Since 1990 the investigations of quality of some components of nature environment were carried out on selected permanent plots in Protected Landscape Area Ponitrie focused on pollutant contents. The increased concentration of pollutants in precipitation from the top of the Vtacnik Mts. indicates firstly the effect of the nearby thermal power station, secondly documents an increased immission load on forest ecosystems in ridge positions of these mountains

Toxic effects of photochemical smog on ponderosa and Jeffrey pines in the San Bernardino Mountains were discovered in the 1950s. It was revealed that ozone is the main cause of foliar injury manifested as chlorotic mottle and premature needle senescence. Various morphological, physiological and biochemical alterations in the affected plants have been reported over a period of about 40 years of multidisciplinary research. Recently, the focus of research has shifted from studying the effects of ozone to multiple pollutant effects. Recent studies have indicated that the combination of ozone and nitrogen may alter biomass allocation in pines towards that of deciduous trees, accelerate litter accumulation and increase carbon sequestration rates in heavily polluted forests

The contribution summarizes outputs of annual measurements that were made in the eleven-year long period of observation (1991-2001). In this case, the liming had markedly positive effect on prosperity of spruce plantation up to now. The limed variants "surface" and "planting pit" show lower values of the total mortality than the control variant. Furthemore, the mean value of the periodic annual increment of the trees of the control variant is clearly lower than the mean values of the variant "surface" and the variant "planting pit". According to soil analyses the above described forms of liming do not seem to induce any serious negative changes within soil in this case

Forest soil condition in Slovakia harmonised with the programme ICP Forests has been monitored since 1988. There are presented some results of the first complete survey for 111 observation plots and three sampling depths (overlaying humus layer, 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm layer of mineral soil). Geological and geochemical diversity has resulted in rather differentiated forest soil condition and soil properties in Slovakia. That has strong effect on sensitivity to soil acidification as well as it brings other risks of air pollution impact

The spectral reflectance curves give important information about investigated objects. High-resolution laboratory spectroradiometric measurements were used to investigate the spectral reflectance properties of spruce twigs with various foliage loss. The spectral reflectance was measured in the range from 400 nm to 1100 nm wavelength with 2 nm spectral sampling interval. Measurements of spectral reflectance were obtained using a LI-COR spectroradiometer LI-1800 equipped with standard 1/2 mm monochromator exit slit measuring 6 nm bandwidth and its external integrating sphere covered with barium sulphate inside

A FORest Monitoring System (FORMS) has been implemented in Denmark in order to gain and deliver knowledge and information for operational and strategic decisions concerning nature and environment. FORMS integrate four national monitoring programmes. Forest condition monitoring is performed on 52 permanent plots distributed on a 16 x 16 km grid. FORMS gives a systematic and representative assessment of the resources in and development of the forests in Denmark, includes the monitoring of important processes in the forest ecosystem and follows the use of forest for recreational purposes

The terrestrial moss Hypnum cupressiforme was collected in the surroundings of oil plant Slovnaft (Slovakia) and oil industry in Ploiesti (Romania) to monitor heavy metal atmospheric deposition. A comparative evaluation of heavy metal atmospheric deposition recorded at the two locations versus a background area in Europe as Norway is presented. The highest concentrations were observed for V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni and As at Ploiesti and for V, Cr, Fe, Co, and Ag at Slovnaft. This moss is very useful as biomonitoring organism to indicate and characterize deposition of atmospheric pollutants nearby oil plants

A long-term effect of heavy metal pollution originating from Copper Smelter and Refinery Division Glogow on a Scots pine stand was carried out in the protective zone surrounding the smelting/refining plant. The effect of enhanced Cu, Pb and Zn availability on the structure of ectomycorrhizal communities was assessed above- and below-ground among several subplots dominated by Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Three different approaches were performed: sporocarp inventories, morphological analysis of ectomycorrhizal roots and molecular techniques based on PCR-RFLP method. Only a few sporocarps of ectomycorrhizal species were observed

The mosses Pleurozium schreberi, Hylocomium splendes and Dicranum scoparium were used as biomonitors to study the atmospheric deposition of heavy metals on the territory of Slovakia. The samples of mosses were collected on 86 permanent plots. Comparison with limit values from Norway shows strong pollution of the examined areas of Slovakia with many different heavy metals. The maximum level of pollution by heavy metals was observed in the region Gemer-Spis. The most important feature of sampling is that it correlates with the European Moss-Survey-2000 and the results obtained will be incorporated in the Atlas of Heavy Metal Atmospheric Deposition in Europe

Selected parameters of the nutrients cycling process for forest ecosystem were investigated in period 1989-2000 at Prednji Vrh in the area affected by the Sostanj thermal power station. In the year 1995 desulphurization of exhaust gases from the TPP Sostanj caused considerable reduction of SO2 emission. We could not find serious tree-ring width decline in spruce. In the year 1956 and 1978 tree-ring widths rapidly declined. In the year 1995 slight icrement recovery could be observed. One probably climatically (drought) induced pointer year (1992) occurred