronology consists of 247 TRW series of living trees from 13 sites covering the period 1836-2020, while the new Ciscarpathian chronology consists of 215 TRW series from 13 sites and spans the period 1775-2020. Despite the strong similarity between these two chronologies, their responses to climate differ significantly. Growing-season precipitation and particularly drought (three-month SPEI index) were found to be the primary drivers of oak growth on the border between the Carpathians and the northeastern Pannonian Basin. Spatial correlations of the Transcarpathian chronology show particularly high explained variability in the April-August SPEI index, roughly between 18.5-28.5oE and 45-52oN. In the Ciscarpathian, June precipitation primarily influenced oak radial growth but the spatial correlation was quite low. While the Transcarpathian TRW chronology was strongly correlated with eastern Slovakian and northwestern Romanian chronologies, the Ciscarpathian chronology revealed very low correlations with surrounding chronologies. This study indicates the great dendroarchaeological and palaeoclimatic potential of the Transcarpathian chronology and points to the need to analyse additional living trees from the Ciscarpathian region to understand the spatial variability of oak growth and its climate signal better.Preprin

Revealing legacy effects of extreme droughts on tree growth of oaks across the Northern Hemisphere

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Forests are undergoing increasing risks of drought-induced tree mortality. Species replacement patterns following mortality may have a significant impact on the global carbon cycle. Among major hardwoods, deciduous oaks (Quercus spp.) are increasingly reported as replacing dying conifers across the Northern Hemisphere. Yet, our knowledge on the growth responses of these oaks to drought is incomplete, especially regarding post-drought legacy effects. The objectives of this study were to determine the occurrence, duration, and magnitude of legacy effects of extreme droughts and how that vary across species, sites, and drought characteristics. The legacy effects were quantified by the deviation of observed from expected radial growth indices in the period 1940–2016. We used stand-level chronologies from 458 sites and 21 oak species primarily from Europe, north-eastern America, and eastern Asia. We found that legacy effects of droughts could last from 1 to 5 years after the drought and were more prolonged in dry sites. Negative legacy effects (i.e., lower growth than expected) were more prevalent after repetitive droughts in dry sites. The effect of repetitive drought was stronger in Mediterranean oaks especially in Quercus faginea. Species-specific analyses revealed that Q. petraea and Q. macrocarpa from dry sites were more negatively affected by the droughts while growth of several oak species from mesic sites increased during post-drought years. Sites showing positive correlations to winter temperature showed little to no growth depression after drought, whereas sites with a positive correlation to previous summer water balance showed decreased growth. This may indicate that although winter warming favors tree growth during droughts, previous-year summer precipitation may predispose oak trees to current-year extreme droughts. Our results revealed a massive role of repetitive droughts in determining legacy effects and highlighted how growth sensitivity to climate, drought seasonality and species-specific traits drive the legacy effects in deciduous oak species.AKB thanks H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (PROJECT ID: 749051-REFOREST) and support from the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. JJC thanks funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-123675OB-C43 and TED2021-129770B-C21 projects). AG acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science foundation SNF (310030_189109) and inspiration by The Velvet Underground. EM-S was funded by the project RYC2021-035078-I from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. IDL acknowledges funding from Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (#PID2021-128759OA-I00), Fondos de Investigación Beatriz Galindo UPM-CAM (#M190020074A) and Proyectos de Consolidación Investigadora 2022 (#CNS2022-135228). TK, EK, MR, IS were supported by the Czech Science Foundation (23-08049S project). JA and JD were supported by the Czech Science Foundation (23-05272S and 23-07533S) and the long-term research development project No. RVO 67985939 of the Czech Academy of Sciences. ASV was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (FSRZ-2020-0014).Peer reviewe

Dendrochronologické datování a stavebněhistorické hodnocení krovu kostela sv. Jakuba ve Staré Vsi u Bílovce (okres Nový Jičín)

The aim of the thesis was to make a constructional-historical research and dendrochronological dating of the roof frame (truss) of St. James´s church in Stará Ves near Bílovce (the district of Novy Jicin). It is the case of the roof frame structure of hammerbeam type which was made from fir timber. The result of the dendrochronological analysis has shown that the trees used for the construction of the roof of the nave were fell down between 1712 and 1713. The trees used for the construction of the roof over the chancel were also fell down between 1712 and 1713. The oak bell stool could not be reliably dendrochronologically dated. The results of the dendrochronological analysis correspond to the historical development of the church found out from the literary and historical source

Technical Infrastructure and Development Policy of Municipalities

Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá technickou infrastrukturou a rozvojovou politikou obcí. První kapitola objasňuje pojem infrastruktura, zvláště se zaměřuje na technickou infrastrukturu obcí. Další část práce se věnuje rozvojovým podmínkám obcí a zdrojům využitelným k financování investičních projektů. Třetí kapitola definuje indikátory rozvoje obcí. Další část bakalářské práce je věnována popisu stavu technické infrastruktury v konkrétních obcích. Závěr práce shrnuje dopady investic do technické infrastruktury na budoucí rozvoj vybraných obcí.This bachelor thesis deals with the technical infrastructure and the development policy of municipalities. The first part explains the infrastructure expression with focus on technical infrastructure of municipalities. Next part of thesis is being devoted to the development conditions of municipalities and to the sources that can be used for financing of investment projects. Third part defines the municipalities' development indicators. Next part of bachelor thesis is dedicated to the description of technical infrastructure in specific municipalities. The thesis' conclusion is summarizing the impacts of technical infrastructure investments on the future development of specific municipalities.Ústav ekonomických vědStudentka seznámila komisi s obsahem bakalářské práce. V rámci obhajoby se vyjádřila k otázkám vedoucího práce, kterými byly následující: 1) Které prvky technické infrastruktury považují obce jako zásadní pro vlastní municipální rozvoj? 2) Jaké negativní dopady mají investice do infrastruktury na ekonomiku obcí, případně na život občanů v dotčených obcích? V následující rozpravě byly položeny tyto dotazy: Závěr: Funkční technická infrastruktura podporuje růst a je jeho nutnou podmínkou - jak jste tento závěr potvrdila? Zahrnovala jste měrnou jednotku výstupu