ABSTRACT The chestnut massive of Tropoja district is one among the biggest massifs in the Balkan ... more ABSTRACT The chestnut massive of Tropoja district is one among the biggest massifs in the Balkan region with a total surface of 2408.5 ha. It covers the city of Bajram Curri that is located between the Alps of Albania. Unmanaged chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill) forests that exposed to diseases, infestations, and abiotic stress since 1960 to 1980 were considered for the sustainability in Tropoja District of North Albania, Europe. During the year 1981 permanent plots of 2.1ha of 10 numbers were established in two regions of Gashi and Krasniqe. Forest conditions (existing) recorded-number of chestnut trees, number of chestnut sprouts/saplings, observable diseases and infestations like blight disease (causal agent Cryphonectria parasitica), ink disease (causal agent Phytophthora cinnamomi) and yellow mistletoe. Of the ten plots, five plots were taken as control for the studies as coppice stands after removal of old and abandoned chestnut trees (of 90%) at an av. of 142-143 trees/ha, in the year 1982 at av. of 110 trees/ha and up till 2002 at av. 17-18 trees/ha were allowed for simple coppices then transformed into orchards from 2003 to 2008. Thus, maintained plots were ready for harvest in the beginning of the year 2013. The project has shown increased quality of timbers apart from eight-fold increase in growth and yield. As per the records in the year 1982 av. 4025 sprouts/ha were allowed. Simple coppice maintenance with relative rotation time of every five years, at 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998 were done to record and observe the improvement of health of trees, by grafting and stimulation of crowns. As wise agrosilvicultural practices, thinning at every five years removed about 50% sprouts/ha by razor cutting for the benefits of fruit yielding. Reduced number of sprouts accounted av. 4025 to av. 1005 and further reduced to av. 225 trees/ha. The principal aim to convert simple coppice into orchards by removal of young trees that were unimportant in terms of fruit yield and timber growth. The chestnut trees were harvested during the beginning of year 2013 and the estimated trees/ha is av. 255 to av. 127-128 trees/ha, through the wise agroforestry practices. Planting of new orchards were carried out cover 50 ha higher than in the year 1981. At the same time was necessary to estimate the energy potential from biomass residues from chestnut and other cultures, and animal wastes, and to increase farm income.
ABSTRACT The Tropoja District of northern Albania has many mature chestnut forests that were left... more ABSTRACT The Tropoja District of northern Albania has many mature chestnut forests that were left without management from 1960 to 1980. In 1981, ten 2.1 ha permanent plots were established in two regions (Gashi and Krasniqe). These plots were surveyed, the number of chestnut trees and sprouts recorded, and the condition of the trees noted. The trees had suffered from chestnut blight disease (caused by Cryphonectria parasitica), ink disease (caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi), infestation by yellow mistletoe, and by severe abiotic stress. In 1982, five plots were converted first to coppice stands (1982 to 2002) and then into orchards (2003 to 2008), and five plots were left as controls. A final step of tree removal will be done in 2013. This project has greatly increased the quality of the timber produced by these stands and increased nut production by nearly eight fold. In the 1982 the conversion, 90 % (135-150 trees/ha) of the old and abandoned chestnut trees were removed.. From the mature chestnut forest, 150-170 trees/ha were removed to leave a simple coppice with 15-20 chestnut trees/ha. In the end of first stage, on 1982 the release of inventory there were from 3800 to 4250 sprouts/ha. The second, third, four, five stages were a simple coppice with relative brief rotation time, accomplished at interval 5 years, during 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998 by aim of improvement of health status, grafting and stimulation of growing of chestnut crowns. In every stage 50 % of sprouts/ha were removed by razed full cutting, by means of agro-silvicultural treatments by fruit tree thinning, by razed full cutting. Number of sprouts has passed from 3800-4250 to 950-1060. The six and seven stages were a simple coppice with relative brief rotation time, accomplished at interval 5 years, during 2003 and 2008. In every stage 50 % of sprouts/ha were removed by razed full cutting. Number of trees has passed from 950-1060 to 240-270. Through stages was reached the principal aim, converting it from simple coppice into orchard. By these stages all of young trees, that were out of production, non good varieties as fruit and as wood, by low level of amidon into the fruit, all fruit trees by the thick membrane into the pulp of fruit were removed. The eight stage will be on 2013, and the number of chestnut trees will be from 240-270 to 120-135 per ha.
