The effects of forest patch size and ownership structure on tree stand characteristics in a highly deforested landscape of central Poland

Abstract

Forest structure is influenced by the origin, history and manner of forest management. All these aspects may affect the occurrence of many forest dwelling organisms. We investigated the simultaneous impact of forest patch size and ownership structure on selected forest characteristics in central Poland. We sampled stand composition, the DBH of particular tree species, basal area, species number and species diversity in all 32 forest patches found in a farmland-dominated area of 150 km 2 . Forest ownership status was linked to patch size: large patches were state-owned and small ones were private. Ownership status also affected the average DBH and basal area of all tree species pooled, with lower DBH and basal area found in private forests. The share of deciduous trees was negatively affected by forest size, while pine was positively affected, which could suggest that forest management and economic interests may be related to this factor. The share of non-native species was higher in state forests. Our results showed that forest patch size could be associated with its ownership status, which is commonly ignored in research on the relationship between forest size and species occurrence. Historical as well as sociological aspects related to private forests in Poland are also presented.

Landownership is an unexplored determinant of forest understory plant composition in Northern France

“…Landscape patterns displayed the highest correlations with landownership among the group of ENVIR factors (Table 2): private forests were closer to the external forest edge, in smaller forest patches and in more fragmented landscapes than public forests, consistently with our Author-produced version of the article published in Forest Ecology and Management, 2013, Vol 306, 281-291 Original publication available at http://www.sciencedirect.com doi : 10.1016/j.foreco.2013.06.064 initial assumption (Zmihorski et al, 2010;Riitters et al, 2012). This suggests private forest is more prone to the influence of the surrounding matrix, in relation to processes occurring at the forest edge (Harper et al, 2005).…”

“…These soil differences corroborated that severe site conditions were less desirable for private ownership due to their lower suitability for agriculture (Wright et al, 2001). In addition, a substantial proportion of the private forested lands were likely to result from agricultural set-aside (Zmihorski et al, 2010). The European forest soil survey also revealed that forest soils in France were more acidic and superficially waterlogged than agricultural soils (Badeau et al, Author-produced version of the article published in Forest Ecology and Management, 2013, Vol 306, 281-291 Original publication available at http://www.sciencedirect.com doi : 10.1016/j.foreco.2013.06.064 1999).…”

“…Conversely, state forest resources are likely to be more exploited as the market for biomass energy develops (Lattimore et al, 2009). Private forest owners in Western, Central and Eastern Europe are typically non-industrial private owners (Zmihorski et al, 2010). The context largely differs from Scandinavia or North America where the big private forest owners are industrial private owners (Maltamo et al, 1997;Ohmann et al, 2007).…”

“…We also expected that private forest stands would be more intensively managed than public forests, and thus would be younger and have a lower stand basal area and volume and would host more disturbance-tolerant species, whereas public forests would host more disturbance-sensitive species. Finally, we expected a higher proportion of private forests to be recently afforested, smaller (Zmihorski et al, 2010) and often disconnected from ancient forests or preferentially located at their periphery : thus, we hypothesised that fast-colonizing species would be more frequent in private forests while species with lower dispersal ability would be more frequent in state forests. In addition to these assumptions, we assumed that environmental conditions and plant trait responses in "other public" forests (run by local public, departmental or regional authorities or by public institutions) would be intermediate between state and private forests.…”

Hazel Grouse occurrence in fragmented forests: habitat quantity and configuration is more important than quality

“…This is somewhat surprising, since forest ownership structure in Poland markedly affects several forest characteristics ( _ Zmihorski et al 2010). This can be explained as the result of the distribution of 2 of the most suitable types of forest habitats for the Hazel Grouse.…”