The growth of past, present, and future forests was, is and will be affected by climate variability. This multifaceted relationship has been assessed in several regional studies, but spatially resolved, large-scale analyses are largely missing so far. Here we estimate recent changes in growth of 5800 beech trees (Fagus sylvatica L.) from 324 sites, representing the full geographic and climatic range of species. Future growth trends were predicted considering state-of-the-art climate scenarios. The validated models indicate growth declines across large region of the distribution in recent decades, and project severe future growth declines ranging from -20% to more than -50% by 2090, depending on the region and climate change scenario (i.e. CMIP6 SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5). Forecasted forest productivity losses are most striking towards the southern distribution limit of Fagus sylvatica, in regions where persisting atmospheric high-pressure systems are expected to increase drought severity. The projected 21st century growth changes across Europe indicate serious ecological and economic consequences that require immediate forest adaptation.

• MeSH
• buk (rod) * MeSH
• klimatické změny MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• období sucha MeSH
• stromy MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Thermodynamics is a vast area of knowledge with a debatable role in explaining the evolution of ecosystems. In the case of soil ecosystems, this role is still unclear due to difficulties in determining the thermodynamic functions that are involved in the survival and evolution of soils as living systems. The existing knowledge is largely based on theoretical approaches and has never been applied to soils using thermodynamic functions that have been experimentally determined. In this study, we present a method for the complete experimental thermodynamic characterization of soil organic matter. This method quantifies all the thermodynamic functions for combustion and formation reactions which are involved in the thermodynamic principles governing the evolution of the universe. We applied them to track the progress of soil organic matter with soil depth in mature beech forests. Our results show that soil organic matter evolves to a higher degree of reduction as it is mineralized, yielding products with lower carbon but higher energy content than the original organic matter used as reference. These products have higher entropy than the original one, demonstrating how the soil ecosystem evolves with depth, in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics. The results were sensitive to soil organic matter transformation in forests under different management, indicating potential applicability in elucidating the energy strategies for evolution and survival of soil systems as well as in settling their evolutionary states.

• MeSH
• buk (rod) * MeSH
• ekosystém * MeSH
• lesy * MeSH
• půda * chemie   MeSH
• termodynamika * MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• půda * MeSH

A central hypothesis of ecology states that regional diversity influences local diversity through species-pool effects. Species pools are supposedly shaped by large-scale factors and then filtered into ecological communities, but understanding these processes requires the analysis of large datasets across several regions. Here, we use a framework of community assembly at a continental scale to test the relative influence of historical and environmental drivers, in combination with regional or local species pools, on community species richness and community completeness. Using 42,173 vegetation plots sampled across European beech forests, we found that large-scale factors largely accounted for species pool sizes. At the regional scale, main predictors reflected historical contingencies related to post-glacial dispersal routes, whereas at the local scale, the influence of environmental filters was predominant. Proximity to Quaternary refugia and high precipitation were the main factors supporting community species richness, especially among beech forest specialist plants. Models for community completeness indicate the influence of large-scale factors, further suggesting community saturation as a result of dispersal limitation or biotic interactions. Our results empirically demonstrate how historical factors complement environmental gradients to provide a better understanding of biodiversity patterns across multiple regions.

• MeSH
• biodiverzita * MeSH
• biologické modely MeSH
• buk (rod) MeSH
• distribuce rostlin * MeSH
• klimatické změny MeSH
• lesy * MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH

Traditionally focussed on maximising productivity, forest management increasingly has to consider other functions performed by the forest stands, such as biodiversity conservation. Terrestrial plant communities typically possess a hump-back relationship between biomass productivity and plant species richness. However, there is evidence of a reverse relationship in forests dominated by beech, one of the most competitive and widespread tree species in temperate Europe. To fully explore the tree productivity-species richness relationship, we investigated above- and below-ground drivers of understorey plant species richness. We focussed on managed beech forests growing along an elevation gradient in Central Europe. We found that the lowest understorey plant diversity was under conditions optimal for beech. Tree fine root mass, canopy openness, soil C/N ratio, the interaction between tree fine root mass and stoniness, and stand structural diversity explain the variation of understorey species richness. We show that the competition for soil resources is the main driver of plant species diversity in managed forests; maximising beech growth in optimal conditions may thus come at the expense of understorey plant richness.

