DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7701-024-5-0085

Silver Fir (Abies alba Mill.), a Raising Queen of the Woods: a Brief Overview of Fir’s Ecology, and Impact on Soil and Silviculture

Petr Zapletal¹, Aleš Kučera¹, Pavel Bednář²

¹ Departmnent of Geology and Soil Science, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendelu university in Brno, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic

² Výzkumná stanice Opočno. Výzkumný ústav lesního hospodářství a myslivosti, v.v.i., Strnady 136, 252 02 Jíloviště, Czech Republic

Ongoing climate change is the main of many factors driving huge changes in forestry all over Europe. On one hand the rising temperatures allow higher volume increments of many tree species but on the other hand forest evapotranspiration is less and less often compensated by enough precipitation leading to stressing of trees. Huge dieback of allochthonous Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) stands in central Europe is an example of insufficient soil water availability through recent growing seasons. Autochthonous stands show both better resistance and resilience and so do mixed stands. Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) is one of Europe’s most important woody species both in ecological and economical aspect. It has gone through a significant change in its representation in Czech forests through last two centuries though, starting at around 20% and currently moving around 1,2%. Fir can effectively stabilize forest stands thanks to its deep root system and it can also lift water from deeper soil levels into topsoil making it available for itself and other trees even of different species. The roots can also improve the soil’s physical conditions and connect to many mycorrhizal fungi species. Fir can grow in mixture with many other commercial tree species (i.e. Fagus sylvatica L., Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), positively affecting their seeds’ germination or volume increment. It is not yet known for sure what is the meliorative effect of fir as most science work focused on topsoil without studying mineral soil layer. As for topsoil, the fir creates significantly less litter but of very similar chemical and physical properties.

Klíčová slova: climate change, melioration, mixed forests, Norway spruce, roots, stabilization

stránky: 85-95, online: 2025