sdu faculty of forestry journal special edition 2009 - Orman Fakültesi

SDÜ ORMAN FAKÜLTESİ DERGİSİ
A periodicity of one or two years was thought as adequate (Harris et al., 2004).
The seasons during which the inventories were compiled depended on the district,
but in all cases, an inspection was conducted in autumn and, another one, in spring,
so as to find out the different features than could be observed whether plants keep
their foliage or not.
4470000 4480000 4490000
¨
Scale 1: 400.000
0 2.500 5.000 10.000 15.000
Legend
Number of examined
green spaces
Arganzuela: 11
Barajas: 9
Hortaleza: 13
Retiro: 5
Salamanca: 4
Villa de Vallecas: 7
m
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5
11
410000 420000 430000 440000 450000
Figure 1. Number of examined green spaces in the inventoried districts.
Data were collected by professors and collaborators of the Forestry Pathology
Department. They were trained so that they could recognize the major health
problems of the ornamental species, before conducting the visual inspection in each
area. Just in case they were not able to recognize something, both a photograph and
a vegetal sample were taken, in order to identify them in lab, with the aid of
bibliography. The information recorded in each green space and in each year
consisted of: date; name of the green space; district and ward where it was located;
problems affecting the soil; problems which were related with watering; all tree,
shrub, vine or seasonal flowers species which were found in the green space; and
all the diseases, pest and other problems or disturbances which were observed for
each species.
Visual assessment was chosen as a tool for predicting the health status of the
plants. Visual evaluation is frequently a controversial issue since some authors
defend the idea that it can be a reliable means to predict internal decay (Kennard et
al., 1996), whereas others think that this procedure is insufficient (Dunster, 1996).
Therefore, the present study intended only to be a first approximation of the plant
health condition, trying to predict failure situations, so that a possible further
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