Relationships between Some Biodiversity Indicators and Crown Damage of Pinus sylvestris L. in Natural Old Growth Pine Forests

Abstract

Biodiversity at the species and individual levels is one of the fundamental elements characterizing an ecosystem. It is assumed that the greater the level of biodiversity, the more tolerant the environment is to changes in external conditions. In recent years, dynamic climate change has negatively impacted the health of many forest trees across Europe, in particular Scots pine. Tree health is commonly characterized by crown defoliation. The study presented here describes and correlates crown defoliation with biodiversity indicators at the species and individual tree levels. Research was conducted in two national parks in Poland (Kampinoski and Bory Tucholskie). Since stands have been under legal protection for many years and forest management is not practiced there, stand development processes taking place there are similar to natural ones. This study provided empirical data on ecosystem response to external stresses based on species and genetic structure. The results confirm differing health of the populations, which results from, among other factors, stand age and the environmental conditions in which they grow. Pine stands in both national parks are genetically diverse but with low genetic variability. Differences in stand health are related to the number of alleles forming the genetic pool. This conclusion is supported by a high correlation coefficient for interactions between defoliation, the number of alleles, and the Shannon index for genotypes. This suggests that greater gene diversity is likely to provide a wider range of phenotypic responses to environmental change.