Organization
The HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research consists of in three institutes. The Institute of Ecology and Botany, implementer of the oakadapt project, is focused on terrestrial ecology including the ecological effects of land-use change, habitat degradation, climate change, urbanization, intensive agriculture, invasions. Their research covers a wide range of organism groups, habitats and methodological approaches. In this project, the involved research unit is the Forest Ecological Research Group, which main research topic is the effect of forest management on forest ecosystems and biodiversity, forest conservation management, forest dynamics, microclimate, biodiversity, monitoring of forest reserves.
Tasks in the project
Integrating ecosystem function, biodiversity and conservation purposes as well as timber production expectations is a considerable recent challenge for forest management. Converting the dominant, industrial rotation forestry system to a more nature friendly continuous cover forestry (CCF) system is a remarkable development for this direction. However the methods of CCF are still under development by foresters, and there are many debate for this system in the case of light demanding oak forests. The HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research (CER) maintains and extends two forest ecological experiments in the framework of the project. The Pilis Forestry Systems Experiment (PFSE) started in 2014 and it investigates the effect of different forestry treatments on forest biodiversity, microclimate and regeneration. It combine the treatments of rotation forestry (clear-cutting, preparation cutting, retention tree group) and CCF (gap-cutting). The Pilis Gap Experiment (PGE) established in 2018 contributes to the methodological development of CCF investigating the effect of different gap sizes and shapes for the same ecosystem indicators. The PFSE will be extended by new treatments by creation of new gaps in thinned and closed forest canopies. The PGE will be also extended by enlarging existing small elongated gaps. Both experiments are managed by the Pilis Park Forestry Company (PPFC), a participant of this proposal. Beside the experiments the institute investigate the differences between forest stands managed by CCF and rotation forestry involving forest site, stand structure and biodiversity aspects. Beside the new scientific results, the investigations can contribute to the development of an ecologically more sustainable forest management, comparing the ecological effects of continuous cover and rotation forestry methods. The results of the experiment will be directly incorporated to the management of the forestry project partners, and widely disseminated for stakeholders in Hungary and Slovakia.
Partner level project details
Responsible person: Dr. Péter Ódor
Partner budget: 336 000 EUR
EU contribution: 268 800 EUR