Defoliation Change of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Depends on Previous Year Drought.

ABSTRACT: European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests provide multiple essential ecosystem goods and services. The projected climatic conditions for the current century will significantly affect the vitality of European beech. The expected impact of climate change on forest ecosystems will be potentially stronger in southeast Europe than on the rest of the continent. Therefore, our aim was to use the long-term monitoring data of crown vitality indicators in Croatia to identify long-term trends, and to investigate the influence of current and previous year climate conditions and available site factors using defoliation (DEF) and defoliation change (ΔDEF) as response variables. The results reveal an increasing trend of DEF during the study period from 1996 to 2017. In contrast, no significant trend in

SUBMITTER: Ognjenovic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8955490 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature