Transect studies on pine forests along parallel 52° north, 12-32° east and along a pollution gradient in Poland: general assumptions

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Title: Transect studies on pine forests along parallel 52° north, 12-32° east and along a pollution gradient in Poland: general assumptions

Author: Breymeyer, Alicja

Date: 1998

Source: In: Bytnerowicz, Andrzej; Arbaugh, Michael J.; Schilling, Susan L., tech. coords. Proceedings of the international symposium on air pollution and climate change effects on forest ecosystems. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-166. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: 143-150

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Station ID: GTR-PSW-166

Description: The responses of pine forest to changing climate and environmental chemistry were studied along two transects following the pollution and continentality gradients in Poland. One axis begins on the western border of Poland, crosses the country along the 52nd parallel, and ends on the eastern border of Poland in the area of Bialowieza National Park, Biosphere Reserve. The second axis begins in industrial Upper Silesia in southwestern Poland and ends at the same point in the Bialowieza area on the eastern border of Poland. The west-east latitudinal transect follows the gradient of cooling and continentality, whereas the Silesian transect follows the pollution gradient. The extension of the continental transect to the west (Germany) and the east (Belarus) was possible after 2 years of the program. This "large transect" covers 20° of latitude, with a difference in mean annual temperature of 3.5 °C. The general assumptions of this program, e.g., philosophy of gradient/transect studies, selected global change scenarios, current climatic conditions, and air pollution exposure in central Europe, are reviewed. The International Geosphere Biosphere Program on Global Change predicted temperature increases of 1.5-2 °C in our climatic zone, which are close to the difference in thermoclimate registered along the transects in this study. In the description of transects, Polish systems of forest monitoring and procedures used for stand selection are introduced. The phytosociological characteristics of the studied stands and their position in the classification of vegetation has been determined, as well as some of the present changes in pollutant distribution.

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Citation

Breymeyer, Alicja 1998. Transect studies on pine forests along parallel 52° north, 12-32° east and along a pollution gradient in Poland: general assumptions In: Bytnerowicz, Andrzej; Arbaugh, Michael J.; Schilling, Susan L., tech. coords. Proceedings of the international symposium on air pollution and climate change effects on forest ecosystems. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-166. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: 143-150.