Productivity and functioning of the beech ecosystem: Ecological Experimental Station – Kremnické vrchy Mts. (Western Carpathians)

At beginning of the 1980‘s, the National Science Foundation (USA) came up with the initiation of the program for Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), which is a program based on long-term comprehensive study of the structure and processes of ecosystems. The Ecological Experimental Station (EES) in the Kremnické vrchy Mountains (Western Carpathians, Slovakia, 1986) was founded for similar purposes. The aim of the research at EES was to evaluate the productivity, carrying capacity and functioning of the beech ecosystem. In February 1989, five plots were established. Four plots were subjected to a regeneration cutting of different intensities (clear-cut, strip shelterwood cut: light, medium and heavy). The fifth plot was left without any management treatments as a control. The second cutting was performed in 2004 followed by the final cutting five years later. Currently, the research is carried out on the EES control plot in the stand comprising 115–120 years old beech trees. In the other stands the research is focused on the development of naturally regenerated beech ecosystems established after different cutting interventions. The future of the EES is in addressing some global issues, particularly the impact of climate change on primary production, as well as on its other consequences for the functioning of the affected ecosystems.