Activity report of the Białowieża Department of the Forest Research Institute – Elżbieta Malzahn

Instytut Badawczy Leśnictwa, Sękocin Stary 2011, ISBN 978-83-87647-94-04, 132 ss.

This album represents a summary of more than 80 years of knowledge and expertise compiled by those scientists and managers who have dedicated their professional lives to work at the Białowieska station of the Institute, and have attempted to uncover the secrets of the Białowieża Primeval Forest; a unique and cherished natural habitat. As the only European ancient natural forest, Białowieża has proved a great resource for scientists working on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects. The Forest’s vast biodiversity has enabled the collection of specimens for comprehensive herbarium and entomological archives as well as yearly phytosociological and floral monitoring to create time-series records of the environment. Such data bases from long-term monitoring allow natural threats to the Białowieża Primeval Forest to be anticipated and the risks from outbreaks of invertebrate populations to be assessed. These data provide an invaluable resource for tracking forest dynamics and successional processes under natural conditions, and can be synthesised to provide a holistic view of the forest ecosystem and to model future changes in this and other forests, provid¬ing a tool for natural conservation and forest management.