Open AccessGrowth and yield of modal scots pine stands in the Chornobyl exclusion zone
Author(s) -
Roman Vasylyshyn,
O. A. Slyva
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ukrainian journal of forest and wood science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2664-4460
pISSN - 2664-4452
DOI - 10.31548/forest2020.04.002
Subject(s) - scots pine , forest inventory , forest management , environmental science , quercus petraea , basal area , forestry , stock (firearms) , agroforestry , geography , pinus <genus> , biology , botany , archaeology
In the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, Scots pine stands, which cover an area of over 80,000 hectares, perform an important environmental function, in particular, they serve as a significant natural factor influencing the regional carbon balance of the region’s forest ecosystems. The efficiency of production of this function significantly depends on the balance of management decisions regarding forest management and rational use of forest resources within radiation-contaminated areas. The information base for ensuring sustainable forest management, including monitoring of radionuclide migration in forest ecosystems of the Exclusion zone, is represented by a set of reference and information support, an important component of which are yield tables for modal stands. In order to supplement this complex with information on the peculiarities of Scots pine stands growth, mathematical models of dynamics of biometric indices are proposed and forest typology-based yield tables of modal pine stands of Chernobyl Exclusion Zone are developed within this work. The information basis of the research is presented by information from the database of IA “Ukrderzhlisproekt”, which contains the biometric assessment characteristics of Scots pine stands in the study region, as well as data from 18 temporary sample plots. In course of modelling, power and exponential growth functions were used. As a result, mathematical models of mean height, mean diameter, sum of basal area, growing stock and total productivity of pine stands of the studied region are proposed. These mathematical dependences serve as a basis for the development of forest typology-based yield tables for modal Scots pine stands. In particular, yield tables for modal pine stands growing in dry infertile pine sites, fresh infertile pine sites, fresh fairly infertile pine-oak sites, moist fairly infertile pine-oak sites and moist fairly fertile hornbeam-oak-pine sites are proposed. The developed mathematical models describe the dynamics of biometric indices for more than 90 % of the area of Scots pine stands in the study region.