Occurrence of the silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) butt rot in protected areas

The aim of the study was to analyse butt rot incidences in silver fir stands of selected nature reserves and national parks. The study included 11 stands in Carpathian forests and for comparison 4 stands outside the Carpathians. To identify butt rot in fir trees, we used the non-invasive method of acoustic tomography. We tested 30 randomly selected fir trees in each of the 15 stands using Picus Sonic tomography to determine butt rot occurrence and to assess the proportion (%) of healthy wood in cross-sections of the tree trunk. The results indicate significant differences in the frequency of butt rot in silver fir at the individual level as well as the population level. This variability in frequency was not dependent on geographical location of the investigated stands.

Przemysław Szmit

The paper comprises the results of the study carried out in a framework of the research project “The use of tomography in the analysis of butt rot of silver fir trees in forest stands in protected nature reserves in the Carpathian Land of Nature and Forest” financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education from the budget funds in the years 2010–2013 (grant 1008/B/P01/2010/39).