Effect of structure and dynamics of forests on the occurrence of Erythronium dens-canis

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study on the impact of forest stand structure and development in 1998 to 2018 on the occurrence of dog’s tooth violets (Erythronium dens-canis L.) in the Medník National Nature Monument, Czech Republic. The research was carried out in mixed European hornbeam and sessile oak stands, herb-rich European beech stands and the Sázava-river Norway spruce ecotype stands. The site and stand characteristics of the following three forest stand types were compared: 1) oak-hornbeam forests, 2) herb-rich beech forests and 3) secondary spruce forests. The results showed that the ratio of sterile and fertile plants was 2.9 to 1. The occurrence of E. dens-canis was higher in older stands with differentiated structure. On the contrary, stands characterized by a higher number of trees and basal area negatively affected the population size of E. dens‑canis. Significantly, the density of E. dens-canis decreased with increasing stand density index (SDI) and increased with increasing diameter differentiation index in relation to tree neighbours (TM_d). During the period of 20 years, the E. dens-canis population increased by 40.4% on permanent research plots, while the highest changes were observed on spruce plots (+92.1%) and the lowest increase was in oak-hornbeam forests (+18.0%). The highest numbers of E. dens-canis plants were found in herb-rich beech forests (1 774 plants·ha^–1), lower numbers occurred in oak-hornbeam forests (784 plants·ha^–1) and minimal in secondary spruce forests (51 plants·ha^–1).