Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Károly RÉDEI Author-Workplace-Name: Hungarian Horticultural Propagation Material Non-profit Ltd., Budapest, Hungary Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Plantation Forestry, Forest Research Institute, National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre (NARIC), Sárvár, Hungary Author-Name: Imre CSIHA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Plantation Forestry, Forest Research Institute, National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre (NARIC), Püspökladány, Hungary Author-Name: János RÁSÓ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Plantation Forestry, Forest Research Institute, National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre (NARIC), Püspökladány, Hungary Author-Name: Zsolt KESERŰ Title: Selection of promising black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) cultivars in Hungary Abstract: In Hungary the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia Linnaeus) is one of the most important exotic stand-forming tree species growing mostly under unfavourable ecological conditions. Considering the climate change effects its importance is increasing also in many other countries. As a result of a selection programme several black locust cultivars have been improved for setting up cultivar trials. In the paper four black locust cultivars were evaluated in Central Hungary under arid hydrological and brown forest soil conditions. Significant differences (P < 5%) were found in height, DBH, mean tree volume and average stem form value (SFV). At the age of 35 years the cultivar "R.p. Jászkiséri" appeared to be the most promising one for yield production and "R.p. Zalai" and "R.p. Nyírségi" for SFV. Keywords: climate change, clonal approach, growth, yield Journal: Journal of Forest Science Pages: 339-343 Volume: 63 Issue: 8 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/23/2017-JFS File-URL: http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/23/2017-JFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/jfs-201708-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:63:y:2017:i:8:id:23-2017-JFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Radek NOVOTNÝ Author-Name: Bohumír LOMSKÝ Author-Workplace-Name: Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, Jíloviště-Strnady, Czech Republic Author-Name: Vít ŠRÁMEK Author-Workplace-Name: Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, Jíloviště-Strnady, Czech Republic Title: Changes in the nutrition and health status of young Norway spruce stands in the Krkonoše Mts. in a 17-year period Abstract: For 17 Norway spruce stands located in the Krkonoše Mts. in the Czech Republic a long-term assessment of defoliation, height increment, foliage concentration of nutrients (N, P, Ca, K, Mg) and stress elements (S, F) was carried out. The results show a decrease of defoliation and a slight increase of height increment, which occur in accordance with the decreasing concentration of sulphur in spruce needles. However, neither sulphur concentration nor height increment trends are significant, suggesting that both the main pollution abatement and the growth resumption took place already in the 1990's. During the late 1990's the average spruce defoliation was greater than 35%, while since 2007 it has fluctuated between 18 and 25%, which corresponds with the figures for the forest stands located in the other regions of the Czech Republic. The evaluation of single nutrient concentrations detected occasional deficiencies of P and Mg at individual plots. The good N nutrition (> 15 mg N.g-1) in combination with a significantly decreasing trend of P, K and Ca concentrations in Norway spruce needles may potentially constitute a problem in regard to both the future health and the stability of forest stands in the studied region. Keywords: mountain forest, height increment, defoliation, nutrients, stress elements, nutrient ratio Journal: Journal of Forest Science Pages: 344-354 Volume: 63 Issue: 8 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/19/2017-JFS File-URL: http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/19/2017-JFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/jfs-201708-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:63:y:2017:i:8:id:19-2017-JFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Khosrow MIRAKHORLOU Author-Name: Reza AKHAVAN Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran Title: Forest density and orchard classification in Hyrcanian forests of Iran using Landsat 8 data Abstract: Satellite-based remote sensing is of crucial importance to provide timely and continuous thematic maps for practical forestry tasks. There is currently no existing remote sensing-based, large-scale inventory of canopy cover classes (and also adjacent orchards) on the full range of Hyrcanian forests. We used the freely available and large-scale coverage of Landsat 8 imagery acquired in 2014 to classify three forest density classes as well as non-forest and orchards. The supervised classification and support vector machine classifier were selected based on a pre-classification of three representative pilot regions. Classified final maps were validated by means of a two-stage sampling and 1,852 field samples. The total areas of the dense, semi-dense, sparse forests and orchards were 45, 36, 19 and 1.9% of the total studied area, respectively. The overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of classified maps were 94.8 and 90%, respectively. The methodology introduced to map forest cover in Hyrcanian forests is concluded to enable providing a high quality forest database for further research, planning and management. Keywords: canopy cover, Caspian forests, satellite data, supervised classification, support vector machines, two-stage sampling Journal: Journal of Forest Science Pages: 355-362 Volume: 63 Issue: 8 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/15/2017-JFS File-URL: http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/15/2017-JFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/jfs-201708-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:63:y:2017:i:8:id:15-2017-JFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Milan MIKLEŠ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Environmental and Forestry Machinery, Faculty of Environmental and Manufacturing Technology, Technical University in Zvolen, Zvolen, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Milan HELEXA Author-Name: Juraj MIKLEŠ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Environmental and Forestry Machinery, Faculty of Environmental and Manufacturing Technology, Technical University in Zvolen, Zvolen, Slovak Republic Title: Research on forest terrain roughness as a source of dynamic action on the vehicle Abstract: The issue of terrain conditions is very complex and its description is approached from different perspectives and with different objectives. Because it consists