wood, fodder, and a source of honey as well as bio-oil and biomass. It is also important for carbon sequestration, soil stabilization and re-vegetation of landfills, mining areas and wastelands, in biotherapy and landscaping. In Europe, black locust is drought tolerant so grows in areas with annual precipitation as low as 500-550 mm. It tolerates dry, nutrient poor soils but grows best on deep, nutrient-rich, well-drained soils. It is a fast-growing tree and the height, diameter and volume growth peak before the age of 20. It mostly regenerates vegetatively by root suckers under a simple coppice system, which is considered the most cost-effective management system. It also regenerates, but less frequently, by stool sprouts. Its early silviculture in production forests includes release cutting to promote root suckers rather than stool shoots, and cleaning-respacing to remove low-quality stems, reduce the number of shoots per stool, and adjust spacing between root suckers. In addition, early, moderate and frequent thinning as well as limited pruning are carried out focusing on crop trees. The species is regarded as

Floodplains include unique environments shaped over a long time horizon along rivers and smaller streams and formed by alluvial sediments. As floodplains are flat, often with highly fertile and well-accessible land, they have become the intrinsic focus of human society-while providing a variety of goods and ecosystem services. Intensive land use of floodplains is degrading their natural values and significantly reducing their ecosystem functions and services. A significant part of these key services is related with the ability of floodplains to retain water and nutrients, which can be understood as a flood control and a water-retention function. Although these ecosystems serve a number of other basic functions, the importance of floodplains as a place for water retention during extreme discharges caused by intense rainfall or snowmelt and the supply of water in times of drought are essential under conditions of global change. In order to increase the ability of floodplains to perform these functions, it is increasingly required to preserve the connectivity of rivers with surrounding floodplains and adapt human activities to maintain and restore river ecosystems. This article reviews the recent understanding of floodplain delineation, the most common causes of disturbance, the ecosystem functions being performed, discussing in turn the measures being considered to mitigate the frequency and magnitude of hydrologic extremes resulting from ongoing environmental changes.

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Kollár J., Bakay L., Pástor M. (2016): First record of the cottony cushion scale Icerya purchasi (Hemiptera, Monophlebidae) in Slovakia -short communication. Plant Protect. Sci., 52: 217-219.Damage by the cottony cushion scale Icerya purchasi (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Monophlebidae: Iceryini) was found on rosmarinus officinalis at the locality Suchohrad in Slovakia. Icerya purchasi is a cosmopolitan plant pest of warmer climates. In Central Europe it is a pest of glasshouses. It is the first observation of the cottony cushion scale (at least short-term) occurrence in the outdoor conditions in Slovakia.

This article presents a proposal of thermal modification of Norway spruce and sycamore maple for special wood products, mainly for musical instruments. Selected physical and acoustical characteristics (PACHs), including the density (ρ), dynamic modulus of elasticity along the wood grain (EL), specific modulus (Esp), speed of sound along the wood grain (cL), resonant frequency (fr) and acoustic constant (A), logarithmic decrement (ϑ), loss coefficient (η), acoustic conversion efficiency (ACE), sound quality factor (Q), and the timbre of sound, were evaluated. These two wood species were chosen regarding their use in the production or repair of musical instruments. For the thermal modification, a similar process to the ThermoWood process was chosen. Thermal modification was performed at the temperatures 135 °C, 160 °C and 185 °C. The resonant dynamic method was used to obtain the PACHs. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) was used to analyze the sound produced. The changes in the observed wood properties depended on the treatment temperature. Based on our results of all properties, the different temperature modified wood could find uses in the making of musical instruments or where the specific values of these wood characteristics are required. The mild thermal modification resulted in a decrease in mass, density, and increased speed of sound and dynamic modulus of elasticity at all temperatures of modification. The thermally modified wood showed higher sound radiation and lower loss coefficients than unmodified wood. The modification also influenced the timbre of sound of both wood species.