Name of programme: GA ČR Standard project
Project number: 21-27454S
Investigator: prof. Ing. Miroslav Svoboda, Ph.D.
Contact person: prof. Ing. Miroslav Svoboda, Ph.D., svobodam@fld.czu.cz
Implementation period: 2021-2024
Forests support terrestrial biodiversity and offset 25% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions through increases in biomass. Therefore, the major objective of the proposed project is to understand the processes influencing variation in biomass and biodiversity indicators for two prominent forest communities dominated by Picea abies and Fagus sylvatica along the Carpathian mountain range. We aim to provide novel findings on the role of tree-level (size, age, competition), site-level (soils, topography) and regional-level (temperature, precipitation, drought) factors in driving historical variation in growth and disturbances. In order to achieve this we plan to broaden existing database of about 750 permanent plots and tree ring series from primary P. abies forests by including matching data from primary F. sylvatica forests. The proposed project will be the first to directly link biomass and biodiversity indicators of the temperate European primary forests to retrospectively determined disturbance histories in the two co-mingling forest types extending across a large geographical gradient.