Search Results (15)

Climate change, accompanied by anomalously high temperatures and a decrease in precipitation during the warm season, can have serious consequences for the ecosystems and sustainability of the Ukrainian Polissia. In particular, there are increased risks of forest and peat fires, as well as an overall deterioration of the region’s ecological condition. Between 1990 and 2021, the Ukrainian Polissia region recorded an average temperature increase of 0.60 °C per decade, along with a 3–5% decrease in annual precipitation. An analysis of the spatial distribution of wildfire incident density based on satellite data (FIRMS) in the regions of the Ukrainian Polissia from 2001 to 2023 highlighted several periods of sharp increases in fires: 2002, 2007–2009, 2014–2015, and 2019–2020. The Spring Fire Season and the Late Summer–Autumn Fire Season coincide with periods of reduced precipitation, which in some years reached 40–60% below the climatic norm. Although the climatic conditions of spring 2022 were not as warm and dry as those in 2020, significant parts of Kyiv Polissia and Chernihiv Polissia suffered from large-scale wildfires due to ongoing military actions. The spatial distribution of fire frequency in 2020 and 2022 highlights different contributing factors: in 2020, weather anomalies were the primary cause, while in 2022, armed hostilities played a key role. Military conflicts not only increase the risk of fires but also complicate firefighting efforts, making the region even more vulnerable to large-scale forest fires, and thereby threatening its sustainability. These findings underscore the urgent need for integrated fire management strategies that take into account climate change, land-use policies, and geopolitical factors to mitigate the escalating wildfire threat in the region and ensure long-term sustainability. Full article

Forests are crucial in sustaining life on Earth and are at the core of global sustainability efforts, to which Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification makes a significant contribution. Changes in motivations, benefits, and challenges associated with FSC certification among Croatian companies, particularly in light of recent market fluctuations and global sustainability trends, have been examined in this study. The research was conducted in 2015 and 2023 using a survey method among FSC chain of custody (CoC) certificate holders in Croatia. A statistically significant decline in the proportion of companies citing customer demands and company image as the main reasons for FSC certification was observed, while environmental awareness became a more prominent motivation. Additionally, although key benefits such as retaining existing customers and attracting new ones remain important, a significant decline in the proportion of companies reporting increased profits as a benefit was noted. Challenges related to extensive documentation and frequent changes in standards also significantly increased. This study suggests that FSC certification remains crucial for maintaining competitiveness in the Croatian wood industry, especially as environmental concerns gain importance. Given that FSC standards help enforce European sustainability regulations, FSC certification is important for ensuring long-term resilience and success in an unstable market environment. Full article

The research on land transfer has essential theoretical and practical significance in ensuring food security and curbing the land de-graining. Based on the characteristics of large-scale and mechanized land in the H region of China, we constructed a prediction index for the willingness to transfer land in. The random forest (RF) algorithm was used to evaluate the importance of the factors affecting the land transfer-in willingness and the main factors were analyzed. The results show that: (1) The overall prediction accuracy of the RF model was 86.98% and the out-of-bag prediction error was 13.02%. (2) The factors that had an essential impact on the willingness to transfer to land were land area, the proportion of agricultural income, and crop type. The less influential factors were the size of the labor force, identity, and gender. (3) We found that 68% of the interviewed farmers wanted to increase land to expand the scale of production; this proportion was much higher than that in other parts of the country. The farmers were more willing to increase land to plant economic crops, which has a negative impact on the stability of food production. (4) Alleviating the negative impact of the Russian–Ukrainian conflict and stabilizing the production of economic crops, ensuring the safety of food production, and promoting the balanced development of food production and economic crops are topics that need to be continuously explored. This study can provide a useful reference for the development of the moderate-scale management of agriculture in China. Full article

Intensive management in European forests in the 20th century resulted in the substitution of the old-growth natural forests with plantations on vast territories. The spatial structure and tree species composition of the planted forests are simplified making the forests vulnerable to diseases and disturbances. The old-growth natural forests that remained in some places can be used as etalon forests for the reconstructed forests in similar environmental conditions. We studied spatial structure, biodiversity indicators and carbon stocks of the old-growth natural forests in the Ukrainian Carpathians in order to set forest management targets for the forest plantations in the region. Full article

The nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, resulted in effects both locally and farther away. Most of the contaminated areas were the agricultural fields and forests. Experimental fields were established near Chernobyl—radioactively contaminated fields localized 5 km from Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant as well as the remediated soil that is localized directly in the Chernobyl town. Two flax varieties growing under chronic exposition to ionizing radiation were used for this study—the local Ukrainian variety Kyivskyi and a commercial variety Bethune. The screening of the length polymorphism generated by transposable elements insertions were performed. All known types of common flax transposon, retrotransposons and iPBS approach were used. In the iPBS multiplex analyze, for the Kyivskyi variety, a unique addition was found in the seeds from the radioactive contaminated field and for the Bethune variety, a total of five amplicon additions were obtained and one deletion. For the TRIM Cassandra fingerprints, two amplicon additions were generated in the seeds from radioactive contaminated fields for the Bethune variety. In summary, the obtained data represent the genetic diversity between control and irradiated subgroups of flax seeds from Chernobyl area and the presence of activated transposable elements due to the irradiation stress. Full article

The topical issues for elaboration of new approaches to grow English oak (Quercus robur L.) seedlings with the purpose to establish sustainable plantations in forest-steppe Ukraine. The goal of the research is to elaborate a technology for growing the containerized seedlings of English oak. Oaks are among the most common tree species found throughout the world. Throughout history, oaks have provided humans and wildlife with shelter, and food. However Ukrainian forests face multiple natural and anthropogenic pressures. Climate change generates a particular threat for Ukrainian forests and stability of agroforestry landscapes. This paper considers the impacts of expected climate change on vulnerability of Ukrainian forests, especially for oaks. In response to forest depletion, stricter forest management practices emerged to replant, protect and maintain forest cover and the multi-functionality of forests in terms of wood production. Even though oaks have wide ecological amplitudes of suitable growing conditions, Ukrainian forests dominated by oaks often fail to regenerate naturally. In this regard, it is necessary to increase the cultivation of crops in containers. Field germination of oak seedlings in containers with different substrate composition was identified in the case study in the conditions of Ukrainian Left-bank Forest-Steppe. The height and diameter values of the seedlings were investigated and summarized including the influence of the root ball substrate composition. We tested different compositions of the substrate containing low-land peat, which is rich in nutrients and mixtures with different ratios of soil, humus and sawdust. The advantage over the control in germination ability, survival and condition has been experimentally proved for variants with the use of peat in the substrate and, to a large extent, for the variant with the use of soil, humus and sawdust. Among tested substrates, the peat-containing variant with equal portions of dark gray wooded middle loamy soil and peat (peat:soil = 1:1) and the variant of the three-component mixture soil:humus:sawdust = 4:2:1 are the most balanced in the basic soil parameters (acidity and nutrient content). In the same time they are the best among the studied ones for the productive growing of English oak seedlings. The use of containerized planting stock allowed foresters not only to significantly extend the terms of forest planting, which is particularly topical for Ukraine, but also to increase the root-taking of planting stock up to nearly 100% in forest-cultivated areas. Full article

A forest’s structure changes as it progresses through developmental stages from establishment to old-growth forest. Therefore, the vertical structure of old-growth forests will differ from that of younger, managed forests. Free, publicly available spaceborne Laser Range and Detection (LiDAR) data designed for the determination of forest structure has recently become available through NASA’s General Ecosystem and Development Investigation (GEDI). We use this data to investigate the structure of some of the largest remaining old-growth forests in Europe in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. We downloaded 18489 cloud-free shots in the old-growth forest (OGF) and 20398 shots in adjacent non-OGF areas during leaf-on, snow-free conditions. We found significant differences between OGF and non-OGF over a wide range of structural metrics. OGF was significantly more open, with a more complex vertical structure and thicker ground-layer vegetation. We used Random Forest classification on a range of GEDI-derived metrics to classify OGF shapefiles with an accuracy of 73%. Our work demonstrates the use of spaceborne LiDAR for the identification of old-growth forests. Full article

Social innovation is recognised for its potential to turn societal challenges into opportunities and develop sustainable solutions for people and nature. We identify and examine challenges that Ukrainian forestry is facing and apply an “action arena” conceptual approach to explore whether and how social innovation can enhance the sustainable development of forestry. We develop a framework to analyse the reconfiguration of social practices by using research methods that focus on the use of documentation of the institutional contexts and interviewing forest policy experts, as well as stakeholder evaluation of the challenges and ways forward for Ukrainian forestry. We apply the Q-method to identify stakeholder attitudes and examine the role of people in the reconfiguring of social practices and promoting sustainable development of the forest sector. Implications for changing the rules of the game and institutional perspectives on forestry are identified, with examples of social innovation initiatives presented. Results show that to emerge, develop, and be transformative, social innovation must have supporting institutional conditions to create new norms, rules, and social practices. Relevant stakeholders need to envision alternative futures, reshape places, and become more actively engaged in decision-making processes. We identify the key directions for changing the rules of the game and the opportunities that social innovation has to offer. Full article

Preservation and increase of forest area are necessary conditions for the biosphere functioning. Forest ecosystems in most parts of the world are affected by fires. According to the latest data, the forest fire situation has become complicated in Ukraine, and this issue requires ongoing investigation. The aim of the study was to analyse the dynamics of wildfires in Ukrainian forests over recent decades and to assess the complex indicator of wildfire occurrence in various forest management zones and administrative regions. The average annual complex indicator of fire occurrence, in terms of wildfire number and burned area, was studied in detail in the forests of various administrative regions and forest management zones in Ukraine from 1998 to 2017. The results show that fire occurrence in both the number and area of fires can vary significantly in various forest management zones. There is a very noticeable difference in these indicators in some administrative regions within a particular forest management zone. The data show that the number of forest fires depends not only on the natural and climatic conditions of such regions, but also on anthropogenic factors. Full article

In Ukraine, carbon stocks in forests are assessed by the gain-loss method since the national forest inventory is under development now. For the evaluation of main pools of oak and pine forest stands, typical for the Forest-steppe of Ukraine, the stock-difference method was used for the data of repeated observations on 18 intensive forest monitoring plots. The average carbon stock in the phytomass was 94.1 ± 19.8 tC·ha⁻¹ and 93.4 ± 12.8 tC·ha⁻¹, while in the deadwood, it was 8.8 ± 7.3 tC·ha⁻¹ and 5.3 ± 4.3 tC·ha⁻¹ for oak and pine forest stands, respectively. In terms of age classes, pine stands, due to their higher productivity, in general, had a higher carbon (C) stock in phytomass compared to oak. C stock changes in trees phytomass were the highest in younger stands, and they decreased with age, while in deadwood, they increased. At age 81–100 years, oak forest stands had higher carbon storage capacity than pine (total stock in main pools (phytomass, mortmass, and soils (30-cm layer)) was 191.7 tC·ha⁻¹ for oak and 175.4 tC·ha⁻¹ for pine stands). Trees phytomass carbon prevailed among other pools (50.3% in oak forests and 57.6% in pine). Full article

The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster continue to threaten humans and ecosystems across fallout gradient in Northern Ukraine and nearby. Forest ecosystems contain substantial stocks of long-lived radionuclide ⁹⁰Sr which was leached from the fuel matrix during the disaster. Nowadays, there is a lack of information about current transfer factors (TF) of this radionuclide from soil to the stemwood of native tree species. We have estimated ⁹⁰Sr content in the forest stemwood of three tree species utilizing models of their growth and yield and collected woody samplings. TFs provided here vary greatly across studied tree species (18.0 × 2.1^±1, 8.7 × 2.8^±1, and 10.4 × 6.0^±1 n × 10⁻³ m²·kg⁻¹ (geometrical mean (GM) ± geometrical standard deviation, GSD) for the above species, respectively) and together with indicators of soil contamination allow us to reliably assess local stocks in the stemwood. Silver birch stands are estimated to deposit the highest ⁹⁰Sr stocks. Herewith, at 25 years old Black alder stands could accumulate higher stocks (up to 35 MBq·ha⁻¹) under rich growth conditions. TFs obtained in this study substantially exceed values provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency for studied tree species and thus could entail respective restrictions on use of firewood across large areas in Ukrainian Polissya. Data provided here may be harnessed to support decisions of respective stakeholders to provide credibly safe management of the contaminated forest ecosystems. Full article

Human activity has greatly reduced the area of old-growth forest in Europe, with some of the largest remaining fragments in the Carpathian Mountains of south-western Ukraine. We used satellite image analysis to calculate old-growth forest disturbance in this region from 2010 to 2019. Over this period, we identified 1335 ha of disturbance in old-growth forest, equivalent to 1.8% of old-growth forest in the region. During 2015 to 2019, the average annual disturbance rate was 0.34%, varying with altitude, distance to settlements and location within the region. Disturbance rates were 7–8 times lower in protected areas compared to outside of protected areas. Only one third of old-growth forest is currently within protected areas; expansion of the protected area system to include more old-growth forests would reduce future loss. A 2017 law that gave protection to all old-growth forest in Ukraine had no significant impact on disturbance rates in 2018, but in 2019 disturbance rates reduced to 0.19%. Our analysis is the first indication that this new legislation may be reducing loss of old-growth forest in Ukraine. Full article

