Journal of Forest Science, 2018 (vol. 64), issue 7

Effect of thinning on the amount of mineral nitrogenOriginal Paper

Ladislav HOLÍK, Jana ROSÍKOVÁ, Valerie VRANOVÁ

J. For. Sci., 2018, 64(7):289-295 | DOI: 10.17221/5/2018-JFS  

The soil nitrogen cycle and the dynamics of its transformation are closely related to the functioning of the forest ecosystem. This cycle, and the availability of nitrogen as a necessary nutrient in the soil, can be influenced by the process of thinning. The aim of this study is to describe the impact of silvicultural measures on the content of ammonium and nitrate nitrogen in forest soil. Attention is paid to the organic (spruce treatments) and organomineral horizon (beech treatments) in which the transformation of soil nitrogen is most pronounced. Spruce treatments at the Rájec-Němčice area and beech stands at the Březina area, both in the region...

Experimental investigation of vertical and horizontal reinforcement geotextiles in forest road pavementOriginal Paper

Morteza DINI, Mehrdad NIKOOY, Michael Trofimovich NASKOVETS, Alireza GHOMI

J. For. Sci., 2018, 64(7):296-302 | DOI: 10.17221/154/2017-JFS  

In this research, the results of an experimental survey on the measurement of vertical stresses are presented. Four treatments were used in this study such as combination of geotextile vertical and horizontal structure with dimensions of 5 × 5 and 10 × 10 cm, horizontal geotextile and the treatment without geotextile. Five sensors were installed in different hole locations and the lead of the truck traffic was transmitted by cables to data logging and recording devices to measure the pressure from vehicle traffic on the simulated pavement layer. Mean comparison of the treatments showed that the geotextile with vertical and horizontal structure and...

Comparison of results of visitor arrival monitoring using regression analysisOriginal Paper

Petra HLAVÁČKOVÁ, Hana SLOVÁČKOVÁ, David BŘEZINA, Jakub MICHAL

J. For. Sci., 2018, 64(7):303-312 | DOI: 10.17221/20/2018-JFS  

Monitoring of visitor arrivals is one of the tools which help to ensure good-quality and suitable management of the respective area. This paper is aimed at the monitoring of visitor arrivals when the visitors are counted automatically using a field counting device, namely a pyroelectric sensor. In 2015, visitor arrival monitoring using a pyro sensor was conducted on the selected forest roads in the Křtiny Training Forest Enterprise of Masaryk Forest. Since this method should be employed in another project, it was necessary to find out whether the pyroelectric sensor is a reliable tool and whether it can be used for further research. The aim of this...

The influence of rural road development on forest extent changes over the three time periods: A case study of Chegeni region, Lorestan provinceOriginal Paper

Ayoob REZAEE MOTLAQ, Aidin PARSAKHOO, Kamran ADELI, Mohamad Hadi MOAYERI

J. For. Sci., 2018, 64(7):313-318 | DOI: 10.17221/34/2018-JFS  

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the development of road quality (surfacing condition and road type) and road quantity (road density and distance to main road) on forest extent changes in a region in Zagros forests of Iran over the three time periods of 1960s, 2000s and 2010s. Ranks of 1 to 5 were assigned to road quality. Forest extent changes were analysed on digital aerial photo mosaic. The Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to test the relationship between the road parameters and forest extent changes. Results showed that rural-forest road network has more influence on settlement development....

Soil water potential determines the presence of hydraulic lift of Populus euphratica Olivier across growing seasons in an arid desert regionOriginal Paper

Fei WANG, Yilu XU, Xiaodong YANG, Yanju LIU, Guang-Hui LV, Shengtian YANG

J. For. Sci., 2018, 64(7):319-329 | DOI: 10.17221/49/2018-JFS  

Hydraulic lift (HL) of deep-rooted plants is a water adaptation phenomenon to extreme drought conditions which would subsequently improve the survival of shallow-rooted plants in an arid desert area. There is an ongoing debate on whether the difference in water potential between plant roots and soils determine the presence of HL, thus considerable research efforts are needed to improve our understanding. In this study, we used the Ryel model and comparative analysis to determine the changes in soil water potential (SWP), the soil layer of obtaining water from plant roots (SLOW), the amount water released from plant roots into soils, and the total amount...