EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

Pre-proposal No 1 MICKING PRIMEVAL FORESTS PATTERNS
IN NATURE-BASED FOREST RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (“PRIMEFOR”)
maximum stem diameter increment while maintaining its quality in oak primeval forests. The natural growth and increment rhythm, as
well as the production of higher quality and larger dimensions can be supported by an according initial suppression of certain species,
such as fir and spruce. The response of other species, such as oak and beech must further be studied, similar to the question how much
trees necromass should be retained in managed forests in order to provide habitats for stenoec organisms, microclimate-smoothing within
forest stands, and contribute to carbon accumulation in the surface humus and ultimately in mineral soils. Thus, there is a widely
recognized need to consolidate and extend the network of studied primeval forests to achieve necessary replications and thus overcome
the site dependency, which currently presents the barrier to knowledge transfer. Also, no major breakthrough has yet been made in
the synthesis of silviculture, hydrology, soil physics, ecology and biogeochemistry in particular, which is urgently needed in order to
assess the impact of primeval forests patterns and processes on the environmental functions, including carbon sequestration, slope stability,
runoff quantity and quality and erosion controls.
3.2 Project novelty and expected contributions
The highly integrated approach employed by the network goes far beyond of what has been achieved in this field thus far, and for the
first time it has the ambition to shed light on the causes for the spatio-temporal variability so as to help bridge the limited, site- or region-specific
character of the available information. This shall provide a major advance in this field, which is bedeviled by the dispersion
and scarcity of primeval forests remnants and differences in data collection modes and methodology, making direct comparisons
among studies, useful modeling and the transfer of knowledge into forest management difficult or impossible.
4. Workplan
The research conducted in this network has been structured into five distinct but interrelated research tasks. Tasks #1 and #4 provide the new
empirical data basis for the network. Task #3 and #4 narrow the uncertainties in the development of the primeval forests mimicking toolbox
within the task #5.
4.1 The research tasks
Task 1: Comparative study of current ecological patterns and processes in primeval forests and of their spatial variability in the temperate
zone of Europe; Task description and approach: The task aims to reveal the causes of the differences in structure, texture, disturbances,
regeneration and the overall dynamics under a range of environmental and genetic causes responsible for the variability of
observed patterns. For that purpose, series of primeval forests on distinct sites will be composed in numbers assuring a proper replication.
The respective patterns and processes will be studied using existing records and current or new observations; Task leader: ZVO;
Involved partners: GOT, RAK, LJU, BRA, ZVO.
Task 2: Regulation capacity assessment of primeval forests ecosystems; Task description and approach: We will measure locally,
model and on larger scales estimate the regulation functions of primeval forest, i. e. their capacity to sustain ecological processes and
the vital environmental functions, such slope stability protection, torrent control, retention, accumulation, filtration and the carbon sequestration.
Functions provided by primeval forests are often assumed superior to functions fulfilled by managed forest. However, this line
argument deserves a scientific scrutiny, as there is a multiple evidence that certain combinations of these functions can not be achieved
at the same time. The corresponding analysis will draws on results from task #1 and deliver a list of functions worth mimicking for
the task #5. Task leader: DUB; Involved partners: DUB, ZVO, BRA.
Task 3: Analysis of possible temporal variations in temperate primeval forests patterns; Task description and approach: This task shall
detect possible global climate change impacts on the patterns and dynamics in primeval forests on the backdrop of environmental stochasticity.
Network partners (ZVO, RAK) avail of data from a 50-year-long continuous primeval forests research and so the approach
will lean, beside dendrochronological analyses, on contrasting current patterns against data taken prior to the rapid onset of the global
changes, and against site and genetic variations as identified in task #1. The results will enable capturing the emergent trends and
making more specific predictions about the future fate of forests ecosystems. Task leader: TOR; Involved partners: TOR, ZVO, GOT,
BRA
Task 4: Investigation of interactions between primeval forest patterns and organisms; Task description and approach: In compliance
with Huston (1979), who predicted the highest species richness under intermediate perturbations, no significant differences in species
richness between a beech primeval forest and a properly managed beech forest have been detected (Duelli et al. 2005). However, pri-
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