Primary forests are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Despite these... more Primary forests are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Despite these losses, we know little about where such forests still occur. Here, we present an updated geodatabase and map of Europe’s known primary forests. Our geodatabase harmonizes 48 different datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. When available, we provide information on each patch (name, location, naturalness, extent and dominant tree species) and the surrounding landscape (biogeographical regions, protection status, potential natural vegetation, current forest extent). To assess the robustness of our geodatabase, we checked each patch for forest disturbance events using Landsat satellite-image time series (1985-2018). We estimate that 94% of the patches in our database did not experience significant disturbances that would alter their primary forest status in the last 30 year. Our database is the most comprehensive dataset o...
AIMS We examined differences in lifespan among the dominant tree species (spruce (Picea abies (L.... more AIMS We examined differences in lifespan among the dominant tree species (spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), fir (Abies alba Mill.), beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), and maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.)) across primary mountain forests of Europe. We ask how disturbance history, lifetime growth patterns, and environmental factors influence lifespan. LOCATIONS Balkan mountains, Carpathian mountains, Dinaric mountains. METHODS Annual ring widths from 20,600 cores from primary forests were used to estimate tree life spans, growth trends, and disturbance history metrics. Mixed models were used to examine species-specific differences in lifespan (i.e. defined as species-specific 90th percentiles of age distributions), and how metrics of radial growth, disturbance parameters, and selected environmental factors influence lifespan. RESULTS While only a few beech trees surpassed 500 years, individuals of all four species were older than 400 years. There were significant differences in lifespan amo...
964 young pines (Pinus heldreichii, Pinus peuce, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus uncinata) sampled as poi... more 964 young pines (Pinus heldreichii, Pinus peuce, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus uncinata) sampled as points at nine Mediterranean anthropogenic treelines
The European Primary Forest Database is a curated collection of (sub)-national and regional datas... more The European Primary Forest Database is a curated collection of (sub)-national and regional datasets on the distribution of primary forests in Europe. It contains geographical (GIS) data (point, polygons) on the location and boundaries of documented primary and old-growth forests in Europe<br>
This paper deals with the response of silver fir ( Abies alba Mill.) growth to climate, mainly dr... more This paper deals with the response of silver fir ( Abies alba Mill.) growth to climate, mainly drought, presenting data from southern Kosovo, for which only little information is available. Two cores from 55 dominant trees were extracted at two sites representing the limits of the natural distribution of silver fir. We built 80- and 112-year-long chronologies for each site. Comparison of both ring width chronologies showed that they were diverse. Pointer year analysis indicated that high spring temperatures and ample rainfall (1082Â mm) influenced positively silver fir growth (wide ring), while low spring temperatures and scarce precipitation had an inverse effect. Bootstrapped response functions confirmed that April and May temperatures of the current growth year influenced positively silver fir growth at the low-elevation site, while the July precipitation of the previous growth year had a negative influence. At the high-elevation site, warm previous December temperatures had a pos...
The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are... more The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are well-established theoretically, but remain challenging to quantify empirically. Such quantification will greatly improve the assessment and prediction of changes in terrestrial carbon sequestration in response to dynamically induced climatic extremes. The jet stream latitude (JSL) over the North Atlantic-European domain provides a synthetic and robust physical framework that integrates climate variability not accounted for by atmospheric circulation patterns alone. Surface climate impacts of north-south summer JSL displacements are not uniform across Europe, but rather create a northwestern-southeastern dipole in forest productivity and radial-growth anomalies. Summer JSL variability over the eastern North Atlantic-European domain (5-40E) exerts the strongest impact on European beech, inducing anomalies of up to 30% in modelled gross primary productivity and 50% in radial tree growth. T...
The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are... more The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are well-established theoretically, but remain challenging to quantify empirically. Such quantification will greatly improve the assessment and prediction of changes in terrestrial carbon sequestration in response to dynamically induced climatic extremes. The jet stream latitude (JSL) over the North Atlantic-European domain provides a synthetic and robust physical framework that integrates climate variability not accounted for by atmospheric circulation patterns alone. Surface climate impacts of north-south summer JSL displacements are not uniform across Europe, but rather create a northwestern-southeastern dipole in forest productivity and radial-growth anomalies. Summer JSL variability over the eastern North Atlantic-European domain (5-40E) exerts the strongest impact on European beech, inducing anomalies of up to 30% in modelled gross primary productivity and 50% in radial tree growth. T...
The first regional chronology of black pine ( Pinus nigra Arnold) from Albania, its response to c... more The first regional chronology of black pine ( Pinus nigra Arnold) from Albania, its response to climate and a 428-year long reconstruction of June–July temperatures for the 1583–2010 period are presented. Samples were collected at five locations from the north to the south of Albania. We constructed a 552-year long Pinus nigra chronology with sufficient sample depth for potential climate reconstruction from 1583 to 2010 (428 years). Response to precipitation was significant only for July of the current year (0.23), while a clear temperature response to the May–August period was identified, with July having by far the highest correlation (−0.47). When combined, June–July temperatures had the highest correlation of all tested combinations ( r = −0.63), explaining almost 40% of the tree-ring width variability. The test of the climate signal temporal stability using a 31-year running correlation highlighted the very stable relationship between tree-ring indices and June–July temperature...
As a sediment production mechanism, soil erosion is the main environmental threat to the Bovilla ... more As a sediment production mechanism, soil erosion is the main environmental threat to the Bovilla watershed, including the decline of water quality of the Bovilla reservoir that provides drinking water to Tirana city (the capital of Albania). Therefore, an experiment with 25 erosion plots for soil erosion monitoring has been set up since June 2017. The aim was to determine the soil loss on plot and watershed scale in Bovilla watershed (Tirana region) for implementation of soil and water protection measures or payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs. The results of erosion monitoring for the period June 2017 May 2018 showed that the highest values of surface runoff were noted in bare land of 38829.91 liters on slope of 74% and the lowest values in forest land of 12840.6 liters on slope of 64% while the highest values of soil loss were found in bare land of 595.15 t/ha on slope of 62% and lowest values in forest land of 18.99 t/ha on slope of 64%. These values are much higher th...
The purpose of this study was the identification of the dominant temporal and spatial patterns of... more The purpose of this study was the identification of the dominant temporal and spatial patterns of P.heldreichii growth due to climate from three high elevation sites in Kosovo. Bootstrap correlation analysis, forward evolutionary analysis were used to study the temporal and spatial patterns of climate-growth relationship. P.heldreichii chronologies have a length from 175 to 541 years and a greater similarity along the latitudinal gradient. Growth climate relationship pointed out that P.heldreichii growth vary due to the combined effect of summer precipitation with winter temperature providing a better understanding of this response at spatial and temporal scales. Future research focused on the analysis and integration of P.heldreichii growth along latitudinal and longitudinal gradients, as well as on the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature and precipitation records will improve the knowledge of long-term climate fluctuations during the last century in Kosovo.
ABSTRACT The chestnut massive of Tropoja district is one among the biggest massifs in the Balkan ... more ABSTRACT The chestnut massive of Tropoja district is one among the biggest massifs in the Balkan region with a total surface of 2408.5 ha. It covers the city of Bajram Curri that is located between the Alps of Albania. Unmanaged chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill) forests that exposed to diseases, infestations, and abiotic stress since 1960 to 1980 were considered for the sustainability in Tropoja District of North Albania, Europe. During the year 1981 permanent plots of 2.1ha of 10 numbers were established in two regions of Gashi and Krasniqe. Forest conditions (existing) recorded-number of chestnut trees, number of chestnut sprouts/saplings, observable diseases and infestations like blight disease (causal agent Cryphonectria parasitica), ink disease (causal agent Phytophthora cinnamomi) and yellow mistletoe. Of the ten plots, five plots were taken as control for the studies as coppice stands after removal of old and abandoned chestnut trees (of 90%) at an av. of 142-143 trees/ha, in the year 1982 at av. of 110 trees/ha and up till 2002 at av. 17-18 trees/ha were allowed for simple coppices then transformed into orchards from 2003 to 2008. Thus, maintained plots were ready for harvest in the beginning of the year 2013. The project has shown increased quality of timbers apart from eight-fold increase in growth and yield. As per the records in the year 1982 av. 4025 sprouts/ha were allowed. Simple coppice maintenance with relative rotation time of every five years, at 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998 were done to record and observe the improvement of health of trees, by grafting and stimulation of crowns. As wise agrosilvicultural practices, thinning at every five years removed about 50% sprouts/ha by razor cutting for the benefits of fruit yielding. Reduced number of sprouts accounted av. 4025 to av. 1005 and further reduced to av. 225 trees/ha. The principal aim to convert simple coppice into orchards by removal of young trees that were unimportant in terms of fruit yield and timber growth. The chestnut trees were harvested during the beginning of year 2013 and the estimated trees/ha is av. 255 to av. 127-128 trees/ha, through the wise agroforestry practices. Planting of new orchards were carried out cover 50 ha higher than in the year 1981. At the same time was necessary to estimate the energy potential from biomass residues from chestnut and other cultures, and animal wastes, and to increase farm income.
ABSTRACT The Tropoja District of northern Albania has many mature chestnut forests that were left... more ABSTRACT The Tropoja District of northern Albania has many mature chestnut forests that were left without management from 1960 to 1980. In 1981, ten 2.1 ha permanent plots were established in two regions (Gashi and Krasniqe). These plots were surveyed, the number of chestnut trees and sprouts recorded, and the condition of the trees noted. The trees had suffered from chestnut blight disease (caused by Cryphonectria parasitica), ink disease (caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi), infestation by yellow mistletoe, and by severe abiotic stress. In 1982, five plots were converted first to coppice stands (1982 to 2002) and then into orchards (2003 to 2008), and five plots were left as controls. A final step of tree removal will be done in 2013. This project has greatly increased the quality of the timber produced by these stands and increased nut production by nearly eight fold. In the 1982 the conversion, 90 % (135-150 trees/ha) of the old and abandoned chestnut trees were removed.. From the mature chestnut forest, 150-170 trees/ha were removed to leave a simple coppice with 15-20 chestnut trees/ha. In the end of first stage, on 1982 the release of inventory there were from 3800 to 4250 sprouts/ha. The second, third, four, five stages were a simple coppice with relative brief rotation time, accomplished at interval 5 years, during 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998 by aim of improvement of health status, grafting and stimulation of growing of chestnut crowns. In every stage 50 % of sprouts/ha were removed by razed full cutting, by means of agro-silvicultural treatments by fruit tree thinning, by razed full cutting. Number of sprouts has passed from 3800-4250 to 950-1060. The six and seven stages were a simple coppice with relative brief rotation time, accomplished at interval 5 years, during 2003 and 2008. In every stage 50 % of sprouts/ha were removed by razed full cutting. Number of trees has passed from 950-1060 to 240-270. Through stages was reached the principal aim, converting it from simple coppice into orchard. By these stages all of young trees, that were out of production, non good varieties as fruit and as wood, by low level of amidon into the fruit, all fruit trees by the thick membrane into the pulp of fruit were removed. The eight stage will be on 2013, and the number of chestnut trees will be from 240-270 to 120-135 per ha.
Primary forests are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Despite these... more Primary forests are scarce in Europe and continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Despite these losses, we know little about where such forests still occur. Here, we present an updated geodatabase and map of Europe’s known primary forests. Our geodatabase harmonizes 48 different datasets of primary forests, and contains 18,411 individual patches (41.1 Mha) spread across 33 countries. When available, we provide information on each patch (name, location, naturalness, extent and dominant tree species) and the surrounding landscape (biogeographical regions, protection status, potential natural vegetation, current forest extent). To assess the robustness of our geodatabase, we checked each patch for forest disturbance events using Landsat satellite-image time series (1985-2018). We estimate that 94% of the patches in our database did not experience significant disturbances that would alter their primary forest status in the last 30 year. Our database is the most comprehensive dataset o...
AIMS We examined differences in lifespan among the dominant tree species (spruce (Picea abies (L.... more AIMS We examined differences in lifespan among the dominant tree species (spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), fir (Abies alba Mill.), beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), and maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.)) across primary mountain forests of Europe. We ask how disturbance history, lifetime growth patterns, and environmental factors influence lifespan. LOCATIONS Balkan mountains, Carpathian mountains, Dinaric mountains. METHODS Annual ring widths from 20,600 cores from primary forests were used to estimate tree life spans, growth trends, and disturbance history metrics. Mixed models were used to examine species-specific differences in lifespan (i.e. defined as species-specific 90th percentiles of age distributions), and how metrics of radial growth, disturbance parameters, and selected environmental factors influence lifespan. RESULTS While only a few beech trees surpassed 500 years, individuals of all four species were older than 400 years. There were significant differences in lifespan amo...
964 young pines (Pinus heldreichii, Pinus peuce, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus uncinata) sampled as poi... more 964 young pines (Pinus heldreichii, Pinus peuce, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus uncinata) sampled as points at nine Mediterranean anthropogenic treelines
The European Primary Forest Database is a curated collection of (sub)-national and regional datas... more The European Primary Forest Database is a curated collection of (sub)-national and regional datasets on the distribution of primary forests in Europe. It contains geographical (GIS) data (point, polygons) on the location and boundaries of documented primary and old-growth forests in Europe<br>
This paper deals with the response of silver fir ( Abies alba Mill.) growth to climate, mainly dr... more This paper deals with the response of silver fir ( Abies alba Mill.) growth to climate, mainly drought, presenting data from southern Kosovo, for which only little information is available. Two cores from 55 dominant trees were extracted at two sites representing the limits of the natural distribution of silver fir. We built 80- and 112-year-long chronologies for each site. Comparison of both ring width chronologies showed that they were diverse. Pointer year analysis indicated that high spring temperatures and ample rainfall (1082Â mm) influenced positively silver fir growth (wide ring), while low spring temperatures and scarce precipitation had an inverse effect. Bootstrapped response functions confirmed that April and May temperatures of the current growth year influenced positively silver fir growth at the low-elevation site, while the July precipitation of the previous growth year had a negative influence. At the high-elevation site, warm previous December temperatures had a pos...
The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are... more The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are well-established theoretically, but remain challenging to quantify empirically. Such quantification will greatly improve the assessment and prediction of changes in terrestrial carbon sequestration in response to dynamically induced climatic extremes. The jet stream latitude (JSL) over the North Atlantic-European domain provides a synthetic and robust physical framework that integrates climate variability not accounted for by atmospheric circulation patterns alone. Surface climate impacts of north-south summer JSL displacements are not uniform across Europe, but rather create a northwestern-southeastern dipole in forest productivity and radial-growth anomalies. Summer JSL variability over the eastern North Atlantic-European domain (5-40E) exerts the strongest impact on European beech, inducing anomalies of up to 30% in modelled gross primary productivity and 50% in radial tree growth. T...
The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are... more The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are well-established theoretically, but remain challenging to quantify empirically. Such quantification will greatly improve the assessment and prediction of changes in terrestrial carbon sequestration in response to dynamically induced climatic extremes. The jet stream latitude (JSL) over the North Atlantic-European domain provides a synthetic and robust physical framework that integrates climate variability not accounted for by atmospheric circulation patterns alone. Surface climate impacts of north-south summer JSL displacements are not uniform across Europe, but rather create a northwestern-southeastern dipole in forest productivity and radial-growth anomalies. Summer JSL variability over the eastern North Atlantic-European domain (5-40E) exerts the strongest impact on European beech, inducing anomalies of up to 30% in modelled gross primary productivity and 50% in radial tree growth. T...
The first regional chronology of black pine ( Pinus nigra Arnold) from Albania, its response to c... more The first regional chronology of black pine ( Pinus nigra Arnold) from Albania, its response to climate and a 428-year long reconstruction of June–July temperatures for the 1583–2010 period are presented. Samples were collected at five locations from the north to the south of Albania. We constructed a 552-year long Pinus nigra chronology with sufficient sample depth for potential climate reconstruction from 1583 to 2010 (428 years). Response to precipitation was significant only for July of the current year (0.23), while a clear temperature response to the May–August period was identified, with July having by far the highest correlation (−0.47). When combined, June–July temperatures had the highest correlation of all tested combinations ( r = −0.63), explaining almost 40% of the tree-ring width variability. The test of the climate signal temporal stability using a 31-year running correlation highlighted the very stable relationship between tree-ring indices and June–July temperature...
As a sediment production mechanism, soil erosion is the main environmental threat to the Bovilla ... more As a sediment production mechanism, soil erosion is the main environmental threat to the Bovilla watershed, including the decline of water quality of the Bovilla reservoir that provides drinking water to Tirana city (the capital of Albania). Therefore, an experiment with 25 erosion plots for soil erosion monitoring has been set up since June 2017. The aim was to determine the soil loss on plot and watershed scale in Bovilla watershed (Tirana region) for implementation of soil and water protection measures or payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs. The results of erosion monitoring for the period June 2017 May 2018 showed that the highest values of surface runoff were noted in bare land of 38829.91 liters on slope of 74% and the lowest values in forest land of 12840.6 liters on slope of 64% while the highest values of soil loss were found in bare land of 595.15 t/ha on slope of 62% and lowest values in forest land of 18.99 t/ha on slope of 64%. These values are much higher th...
The purpose of this study was the identification of the dominant temporal and spatial patterns of... more The purpose of this study was the identification of the dominant temporal and spatial patterns of P.heldreichii growth due to climate from three high elevation sites in Kosovo. Bootstrap correlation analysis, forward evolutionary analysis were used to study the temporal and spatial patterns of climate-growth relationship. P.heldreichii chronologies have a length from 175 to 541 years and a greater similarity along the latitudinal gradient. Growth climate relationship pointed out that P.heldreichii growth vary due to the combined effect of summer precipitation with winter temperature providing a better understanding of this response at spatial and temporal scales. Future research focused on the analysis and integration of P.heldreichii growth along latitudinal and longitudinal gradients, as well as on the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature and precipitation records will improve the knowledge of long-term climate fluctuations during the last century in Kosovo.
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Papers by Elvin Toromani