Abstract
Summary During the research, we studied the soil conditions in Zala County's forests and examined the effect on the growth of beech forests on these conditions. Data of National Forest Data Base (NFDB) were analysed for investigation. Most of the forests in Zala County are situated less than 150 m above sea level, their location and topography is very diverse. In most of the forests the groundwater level is deeply beneath the surface so the forests can utilize only the amount of precipitation. In accordance with the geological and climatic conditions, Luvisols were formed predominantly, especially the clayic Luvisols and the gleyic Luvisols are the most typical. In addition, there are still Cambisols and stagnic Luvisols as well. In a small percentage, there are forest stands on rendzinic Leptosols, Vertisol, Regosol and Histosol. According to the favourable parent material, forests have got a deep or medium thickness of soil and the typical texture is loam. Based on the research, soil layer thickness and texture had significant impact on the growth of beech forest stands in terms of soil properties.
Highlights
The growth of plants is basically determined by site factors, especially for forests
With regard to soil characteristics, principal components analysis (PCA) results showed that topsoil layer thickness is a more important property than soil texture (Table 1)
In Zala County, growth is mainly influenced by topsoil layer thickness and texture of the soil and climatic conditions
Summary
The growth of plants is basically determined by site factors, especially for forests. Some of the site factors are in constant change. Much of these changes are small, so natural or near-natural forest ecosystems can adapt to external changes. Site condition changes have accelerated due to anthropogenic effects, so forest ecosystems need to adapt. Due to favourable site conditions and contiguous loess bedrock, some of the most productive forest stands of Hungary are located in this region. Some stand-forming tree species – especially beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) – are very sensitive to changes in the environment, so their future survival highly depends on climatic conditions (SOMOGYI, 2015)
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