• Klíčová slova
• Below-ground competition, Biomass-richness relationship, Fagus sylvatica, Fine roots, Understorey vascular plant richness,
• MeSH
• biodiverzita MeSH
• buk (rod) * MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• půda chemie   MeSH
• stromy * MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• půda MeSH

The future performance of the widely abundant European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) across its ecological amplitude is uncertain. Although beech is considered drought-sensitive and thus negatively affected by drought events, scientific evidence indicating increasing drought vulnerability under climate change on a cross-regional scale remains elusive. While evaluating changes in climate sensitivity of secondary growth offers a promising avenue, studies from productive, closed-canopy forests suffer from knowledge gaps, especially regarding the natural variability of climate sensitivity and how it relates to radial growth as an indicator of tree vitality. Since beech is sensitive to drought, we in this study use a drought index as a climate variable to account for the combined effects of temperature and water availability and explore how the drought sensitivity of secondary growth varies temporally in dependence on growth variability, growth trends, and climatic water availability across the species' ecological amplitude. Our results show that drought sensitivity is highly variable and non-stationary, though consistently higher at dry sites compared to moist sites. Increasing drought sensitivity can largely be explained by increasing climatic aridity, especially as it is exacerbated by climate change and trees' rank progression within forest communities, as (co-)dominant trees are more sensitive to extra-canopy climatic conditions than trees embedded in understories. However, during the driest periods of the 20th century, growth showed clear signs of being decoupled from climate. This may indicate fundamental changes in system behavior and be early-warning signals of decreasing drought tolerance. The multiple significant interaction terms in our model elucidate the complexity of European beech's drought sensitivity, which needs to be taken into consideration when assessing this species' response to climate change.

• Klíčová slova
• Climate sensitivity, Dendroecology, Drought, Fagus sylvatica, Forests, Linear mixed-effects models,
• MeSH
• buk (rod) * růst a vývoj   fyziologie   MeSH
• klimatické změny * MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• období sucha * MeSH
• stromy růst a vývoj   fyziologie   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Monitoring saproxylic beetle diversity, though challenging, can help identifying relevant conservation sites or key drivers of forest biodiversity, and assessing the impact of forestry practices on biodiversity. Unfortunately, monitoring species assemblages is costly, mainly due to the time spent on identification. Excluding families which are rich in specimens and species but are difficult to identify is a frequent procedure used in ecological entomology to reduce the identification cost. The Staphylinidae (rove beetle) family is both one of the most frequently excluded and one of the most species-rich saproxylic beetle families. Using a large-scale beetle and environmental dataset from 238 beech stands across Europe, we evaluated the effects of staphylinid exclusion on results in ecological forest studies. Simplified staphylinid-excluded assemblages were found to be relevant surrogates for whole assemblages. The species richness and composition of saproxylic beetle assemblages both with and without staphylinids responded congruently to landscape, climatic and stand gradients, even when the assemblages included a high proportion of staphylinid species. At both local and regional scales, the species richness as well as the species composition of staphylinid-included and staphylinid-excluded assemblages were highly positively correlated. Ranking of sites according to their biodiversity level, which either included or excluded Staphylinidae in species richness, also gave congruent results. From our results, species assemblages omitting staphylinids can be taken as efficient surrogates for complete assemblages in large scale biodiversity monitoring studies.

• Klíčová slova
• biodiversity monitoring, biodiversity surrogate, identification cost, insect sampling,
• MeSH
• biodiverzita * MeSH
• brouci fyziologie   MeSH
• buk (rod) fyziologie   MeSH
• dieta MeSH
• lesnictví MeSH
• lesy * MeSH
• potravní řetězec MeSH
• zachování přírodních zdrojů metody   MeSH
• životní prostředí MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH

The mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are well-established theoretically, but remain challenging to quantify empirically. Such quantification will greatly improve the assessment and prediction of changes in terrestrial carbon sequestration in response to dynamically induced climatic extremes. The jet stream latitude (JSL) over the North Atlantic-European domain provides a synthetic and robust physical framework that integrates climate variability not accounted for by atmospheric circulation patterns alone. Surface climate impacts of north-south summer JSL displacements are not uniform across Europe, but rather create a northwestern-southeastern dipole in forest productivity and radial-growth anomalies. Summer JSL variability over the eastern North Atlantic-European domain (5-40E) exerts the strongest impact on European beech, inducing anomalies of up to 30% in modelled gross primary productivity and 50% in radial tree growth. The net effects of JSL movements on terrestrial carbon fluxes depend on forest density, carbon stocks, and productivity imbalances across biogeographic regions.