of the gathering of basic information for a mobile object, a wheeled forestry tractor, the terrain-vehicle approach was taken as the basis. Ground conditions are part of the operating conditions of wheeled forestry tractors. Uneven ground can be regarded as a source of vibration in the vehicle - towing truck. In this respect, given the random shape of the surface roughness, the solution to vibrations leads to a terrain correlation analysis in order to obtain a correlation function and power spectral density of the ground surface. Scanning of the ground micro-profile was performed using a device for quick terrain scanning, which from the mechanical aspect consists of a towing vehicle and a measuring carriage. Correlation function and power spectral density are the evaluation based on ground micro-profile measurements and the results of calculations. Measurements of forest terrain (road) micro-profile were done in the area of Little Fatra and Little Carpathians in Slovakia. In geological terms, the measurements were done in an area with the occurrence of gneiss, granite, limestone and flysch. No measurements were performed in a sandy area. Keywords: forest soils, micro-profile, correlation analysis, power spectral density, wheeled forestry tractor Journal: Journal of Forest Science Pages: 363-369 Volume: 63 Issue: 8 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/43/2017-JFS File-URL: http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/43/2017-JFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/jfs-201708-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:63:y:2017:i:8:id:43-2017-JFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ali Akbar JAFARZADEH Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran Author-Name: Ali MAHDAVI Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran Author-Name: Heydar JAFARZADEH Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Computer Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran Title: Evaluation of forest fire risk using the Apriori algorithm and fuzzy c-means clustering Abstract: In this study we evaluated forest fire risk in the west of Iran using the Apriori algorithm and fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering. We used twelve different input parameters to model fire risk in Ilam Province. Our results with minimum support and minimum confidence show strong relationships between wildfire occurrence and eight variables (distance from settlement, population density, distance from road, slope, standing dead oak trees, temperature, land cover and distance from farm land). In this study, we defined three clusters for each variable: low, middle and high. The data regarding the factors affecting forest fire risk were distributed in these three clusters with different degrees of membership and the final map of all factors was classified by FCM clustering. Each layer was then created in a geographic information system. Finally, wildfire risks in the area obtained from overlaying these layers were classified into five categories, from very low to very high according to the degree of danger. Keywords: wildfire, association rules, fuzzification, Ilam Province, Iran Journal: Journal of Forest Science Pages: 370-380 Volume: 63 Issue: 8 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/7/2017-JFS File-URL: http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/7/2017-JFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/jfs-201708-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:63:y:2017:i:8:id:7-2017-JFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Muhammad Javed Asif Author-Workplace-Name: School of Environmental Science and Natural Resources, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Forestry and Range Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan Author-Name: Nisha Thopla GOVENDER Author-Workplace-Name: School of Environmental Science and Natural Resources, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia Author-Name: Lai Hoe ANG Author-Workplace-Name: Plantation Forest Division, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong, Malaysia Author-Name: Wickneswari RATNAM Author-Workplace-Name: School of Environmental Science and Natural Resources, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia Title: Growth performance and lignin content of Acacia mangium Willd. and Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Benth. under normal and stressed conditions Abstract: Acacia mangium Willdenow and Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunningham ex Bentham are fast-growing species with wide environmental adaptability. Fast-growing species which thrive in otherwise non-arable problematic soil and which hold the added advantage of improving the condition of the soil, can be used to increase production area, and, thus, are highly desired. We investigated the growth performance and lignin content under normal and stressed conditions for these Acacia mangium Willd. and Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Benth. Normal growing conditions was represented by fertile soil, high water-holding capacity due to low soil drainage, high organic matter, low soil temperature, overall consistent rainfall and relatively milder temperatures, whilst stressed conditions were achieved with a sandy soil with low fertility, low water-holding capacity due to high drainage and low organic matter, and high soil temperature accompanied by inconsistent monthly temperature and rainfall. Growth performance under normal conditions was significantly better compared to the stressed conditions. A. mangium performed better than A. auriculiformis under the normal conditions. However A. auriculiformis performed better under stressed conditions due to better adaptability. The lignin content under normal conditions fluctuated from one DBH class to another. As for the stress conditions, A. mangium exhibited incremental increases in lignin content with increasing biomass. In contrast, lignin content in A. auriculiformis decreased with increasing biomass. The differences in performance may be attributable to both the micro- and macro-environments and adaptive differences between the two species. For growth under normal conditions, A. mangium appears to be the superior choice, whereas for problematic soils, A. auriculiformis can be recommended. However, for the selection of superior plants with a combination of desired growth rates and lower lignin content the breeding of interspecific hybrids would be a desirable approach. Keywords: climate change, marginal lands, tree breeding, pulp production, pulp quality Journal: Journal of Forest Science Pages: 381-392 Volume: 63 Issue: 8 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/100/2015-JFS File-URL: http://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/100/2015-JFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/jfs-201708-0006.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnljfs:v:63:y:2017:i:8:id:100-2015-JFS