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High Reproductive Effort and Low Recruitment Rates of European Beech: Is There a Limit for the Superior Competitor?

Szwagrzyk J., Gratzer G., Stępniewska H., Szewczyk J., Veselinovic B.

Polish Journal of Ecology

2015

Vol. 63, nr 2

198--212

European beech is a superior competitor among the trees of Central Europe, often growing in pure stands. We proposed a hypothesis, that once beech has reached dominance in forest community, it's recruitment could become limited due to the gradual accumulation of pathogens attacking seeds and seedlings. We employed data on seed production and germination along with a field experiment to estimate the germination success of beech in two old-growth forests. Beech produced more seeds than the co-occurring coniferous trees, but less than 1% of beechnuts germinated in the next season. In the field experiment, the percentage of decayed beechnuts was 57% in the Carpathians and 61% in the Alps. Most of the dead germinants and decayed beechnuts were infested by fungi. The average number of fungal colonies per one sample in the Carpathians was significantly higher after mast year than one year before, while the differences between the Alps and Carpathians after mast years were statistically not significant. Fungi have been isolated from practically all dead beechnuts and dead germinants. The number of beechnuts per seed trap, the number of germinants around it and the relative number of fungal colonies obtained from plastic boxes placed in the same sample plot were not significantly correlated. The mortality of germinants continued throughout the spring; the number of life germinants in the middle of May amounted to 0.87% of the initial number of beechnuts in the Carpathians and only 0.28% in the Alps. High rates of beechnut and germinant mortality could probably offset the huge reproductive effort of European beech in old-growth stands and limit the possibility to attain absolute dominance by that species. However, our hypothesis that the build-up of fungal pathogens on the forest floor old-growth stands is able to stop the regeneration of beech still needs to be tested using larger data sets.

Is natural regeneration of forest a continuous process? A case study of an old-growth forest of the Western Carpathians

Szwagrzyk J., Szewczyk J.

Polish Journal of Ecology

2008

Vol. 56, nr 4

623-633

Natural regeneration in temperate forests is known to be distributed unevenly, forming dense clumps or patches of young trees confined often to canopy gaps. However, in some studies no significant relationship between the presence of gaps and advanced regeneration was found. The analysis of the relationship between tree stand density and young trees density and growth rates was conducted to check if oldgrowth temperate forests with numerous canopy openings permit development of young trees throughout the forest floor, not only directly under canopy gaps. The study was conducted in an old-growth stand of Fagus sylvatica L., Abies alba Mill. and Picea abies (L.) Karst. in the Babia Góra National Park (Western Carpathians, Poland). The elevation is 940-1010 m a.s.l., slope inclination varies from 2 to 40%, mean annual temperature for that area is 4[degrees]C and annual precipitation amounts to 1300-1400 mm. Stand basal area in the study plot has increased from 38 m[^2] ha[^-1] in 1991 to 40.7 m[^2] ha[^-1] in 2004, and canopy openness has decreased from 15.6% in 1996 to 9.3% in 2003. Saplings were totally dominated by European beech; during 13 years of study sapling density has increased by 50%, along with the sum of sapling heights (from 0.79 m m[^-2] to 1.59 m m[^-2]) and the mean height (from 1.42 m to 2.46 m). The increase in sapling sizes strongly varied among individuals within plot and was only weakly related to the relative light intensities measured at the individual plot level (for sums of diameters t = 0.293, P > 0.05). The development of young generation of trees in the study area seems to support the "medium disturbance" hypothesis, with a non-continuous regeneration triggered by external disturbance, and several tree recruitment episodes during the lifespan of canopy trees.