The dendrometric characteristics of oak woods in rural landscapes of the East Carpathians

Abstract

The dendrometric characteristics are functions of tree age and ecological growth conditions. On relatively small areas of homogeneous sites, the stand age structure and the phytosocial interaction between the trees are the major factors influencing the stand characteristics. We hypothesise that the correlation between the basic dendrometric variables and tree age can be used as a yardstick discriminating silvopastoral oak woods from silvicultural stands managed for timber. The tree age, diameter at breast height (DBH), and height (H) were determined in 14 silvopastoral oak woods in the East Carpathian region, which were compared to the respective forest inventory data of 31 silvicultural oak stands. The correlation between DBH, H and their ratio – the slenderness index (si) and age of oaks – were very weak and insignificant compared to the conspicuous age effect on the dendrometric features in the forestry-grown stands, which can be explained by a more complex development dynamics and spatial structure of silvopastoral woods. The study implies that the habitat conditions and processes related to traditional husbandry are better harmonised with the intrinsic oak ecological adaptations than modern silvicultural treatments. Therefore, we advise to promote the revival of silvopastoralism in the Carpathian region as a cost-efficient way of perpetuating the rural ‘oakscape’, an outstanding bio-cultural landscape asset. Keywords: slenderness index, height-diameter, oak, cultural landscape, agroforestry, cattle grazing, wood-pastures