The main aims of the preparatory stands in air pollution areas are growth development, successfull dynamics of the plants and fast creation of the stand microclimate with favourable effect on soil conditions. This process is documented by height and diameter increment. The results confirm different growth dynamics of the particular species. Larch is the species with the best growth dynamics of selected species on experimental plots. On the other hand, beech is the worst species for reforestation in this condition. One of the causes could be damage by frost

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

Pollution problems in forest ecosystems resulting from 100 year long operation of three smelter complexes in Central Spis are reviewed. Original data are presented with respect to temporal and spatial trends of nitrogen, sulphur and heavy metal pollution, and elemental composition of individual aerosols on leaf surface. Spruce stands in Central Spis are loaded by pollutants 1.7 times more than are critical values and the highest concentrations of As, Fe, Hg, and N were found in this region. Low Tatra National Park was the cleanest region where no element maxima were found

Possibilities of the use of progressive methods in artificial regeneration of areas affected by air pollutants are namely modification of soil environment, active protection of planting stock against root desiccation, use of containerized planting stock for artificial regeneration of clearings, which resulted from air pollution

The present paper presents a list of probabilistic sampling procedures and subsequent statistical analysis, which may achieve this goal without a considerable increase of field effort

Forest ecosystems water balance research is very complicated because of forest influence upon individual components of the water balance. Global climate changes represent a real threat for forest ecosystems. In hydric area these changes concern especially thermal balance and resulting increased evapotranspiration, time and spatial distribution of precipitation

This case study confirms the role of air pollution impact on forest susceptibility to other abiotic and biotic detrimental factors. It is however very important to take into account numerous contributing factors in order to interpret or predict the degree of damage correctly

Black pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) was chosen as bioindication species for several reasons. Black pine stands are located throughout Istria, at various distances from the above mentioned power plant. Black pine does not shed needles in the autumn, thus prolonging their exposure to sulphur dioxide emissions. Also neeedles stay on branches for several years, giving us the possibility to analyse the effect on older needles

The chloroplast genome has been widely addressed to describe genetic diversity in tree species with regard to phylogeographic studies. In contrast, there is little information on the pattern of genetic differentiation in tolerant and sensitive tree populations, responding to different types of environmental stress. The results demonstrate that chloroplast microsatellites markers are useful tools for elucidating and for testing the pattern of genetic differentiation in stress-exposed populations of Norway spruce, offering to prove the feasibility of marker-aided selection in future