Treesearch

About 886.5 Mha in Russia is occupied by forests, including 763.5 Mha of tree stands and 123 Mha of nonstocked lands. The Russian forests comprise about 22 percent of the earth's forest area or 43 percent of the earth's temperate and boreal forests. Main forest-forming species are Larix sp. (32 percent of the growing stock), Pinus sylvestris (20 percent), Picea sp. (15 percent), Betula sp. (13 percent), Pinus sibirica (10 percent), Populus tremula (5 percent), Abies sp. (3 percent), Quercus sp. (1 percent) and other species (1 percent). About one-third of tree stands and two-thirds of...

A three-stage approach was applied to assess the quality of forests in southwestern Poland, which are heavily affected with air pollution and insect infestations. In the first stage a ground evaluation of spruce stands was done within the selected test areas. Three main characteristics of forest quality were determined as a result of these works: defoliation, discoloration, and vigor of trees. Next, aerial color infrared photographs were taken over the study area. They covered stands at different stages of forest decline. Detailed analysis of these photographs enabled discrimination of...

In the Beskidy Mountains at Brenna, Poland, and several other locations in the Katowice administrative district, plants were used as bioindicators to determine ozone concentration measurements in 1994 and 1995. Results showed that ozone is the only gaseous air pollutant significantly exceeding the permissible concentrations and causing foliar injury to both test and some native plant species. For all of the tests using plants, the most severe ozone injuries, were found for the Brenna location. The first signs of leaf injury were found on beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Tobacco (Nicotiana...

The responses of pine forest to changing climate and environmental chemistry were studied along two transects following the pollution and continentality gradients in Poland. One axis begins on the western border of Poland, crosses the country along the 52nd parallel, and ends on the eastern border of Poland in the area of Bialowieza National Park, Biosphere Reserve. The second axis begins in industrial Upper Silesia in southwestern Poland and ends at the same point in the Bialowieza area on the eastern border of Poland. The west-east latitudinal transect follows the gradient of cooling and...

The relationship between litter decomposition rate, some chemical properties of upper soil layers (iron, manganese, zinc, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, chrome in humus-mineral horizon-A), and litter (the same eight elements in needle litter fraction) in pine forests of Poland was studied. Heavy metal content in organic-mineral horizon of soils was highly correlated with needle decomposition rate for copper (correlation coefficient 0.901), zinc (corr. coeff. 0.901), nickel (corr. coeff. 0.834), and iron (corr. coeff. 0.850). Heavy metal content in needle litter was highly correlated with...

In the last 10 years, 3.5 percent of the tree population died annually in PolandÕs largest and most polluted cities, which is a problem of economic importance. Dieback of streetside trees in Warsaw is a long term process. It is an effect of biological reactions of trees to unfavorable conditions in the urban environment, particularly air and soil pollution and water deficiency. The process is being intensified by microclimatic changes leading to xerism of the environment (lowering of air humidity and rising of air temperature). To study this problem Crimean linden (Tilia euchlora K. Koch)...

A 3-year study of nitrogenous (N) air pollution deposition to ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws.) seedlings along a mature tree vertical canopy gradient was conducted in the mixed conifer forest of the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California. Concentrations of nitric acid vapor (HNO3), particulate nitrate (NO3-), and ammonium (NH4+) were measured, as well as dry surface deposition of NO3- and NH4+. By using this data, along with meteorological information, a series of simple models were developed that predict the vertical gradient of foliage-rinse surface deposition...

From June to mid-October in 1995, the concentration of tropospheric ozone in 18 localities in the Krakow Province of southern Poland was measured by using ultraviolet monitors and Ogawa passive samplers. At three active monitoring stations, tropospheric ozone was recorded in the downtown and western part of Krakow and in Szarow, 30 km to the east. The passive method was applied in a dozen or so localities distributed within and outside Krakow's city limits. In these locations two varieties of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), Bel-W3 and Bel-B, were exposed. In the Krakow Province the mean...

Ambient concentrations of ozone (O3) were measured at five highland forest locations in the Ukrainian Carpathians and in two lowland locations in the Kiev region during August to September 1995 by using O3 passive samplers. The ozone passive samplers were calibrated against a Thermo Environmental Model 49 ozone monitor located at the Central Botanical Garden in Kiev. The 2-week long average concentrations in August to September at the Carpathian Mountains ranged from 27.4 to 51.8 ppb, and at the lowland forest location (Lutezh, near Kiev) ranged from 29.3 to 32.2 ppb. The 2-week long...

Nitrogenous (N) air pollutant concentrations and surface deposition of nitrate (NO3-) and ammonium (NH4+) to branches of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws.) seedlings were measured on a vertical transect in a mature ponderosa/Jeffrey (Pinus jeffreyi Grev. & Balf.) pine canopy in the mixed conifer forest stand in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California during the 1992 to 1994 summer seasons (mid-May to mid-October periods). In general, concentrations of nitric acid vapor (HNO3), nitrous acid vapor (HNO2), ammonia (NH3), particulate NO3- and NH4+ were elevated and...