Project number: J4-4541
Project duration: 1 October 2022―30 September 2025
Overall budget: 300.000,00 €
Lead partner: Slovenian Forestry Institute
This project focuses on two temperate, ecologically and economically important oak species in Slovenia: Quercus robur versus Quercus petraea; their future distribution and growth potential. For disentangling climate-growth relationship of the two species, reliable identification of these sympatric and hybridising species is needed as a first step. Thus, our national data on morphological distinctions need to be reviewed, supported with advanced genetic analyses and compiled in a common database. Secondly, environmental experiments on young trees of Q. robur and Q. petraea will reveal more detailed species-specific functional-structural response to identical natural environmental conditions (including the effects of abiotic and soil microbial factors) during regeneration, the critical phase of new forest establishment. This part will be done in the Krakovo lowland oak forest, where in recent years the decline and mortality of Q. robur has been regularly reported. Therefore, evaluation and comparison of the growth variability of Q. robur and Q. petraea on this plot is critical for future projections of the distribution of the two oak species. Finally, the available equipment (eddy covariance tower) in the Krakovo oak forest and tree-ring data from this project will be used (1) to assess forest functioning in different environmental conditions and (2) to model future potential of tree growth and ecosystem carbon sequestration in endangered Q. robur lowland stands.
Figure. Project timeline.
Figure. The Krakovo lowland oak forest.
Contact:
dr. Jožica Gričar, jozica.gricar@gozdis.si
Slovenian Forestry Institute, Večna pot 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia