Woodlands’ state
During the second year of the project, there will be estimated actual state of Białowieża Forest, based on the collected data about stands structure, collected simultaneously on ground monitoring surfaces and acquired with use of remote sensing techniques.
It will be a reference to the further running there monitoring, taking into account the natural regeneration processes and associated disorders (e.g., bark beetle Ips typographus gradations, Dutch elm disease, ash dieback). Defining the parameters of tree stand at the beginning of the project and subsequently two and four years later (such as: the part of the various species of trees, stock, dead wood amount, the structure of the current renewal) will define the current dynamics of Bialowieża Forest stands and dominant trends.
The study of the age structure in selected stands allows to verify information on the history Bialowieża Forest’s development and reconstruct the old disorder. In combination with actual meteorological data and dendrometric also offer the possibility of reconstruction dendroclimatic. The combination of structured data, dendrochronological, meteorological and dendrometric enables attempt to define the condition of the population and the adaptive potential of the different species of trees.
Remote sensing data will be used in this task in two ways - firstly, it will be used to correlate with the results of the analysis on the sample surface, what will make possible to determine stock, structure or short circuit. What is more, remotely sensed data will be used for independent analysis of species composition and coverage gaps. This way will be estimated for the whole Bialowieża Forest area, a number of characteristics, which are important for monitoring stands.
- Defining the parameters of tree stand at the beginning of the project:
- species structure: the part of single trees contribution (in percent and by the score);
- stock (m3/ha);
- thickness (a number of trees) declining (m3/ha-1/rok-1) with their structure (species, dimensions);
- dead trees thickness (in categories: dead trees standing, dead trees lying) (m3/ha);
- actual renewal structure (%).
- Determination of the age structure of selected stands, expressed in two ways: through reconstruction years germination (in order to determine the possible waves of renewal in the past) and age class various species of trees.
- Determination of the climatic conditions in the Bialowieża Forest in the 1st year of the project, including, inter alia following parameters:
- average temperature: annual, July January last five years;
- average precipitation: Annual, the last five years;
- Whole forest maps, elaborated basing on remote sensing data, int. al.: stock, species composition, structure, gaps.