Structure and diversity in a periurban forest of Bucharest, Romania

Abstract

Mitigating the adverse effects of climate change and worldwide urbanization is one of the main tasks of local authorities and city managers. As a long-term solution, urban and periurban forests have the potential to mitigate the impacts of climate change by providing ecosystem services such as removing air pollutants, mitigating the urban heat islands, storing carbon, regulating local climate, limiting the risk of flooding, reducing noise levels, and improving the physical and mental health of citizens and their welfare. To promote, conserve, and enhance the benefits offered by the periurban forests, it is needed to adequately describe the forest ecosystems state, and understand well their structure and functionality. The objective of this study was to investigate the structure, diversity, and health status of one of the main periurban forest in Bucharest. In 2015 and 2020, biophysical measurements (diameter at breast height, total height, wood quality, cenotic class) and assessments of forest health status were conducted in a permanent sample monitoring network (PSMN). This PSMN consists of 46 sample plots located in the periurban Stefănești forest near Bucharest, Romania. The calculation included tree characteristics and stand volumes, while the tree species diversity was characterized using the Shannon (H) and Gini (G) indexes. Our study confirmed that higher diversity indexes of tree species and variability amongst the biometric characteristics at forest stand level sustain ecosystem resilience and adaptability to climate change, simultaneously bolstering their capacity to provide various ecosystem services. The gained insights are critical in helping forest managers, policymakers, and any stakeholders in the effort to evaluate and model the ecosystem services.

Urban parks as a refuge for the Wood-cricket, Nemobius sylvestris (Orthoptera: Trigonidiidae)

“…In the past 100 years, the privately owned forests surrounding Bucharest were subject to increasing anthropogenic degradation, under pressure by exponential residential and agricultural development as well as abusive cutting and logging, altogether with the adverse management of forest regeneration (Grigorescu and Geacu 2017; Leca et al 2023). Also, in the last seven years, drought was another factor which affected the forest habitats surrounding Bucharest by tree defoliation and diminishing the herb layer (Leca et al 2023).…”

“…In the past 100 years, the privately owned forests surrounding Bucharest were subject to increasing anthropogenic degradation, under pressure by exponential residential and agricultural development as well as abusive cutting and logging, altogether with the adverse management of forest regeneration (Grigorescu and Geacu 2017; Leca et al 2023). Also, in the last seven years, drought was another factor which affected the forest habitats surrounding Bucharest by tree defoliation and diminishing the herb layer (Leca et al 2023). Following up the past years, the parks from the northern string of lakes diminished and the wooden habitat has been constantly fragmented, a major threat to a species with very limited dispersal ability such as Nemobius sylvestris (Brouwers and Newton 2009b).…”

Carbon Sequestration Dynamics in Peri-Urban Forests: Comparing Secondary Succession and Mature Stands under Varied Forest Management Practices

“…Despite the traditional focus on wood production, there is a growing interest in quantifying the carbon sequestration capacity of Romanian forests, which are characterised by a wide range of climatic, vegetative and soil conditions due to their extensive altitudinal gradient [33]. Besides, studies on peri-urban forests in Romania quantifying the carbon stock and carbon stock change over time are very scarce, instead focusing on forest structure and diversity [34,35] or historical changes in the forest-covered areas [36]. Additionally, according to the National Forest Inventory [33], around half a million hectares of forest are outside of the national forest area, and peri-urban forests are partially one of them, with significant implications on the national greenhouse gasses inventory report regarding carbon sequestration by different pools [37].…”

Integrating monetary and non-monetary valuation for ecosystem services in Piatra Craiului national park, Southern Carpathians: a comprehensive approach to sustainability and conservation

“…For the area where the research was carried out, respectively, Romania, several studies have been conducted to assess forest ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration (Chivulescu and Schiteanu, 2017;Dobre et al, 2021;Nichiforel et al, 2021;Pache et al, 2021;Pitar et al, 2021;Chivulescu et al, 2022) water purification (Petz et al, 2012;Platon et al, 2015), and recreational value (Hartel et al, 2014;Bogdan et al, 2019;Tudoran et al, 2022). However, as environmental conditions evolve and human pressures on forests intensify, further research is necessary to comprehensively understand the changing dynamics of these services and devise effective conservation measures (Chivulescu et al, 2020;Leca et al, 2023).…”