• MeSH
• buk (rod) * MeSH
• klimatické změny MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• pohyb vzduchu MeSH
• uhlík MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. MeSH
• Názvy látek
• uhlík MeSH

Atmospheric deposition-related potentially toxic elements (PTEs) can contaminate mountain forest ecosystems. The influence of tree species is being increasingly recognised as an important factor in the deposition loads in forest soils. However, relevant modelling studies about the forest pollution with PTEs, concerning the tree species composition, are lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) on soil and mushroom pollution and the associated health risks to define their significance for pollution modelling. Therefore, topsoil samples and samples of eight edible mushroom species were taken from 51 mature beech- and spruce-dominated stands. The results showed that forest composition had an indirect influence on the PTEs contents in the topsoil; it significantly differentiated the relationship between PTEs and soil C as the beech stands showed significantly increasing PTEs content with increasing C content. Despite the absence of soil pollution, above-limit levels of Cd and Zn were found in mushrooms. The total content of PTEs in mushrooms posed a potential health risk to consumers in 82% of the samples. The most Cd-contaminated and potentially the riskiest species for consumption was Xerocomellus pruinatus (Fr. and Hök) Šutara. The results suggest that the source of PTEs for mushrooms is not only the soil but probably also the current wet deposition. The influence of the forest type on the accumulation of PTEs in mushrooms was confirmed mainly due to the strongly divergent behaviour of Zn in beech- vs. spruce-dominated stands. The results point to the need to evaluate mushroom contamination even in the contamination-unburdened forest areas. For future modelling of PTEs pollution in forests, it is necessary to differentiate the tree species composition.

• MeSH
• Agaricales * MeSH
• buk (rod) * MeSH
• ekosystém MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• půda MeSH
• smrk * MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Názvy látek
• půda MeSH

Trees are known to be atmospheric methane (CH4 ) emitters. Little is known about seasonal dynamics of tree CH4 fluxes and relationships to environmental conditions. That prevents the correct estimation of net annual tree and forest CH4 exchange. We aimed to explore the contribution of stem emissions to forest CH4 exchange. We determined seasonal CH4 fluxes of mature European beech (Fagus sylvatica) stems and adjacent soil in a typical temperate beech forest of the White Carpathians with high spatial heterogeneity in soil moisture. The beech stems were net annual CH4 sources, whereas the soil was a net CH4 sink. High CH4 emitters showed clear seasonality in their stem CH4 emissions that followed stem CO2 efflux. Elevated CH4 fluxes were detected during the vegetation season. Observed high spatial variability in stem CH4 emissions was neither explicably by soil CH4 exchange nor by CH4 concentrations, water content, or temperature studied in soil profiles near each measured tree. The stem CH4 emissions offset the soil CH4 uptake by up to 46.5% and on average by 13% on stand level. In Central Europe, widely grown beech contributes markedly to seasonal dynamics of ecosystem CH4 exchange. Its contribution should be included into forest greenhouse gas flux inventories.

• Klíčová slova
• CH4 flux, European beech, emission, seasonal dynamics, soil, temperate montane forest, tree stem, uptake,
• MeSH
• buk (rod) * MeSH
• ekosystém MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• methan MeSH
• oxid uhličitý MeSH
• půda * MeSH
• stromy MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Názvy látek
• methan MeSH
• oxid uhličitý MeSH
• půda * MeSH

Process-based models and empirical modelling techniques are frequently used to (i) explore the sensitivity of tree growth to environmental variables, and (ii) predict the future growth of trees and forest stands under climate change scenarios. However, modelling approaches substantially influence predictions of the sensitivity of trees to environmental factors. Here, we used tree-ring width (TRW) data from 1630 beech trees from a network of 70 plots established across European mountains to build empirical predictive growth models using various modelling approaches. In addition, we used 3-PG and Biome-BGCMuSo process-based models to compare growth predictions with derived empirical models. Results revealed similar prediction errors (RMSE) across models ranging between 3.71 and 7.54 cm2 of basal area increment (BAI). The models explained most of the variability in BAI ranging from 54 % to 87 %. Selected explanatory variables (despite being statistically highly significant) and the pattern of the growth sensitivity differed between models substantially. We identified only five factors with the same effect and the same sensitivity pattern in all empirical models: tree DBH, competition index, elevation, Gini index of DBH, and soil silt content. However, the sensitivity to most of the climate variables was low and inconsistent among the empirical models. Both empirical and process-based models suggest that beech in European mountains will, on average, likely experience better growth conditions under both 4.5 and 8.5 RCP scenarios. The process-based models indicated that beech may grow better across European mountains by 1.05 to 1.4 times in warmer conditions. The empirical models identified several drivers of tree growth that are not included in the current process-based models (e.g., different nutrients) but may have a substantial effect on final results, particularly if they are limiting factors. Hence, future development of process-based models may build upon our findings to increase their ability to correctly capture ecosystem dynamics.

• Klíčová slova
• Dendrochronology, Ecosystem dynamics, European beech, Global climate change, Process-based growth model, Tree growth,
• MeSH
• buk (rod) * MeSH
• ekosystém * MeSH
• klimatické změny MeSH
• lesy MeSH
• stromy MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH