Norway spurce (Picea abies L.) is the dominating tree species in the Silesian Beskid Mountains. The mountain forests are under severe climatic conditions, such as low temperatures, short growing season, strong winds, high annual precipitation, a long-time snow cover. The forests have been exposed also for about half century to gaseous and dust pollutants emitted by large industrial centres in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. Anthropogenic impacts may influence negatively the growth of tree fine roots, can develop ectomycorrhizas and alter the communities of ectomycorrhizal fungi and other microorganisms in soil. Ectomycorrhizal communities at the both forest sites were dominated by the same two morphotypes, which were further studied using the PCP-RFLP analysis for identification of the fungal species

International audience | Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is an important yield limiting factor for sunflower production. The correlation between yield components and growth parameters of three sunflower hybrids (Hysun-33, Hysun-38, Pioneer-64A93) were studied with five N rates (0, 60, 120, 180, 240 kg ha−1) at three different experimental sites during the two consecutive growing seasons 2008 and 2009. The results revealed that total dry matter (TDM) production and grain yield were positively and linearly associated with leaf area index (LAI), leaf area duration (LAD), and crop growth rate (CGR) at all three sites of the experiments. The significant association of yield with growth components indicated that the humid climate was most suitable for sunflower production. Furthermore, the association of these components can be successfully used to predict the grain yield under diverse climatic conditions. The application of N at increased rate of 180 kg ha−1 resulted in maximum yield as compared to standard rate (120 kg ha−1) at all the experimental sites. In this way, N application rate was significantly correlated with growth and development of sunflower under a variety of climatic conditions. Keeping in view such relationship, the N dose can be optimized for sunflower crop in a particular region to maximize the productivity. Multilocation trails help to predict the input rates precisely while taking climatic variations into account also. In the long run, results of this study provides basis for sustainable sunflower production under changing climate.