Quarter of a century of forest fertilization and liming research at the Department of Silviculture in Prague, Czech Republic

Josef Gallo,Zdeněk Vacek,Stanislav Vacek

doi:10.2478/forj-2021-0009

Josef Gallo, Zdeněk Vacek + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2478/forj-2021-0009

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Abstract

Abstract Fertilization and liming began to be used in forestry at the beginning of the 20th century in order to increase growth, for improvement of health status or higher resistance to biotic and abiotic factors. The review summarizes results of 48 studies of forest fertilization, nutrition and liming published in scientific journals by authors of Department of Silviculture in Prague over the past more than 20 years. They deal mainly with monitoring of the effect of fertilization and liming applied during planting or shortly after planting of 18 tree species. Moreover, the results of fertilization in older stands are presented. Separate chapters deal with enhancing substrates (soil conditioners and phytohormones). All forest vegetation ranges are covered, from lowland forests to the subalpine belt of grass vegetation in 11 Natural Forest Areas. Forest fertilizing and liming proved beneficial according to most of the studies. The use of fertilizers can be detected in soils after decades. On the other hand, only in a minority of cases was fertilization reflected in the chemistry of the assimilation apparatus and other parts of the trees for a longer period. The main positive effect of fertilization and liming was increase of tree growth and foliation and decrease of mortality and yellowing symptoms. Inconsistent results were documented in some cases, especially for brassinosteroids and alginite compared to good results in slow release fertilizer done by spot-application. The type of product, concentration, time and method of application play an important role in the appropriate use of fertilization and liming.

Highlights

Forests respond slowly to management activities and the possibilities to increase the growth in a short-term perspective and meet swift increases in society demand for timber are small (Hedwall et al 2014)
At the same time, increased demands for timber and forest products can be expected as a result of current policies and climate change mitigations (Marland & Obersteiner 2008; Daioglou et al 2019; Vacek et al 2021)
In terms of policy instruments, increased afforestation, biomass production and the associated carbon sequestration play an important role in climate change adaptation strategies (Cukor et al 2017b; Law et al 2018; Podrázský et al 2020; Smith et al 2020)

Summary

Introduction

Forests respond slowly to management activities and the possibilities to increase the growth in a short-term perspective and meet swift increases in society demand for timber are small (Hedwall et al 2014). In terms of policy instruments, increased afforestation, biomass production and the associated carbon sequestration play an important role in climate change adaptation strategies (Cukor et al 2017b; Law et al 2018; Podrázský et al 2020; Smith et al 2020). All this can be positively affected by fertilization and liming of forest stands. This review shows most important studies in terms of fertilizing and liming, just as it presents some alternatives of intensive care of emerging forest cultures and mature forest stands. The objective of this review was to summarize the main results of the studied research and to make recommendations and limits for forestry practices

Fertilizing in maturing stands and underplantings

Objective

Experiments with long-term fertilization of subalpine grasslands

Findings

Conclusion