Despite the ecological and economic importance of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) genomic resources of this species are still limited. This hampers an understanding of the molecular basis of adaptation to stress. Since beech will most likely be threatened by the consequences of climate change, an understanding of adaptive processes to climate change-related drought stress is of major import...

Predation by introduced stoats is now considered a major threat to the population viability of several New Zealand endemic bird species. Historically stoat research and management has focused on beech forests and little is known about the ecology of stoats in the alpine grasslands occurring above the natural altitudinal limit of beech forest. Several stoat control operations in beech forest val...

Leaves from 145-year-old and 44-year-old beech trees were harvested during 1991-1993. Chlorophyll (Chi) and redox components of the thylakoid membrane, including P-700, cytochrome / (C yt/) and D, protein, were determined with the following results. Chi a + b, P-700 and C y t/p er unit of fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW ) and leaf area (LA ) increase significantly during leaf development. Thi...

we studied 11 gaps covered with beech saplings (< 1.30 m tall) in a reserve compartment (compartment 139, district one, langa forest, watershed 36: kazemrood) of the caspian beech forest in n iran. two transects, each 2 m wide, were laid along the longest (n-s) and shortest (e-w) axis of each gap. five micro sample plots, each 4 m2, were established: one at the center, and one at each corner. q...

Canopy gaps are one of the most important structural features of forest ecosystems, and studying of them can have useful results and implications for forest management. The aim of this study is investigation of characteristics and regeneration within canopy gaps in an intact beech stand in the Shastkalateh Experimental Forest of Hyrcanian region, north of Iran. All canopy gaps and related fores...

There are few data on fine root biomass and morphology change in relation to stand age. Based on chronosequences for beech (9-140 years old), oak (11-140 years) and alder (4-76 years old) we aimed to examine how stand age affects fine root biomass and morphology. Soil cores from depths of 0-15 cm and 16-30 cm were used for the study. In contrast to previously published studies that suggested th...

Recently, the beech forests of southern Central Europe (including large parts of the Illyrian region) have been syntaxonomically revised, using a TURBOVEG database containing more than 5800 relevés, mainly from Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. The same TURBOVEG database was used to calculate patterns of alpha and beta diversity within beech fores...

In this paper we evaluate the feasibility of estimating the previous distribution of a tree species, the beech, from the analysis of toponyms presently in use and referring to this species. Specialists from toponymy, agromomy and geometics have been involved. Toponyms are a precious source of information about past distribution: more than 6100 toponyms referring to beech have been detected. MOT...

A non-random sampling design allowed to distinguish within a virgin beech ecosystem two main components of humus profile heterogeneity. The stratification of the profile into horizons reflects changes in the composition of the soil/litter matrix occurring under the influence of the anisotropic deposition of leaf and wood litter and the stratified occurrence of soil organisms (roots, microbes, a...