Climate change continues to threaten forests and their ecosystem services while substantially altering natural disturbance regimes. Land cover changes and consequent management entail discrepancies in carbon sequestration provided by forest ecosystems and its accounting. Currently there is a lack of sufficient and harmonized data for Ukraine that can be used for the robust and spatially explicit assessment of forest provisioning and regulation of ecosystem services. In the frame of this research, we established an experimental polygon (area 45 km²) in Northern Ukraine aiming at estimating main forest carbon stocks and fluxes and determining the impact caused by natural disturbances and harvest for the study period of 2010–2015. Coupled field inventory and remote sensing data (RapidEye image for 2010 and SPOT 6 image for 2015) were used. Land cover classification and estimation of biomass and carbon pools were carried out using Random Forest and k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) method, respectively. Remote sensing data indicates a ca. 16% increase of carbon stock, while ground-based computations have shown only a ca. 1% increase. Net carbon fluxes for the study period are relatively even: 5.4 Gg C·year⁻¹ and 5.6 Gg C C·year⁻¹ for field and remote sensing data, respectively. Stand-replacing wildfires, as well as insect outbreaks and wind damage followed by salvage logging, and timber harvest have caused 21% of carbon emissions among all C sources within the experimental polygon during the study period. Hence, remote sensing data and non-parametric methods coupled with field data can serve as reliable tools for the precise estimation of forest carbon cycles on a regional spatial scale. However, featured land cover changes lead to unexpected biases in consistent assessment of forest biophysical parameters, while current management practices neglect natural forest dynamics and amplify negative impact of disturbances on ecosystem services. Full article

Old-growth forests are an important, rare and endangered habitat in Europe. The ability to identify old-growth forests through remote sensing would be helpful for both conservation and forest management. We used data on beech, Norway spruce and mountain pine old-growth forests in the Ukrainian Carpathians to test whether Sentinel-2 satellite images could be used to correctly identify these forests. We used summer and autumn 2017 Sentinel-2 satellite images comprising 10 and 20 m resolution bands to create 6 vegetation indices and 9 textural features. We used a Random Forest classification model to discriminate between dominant tree species within old-growth forests and between old-growth and other forest types. Beech and Norway spruce were identified with an overall accuracy of around 90%, with a lower performance for mountain pine (70%) and mixed forest (40%). Old-growth forests were identified with an overall classification accuracy of 85%. Adding textural features, band standard deviations and elevation data improved accuracies by 3.3%, 2.1% and 1.8% respectively, while using combined summer and autumn images increased accuracy by 1.2%. We conclude that Random Forest classification combined with Sentinel-2 images can provide an effective option for identifying old-growth forests in Europe. Full article

Ukraine is a country of the Mid-Latitude ecotone—a transition zone between forest zone and forestless dry lands. Availability of water defines distribution of the country’s forests and decreases their productivity towards the south. Climate change generates a particular threat for Ukrainian forests and stability of agroforestry landscapes. This paper considers the impacts of expected climate change on vulnerability of Ukrainian forests using ensembles of global and regional climatic models (RCM) based on Scenarios B1, A2, A1B of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, and a “dry and warm” scenario A1B+T−P (increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation). The spatially explicit assessment was provided by RCM for the WMO standard period (1961–1990), “recent” (1991–2010) and three future periods: 2011–2030, 2031–2050 and 2081–2100. Forest-climate model by Vorobjov and model of amplitude of flora’s tolerance to climate change by Didukh, as well as a number of specialized climatic indicators, were used in the assessment. Different approaches lead to rather consistent conclusions. Water stress is the major limitation factor of distribution and resilience of flatland Ukrainian forests. Within Scenario A1B, the area with unsuitable growth conditions for major forest forming species will substantially increase by end of the century occupying major part of Ukraine. Scenario A1B+T−P projects even a more dramatic decline of the country’s forests. It is expected that the boundary of conditions that are favorable for forests will shift to north and northwest, and forests of the xeric belt will be the most vulnerable. Consistent policies of adaptation and mitigation might reduce climate-induced risks for Ukrainian forests. Full article