J. For. Sci., 2025, 71(11):542-554 | DOI: 10.17221/77/2025-JFS

Comparison of shelterwood and clear-cut regeneration methods on morphological traits of naturally regenerated sessile oak [Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.] seedlingsOriginal Paper

Eli¹ka ®i¾ková ORCID...1, Martin Kománek ORCID...1, Dominika Krausková ORCID...2, Jakub Èerný ORCID...1,3
1 Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
2 Department of Forest Management and Applied Geoinformatics, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
3 Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, Opoèno Research Station, Opoèno, Czech Republic

The natural regeneration of the sessile oak [Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.] is an important aspect of sustainable forest management, especially given the ongoing global climate change and the need to maintain forest stand stability and productivity. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of various regeneration methods on the growth of naturally regenerated sessile oak in the Masaryk Forest Training Enterprise Køtiny, Czech Republic. The research was conducted in seven forest stands where regeneration felling was applied after masting in 2022 (winter 2022/2023) using clear-cut (CC) and shelterwood (S) systems. A total of 531 seedlings were collected from these seven research plots, and the following morphological traits were measured: shoot length, root collar diameter, and biomass allocation. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences (P < 0.05) in shoot length, main root length and total seedling length between the CC and S variants. However, there were no significant differences in root collar diameter or any of the dry-mass parameters between the clear-cut with standards (CC1) variant and the shelterwood plots. Individuals from the CC variants have a 10.3–47.0% wider root collar diameter, 22.3–91.4% more dry mass of the root system, and 51.7–90.4% more dry mass of the aboveground part than individuals in the S variants. These results indicate that the early growth of sessile oak seedlings is greatly influenced by light availability: full sunlight stimulates the development of above- and below-ground parts, whereas canopy cover restricts early growth, particularly in terms of height. The findings highlight the need to consider light and site conditions when planning silvicultural treatments aimed at establishing stable and vigorous oak stands in the face of changing climate conditions.

Keywords: biomass; destructive sampling; global climate change; natural regeneration; root system

Received: November 3, 2025; Revised: November 10, 2025; Accepted: November 10, 2025; Prepublished online: November 19, 2025; Published: November 28, 2025  Show citation

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®i¾ková E, Kománek M, Krausková D, Èerný J. Comparison of shelterwood and clear-cut regeneration methods on morphological traits of naturally regenerated sessile oak [Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.] seedlings. J. For. Sci. 2025;71(11):542-554. doi: 10.17221/77/2025-JFS.
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