The Journal is published by the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic, the Krkonoše Mts. National Park Administration, the Bohemian Forest Mts. National Park Administration, the Podyjí National Park Administration and the The Bohemian Switzerland National Park Administration. It has been published since 1946.
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Nature Conservation 1/2008 — 26. 2. 2008 — Research, Surveys and Data Management
Research and Monitoring in Natural Forest Left to Spontaneous Development
Pro hodnocení změn ekosystémů je jedinou objektivně srovnatelnou bází jejich přírodní stav bez lidského zásahu. Přestože lesní ekosystémy byly v minulosti v Evropě významně ovlivněny člověkem, představují jejich nejméně ovlivněné zbytky unikátní a jedinečnou základnu pro výzkum spontánních procesů.
<p>The efforts to know and to understand natural forest dynamics patterns had been clear already in what is now the Czech Republic in the 19th century, having been a necessary background which could be rather elaborated not only into nature conservation in forests, but also into ecologically sound forest management. The first research plots which purpose was to reveal process patterns in natural forests were established by Josef John, the forest manager on the Schwarzenberg noble family estate, in the Boubín Primeval Forest in 1847. After some longer pause, Alois Zlatník began to study natural forest dynamics in Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the 1930s. In the 1950s, forest protected areas were examined by Jindřich Chmelař and Jaroslav Řehák. In parallel, na-tural forest dynamics in forest protected areas started to be studied by Miroslav Vyskot in the late 1950s. In the 1970s, the Forestry and Game Management Research Institute – Opočno Research Station staff members started their studies on forest protected areas in the Orlické hory Mts. and Krkonoše/Giant Mts. The research team at the Faculty of Forestry, Wildlife and Wood Science, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague deals with research in mountain Norway Spruce (Picea abies) forest dynamics in the Šumava/Bohemian Forest Mts., particularly at Mt. Trojmezná (Miroslav Svoboda) and in the network of permanent plots covering a mountain forest gradient in the Šumava/Bohemian Forest National Park (Stanislav Vacek & Vilém Podrázský). The most extensive and comprehensive study was carried out by Eduard Průša in 13 primeval forest-like protected areas in the 1970s. Canopy was geodetically measured across the whole protected areas, permanent typolo-gical plots for herb/ground layer and soil condition monitoring were established, transects for studying forest growth structure were delimitated, etc. Since 1993, the Průša's research has been followed up in the same extent by the present Department of Forest Ecology, Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, developing the current research in natural forest dynamics.</p>