The energy poplar plantations are in expansion in the north-eastern Romania, so the aim of our study was to investigate the influence of these plantations on avian diversity. We carried out bird counts in two experimental blocks of 10 ha, where semi-natural forest vegetation, pastures, poplar plantations and agricultural land live in similar surface areas. The bird richness and abundance are the highest in forest vegetation, followed by agricultural lands, pastures and poplar plantations; the last ones are used by birds only for foraging, not for nesting and breeding. The landscape parameter analysis reveals for now a high variability due to relatively small size patches with different land uses, with complex edges and adequate connectivity, offering proper conditions for diverse bird species. The trend of extending the agricultural monocultures (especially colza) and poplar plantations observed in the last years will have a negative impact on local bird communities. If this going to be the case, in order to soften this effect, it is advisable to avoid large areas with simple edges of poplar or agricultural plantations, to maintain the hedgerows alongside plantations and the areas with different land use to alternate in space.

The poplar (Populus spp.) plays an important role in worldwide forest economy, responding to the necessities of obtaining high biomass production in a short time. Short rotation forests (SRF) are developing continuously in Romania. Several studies have been undertaken to identify the clones with high productivity and suitable technologies. The aim of this study was to register the annual increments in diameter, height and volume in an experimental poplar crops with a short-term rotation of 5 years. The poplar cultures are composed from 6 types of hybrid poplar clones (AF2, AF6, Monviso, A4A, Pannonia and Max4) with a density of 2667 trees ha-1. The research results show a clear differentiation among clones’ increments. The highest increments were obtained with AF2 and AF6 clones in five years, with almost 0.038 m3 an-1. The lowest increment was observed for Max4 clone with 0.028 m3.

The purpose of this study was to determine the climatic variables (monthly and periodic) that are mostly related with the increase in basal area of silver fir, scots pine and larch from Semenic Mountains. The relationship between climate and trees radial growth was highlighted using dendroclimatological methods. By using periodic variables, in contrast to monthly varibles, a higher numer of statistical significant periods with an effect on auxological processes of the trees has been found. Compared to the use of monthly variables in the analysis, the periodicals climatic variables highlights many more statistically significant periods of the year that influencing auxological processes of the trees. Also, by using this type of analysis much higher values of the correlation coefficients have been obtained. Although most other dendroclimatological studies have used monthly values of climate variables to quantify the relationship between climate and trees growth in diameter, this study revealed that the analysis of correlation coefficients between the increase in the the tree basal area and periodic climate variables is the type of analysis that reflects most closely the relationship between the auxological processes of trees and climate variation.

The paper analyze the relationship between phenophase timming of different forest species and climate (large scale circulation expressed by NAO and the local climate expressed by temperatures), for 40 phenological time series between 1946-1965 and 1962-1971 from Romania. The dependencies of bud burst and flowering on temperatures were modelled also with the Dynamic Model and the Growing Degree Hours model, using the PLS regression, for two varieties (early, late) of Castanea sativa. The results indicated negative relationship with the NAO values for all the phenophases, the best covariable being the mean of the vaues for the first three winter months. The same relationship was with the temperatures, the combined delay for all the phenophases being 1.3 days/oC, with differences between phenophases (2.5 days/oC - bud burst, 2.3 days/oC - leafing and 2.1 days/oC leaf out). The growing season length increased with 5.5 days/oC. Among months, the best predictors were the mean values of April or of February-April, explaining about 55% of variability. The chilling requirements were identical between varieties (36.12±5.22 CP in bud burst and 18.29±5.92 CP in flowering), while differing in heating. Dependencies of the phenophases timming on the mean temperatures of the chiling/forcing periods indicated mixed effects of the two, excepting the bud burst of the early variety, which related only on the forcing mean temperatures.

The article uses the ecoprotective function effectiveness index (GEF) to identify how far the changes in the management practices in the last 20 years had an impact on the capacity of forest ecosystem to provide optimal functions. The study was carried out in Forest District Vama (Production Unit I Deia), Suceava County and employs an integrated methodology based on forest management plans, remote sensing tools and field inventory. The structural patterns of state and private forests have been compared in two periods (1990, 2014). The private forests integrated in the analysis have been restituted according to the law 18/1991 and have been for more than 20 years managed by the new forest owners. For the state forests, GEF was computed using structural characteristics of the stands obtained from the management plans. In the restituted forests, due to the lack of management plans, all the characteristics were obtained from field inventory. The study successfully identifies how the components of the index have changed and how this influenced the overall effectiveness of the ecoprotective functions. The changes in GEF index values in the state forests were influenced by natural evolution of the stands while in private forests by the anthropic and natural disturbances. For the state forests, the GEF index values showed a slight increase in 2014 comparatively to 1990. In the private forests the GEF index value for 2014 decreased with more than 5 points for more than one half of the area compared to 1990 (prior to forest restitution). The study argues the possibility to adapt the index as an efficient tool to assess such changes at a broader scale, as a decisional support in forest policy processes.