Soil Characteristics as Criteria for “smartness” for the European Mountain Forests

Abstract

Climate-Smart Forestry in mountain regions is an approach that can help to realize potential of the forest sector to contribute to climate change mitigation and to identify new principles and measures to reap this potential. These new measures and criteria include identification of key soil characteristics of beech forests in Europe. Total of 80 soil samples from 15 soil profiles were collected from beech forests of Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. Methodology used for soil analyses: electrical conductivity (EC) and pH (measured by portable meters), content of organic carbon (Corg – elemental analyser), grain size distribution (pipet analysis), content of major and minor minerals determined by XRF and ICP-OEC. Also concentrations of anions were determined by ionchromatogarphy. The average content of organic carbon in tested soils is 2.4%. The highest concentrations are found in soils on limestones than on granite rocks and lowest concentrations on soils developed on sandstones. Concentrations of carbonate and sulphate anions are also highest in limestone soils, while phosphate and nitrate ions do not show variation with bedrock type. From the obtained results it can be concluded that the bedrock has strong influence on soil properties. The obtained differences are reflected in the depth of soil profiles, structure of aggregates and physico-chemical composition. The results of this study will help in the definition of climate-smart forestry and identification of “smartness” criteria for the European beech forests.