PINE (Predicting Impacts on Natural Ecotones)

PINE project investigated environmental changes near tree-line in the Alps and Scandinavia. We aimed to reconstruct changes of vegetation in the last 300 years in order to understand, how climatic fluctuations and human impact will affect these vulnerable environments in the future and what will be the impacts of key land-use management decisions on the European tree-line ecotones under different climatic change scenarios. The following research techniques were used: dendrochronological research, studies of annual growth and cambial activity of trees, pollen analysis and measurements of carbon stable isotopes in peat and wood.

Pokljuka, tree drilling.

Šijec, palynological sampling

Palynological research was carried out on Šijec peat bog on Pokljuka plateau. Sphagnum peat bogs are very suitable for high resolution pollen analysis because of fast growth and good pollen preservation.

Šijec, peat bog

The results of palynological research have demonstrated that around ca. 1900 AD the landscape was most open, whereas the impact of agriculture and grazing was strongest. This is in accordance with land-use studies (Petek 2004). Changes of forest composition and peaks of spruce pollen on the diagram, which are associated with spruce flowering years, were also detected. Therefore the results of pollen analysis open several questions: Were vegetation changes on Pokljuka the same as elsewhere in the Alps or Scandinavia and therefore global? Which changes of the vegetation were local (limited to Pokljuka area) and why? What triggers spruce flowering? Does global climatic warming affect forest composition and pollen production? What land-use will be most appropriate in the future? Some of these questions will be addressed by comparing pollen data with the results of other analyses carried out within the PINE project. Publication of all data is being prepared.

Researchers at first PINE milestone meeting in Ljubljana.