Abstract
This paper describes a permanent research platform (PRP) designed and implemented in “Codrul secular Slătioara” and its surroundings (2205.85 ha), having also the role of introductory paper for future research articles based on data collected from this platform. “Codrul secular Slătioara” is known as one of the largest temperate mountainous intact forests of Europe and, in 2017, it was included in UNESCO World Heritage List, as part of the “Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe”. Moreover, the PRP overlaps other three scientific reserves, the share of strictly protected forests exceeding 70%. This platform has a multiple role, being developed for research, conservation and educational activities. The PRP was designed for an ecological analysis of the intact forest ecosystems. It contains 193 circular sample plots, each of them of 500 m2, and it is structured on two levels. The first level contains 58 sample plots corresponding to a square grid of 500 × 500 m, stretching over the entire forested area, and the second level contains 135 plots, placed according to a square grid of 100 × 100 m, covering 136 ha within the core area of the UNESCO site. We measured the characteristics of 8296 living trees, 1743 standing dead trees, 1900 dead wood trunks, 3214 saplings, and the abundance–dominance indices of flora species. Thus, we identified 14 tree species, 17 shrub species, and 248 other cormophyte species forming the herbaceous layer. In terms of volume, the main tree species are Norway spruce, silver fir and European beech. The tallest species are Norway spruce (56 m) and silver fir (51 m). The average volume of living trees is 659 m3·ha−1, with a maximum of 1441 m3·ha−1. The mean total dead wood volume is about 158 m3·ha−1, with sample plots where the total dead wood volume exceeds 600 m3·ha−1. After presenting the results of preliminary data processing, the paper describes the main research topics to be further considered, based on the PRP, and the foresights related to the PRP’s monitoring and development.
Highlights
Studying forest biodiversity and ecosystem services developed in the last decades but, despite their major role at local, regional, and global scale, little attention has been paid for the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning [16,17]
The need of a permanent research platform (PRP) within intact forests and especially in SNR-S resulted from several causes: 1
Slătioara Nature Reserve is well preserved and these intact forest stands are known as resistant to natural disturbances; long term studies have never been conducted till in Romanian intact forests, based on successive inventories and intensive monitoring; the mixed temperate intact forests need extensive studies in terms of ecosystem functioning, to identify management patterns worth being applied to similar second-growth and cultivated forests; a wide range of forest ecosystem services provided by this forest need to be better understood through long term assessments; and real time identification of causes potentially affecting intact forest ecosystems in a rapidly changing climate
Summary
A holistic understanding on how the ecological processes take place in nature is essential to the achievement of many economic and social goals of the mankind [9], and for nature conservation through a sustainable management of renewable resources [8,10]. Through their biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential, along with oceans, the world’s forests represent some of the most important ecosystems on Earth [11,12]. It became almost a certainty that diverse forests bring more ecological [18] and socio-economic [16,19,20] benefits than those with low diversity
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