European silver fir – an alternative for the dying Norway spruce in Białowieża Forest?

Autorzy

• Aleh Marozau Białystok University of Technology, Institute of Forest Sciences, 17-200 Hajnówka, Piłsudskiego 1A, Poland,
  phone: +48 85 6829503, e-mail: a.marozau@pb.edu.pl
• Miłosz Mielcarek Forest Research Institute, Department of Geomatics, Sękocin Stary, Braci Leśnej 3, 05-090 Raszyn, Poland
• Grzegorz Krok Forest Research Institute, Department of Geomatics, Sękocin Stary, Braci Leśnej 3, 05-090 Raszyn, Poland
• Rafał Paluch Białystok University of Technology, Institute of Forest Sciences, 17-200 Hajnówka, Piłsudskiego 1A, Poland
  Forest Research Institute, Department of Natural Forests, Park Dyrekcyjny 6, 17-230 Białowieża, Poland
• Krzysztof Chiliński Białystok University of Technology, Institute of Forest Sciences, 17-200 Hajnówka, Piłsudskiego 1A, Poland

Abstract

The condition of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) in the Białowieża Forest is categorized as a crisis. It is believed that due to the cooling in the Holocene, the then-relict species of the forest, silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), disappeared from its ecosystems and then spruce appeared. Today’s climate change presents challenges to our civilization, including to forestry. However, there is no information at all about how this affected the silver fir in the Białowieża Forest. In the Polish part of the forest (subcompartment 498 Сi, Białowieża Forest District), for the first time a comprehensive study has been carried out on the condition of mature fir trees planted by man and on their progeny. The results indicate high forestry-taxation indicators of trees, resistance to the abiotic factor and competitiveness. Their constitution corresponds to local environmental conditions. However, the disproportionately small number of adult natural regeneration of old firs indicated some kind of malfunction in the mechanism of natural generational change.

Keywords

• artificial origin
• adult generation
• trees conditions
• old trees