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The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. The role of the urban common (i.e. shared space and resources) in sustainable provisioning of goods and services to city dwellers is discussed in this paper. Focusing on tree-based green infrastructure, the study scope includes three categories of provisioning (woody biomass, food/fibre, and non-timber forest products, i.e. NTFPs), alongside three categories of supporting services (fresh water replenishment, soil nutrient restoration, building preservation). As a first step, prospects of utilizing the urban common as facilitator of nature-based solution to the earmarked provisioning services are evaluated through dedicated literature survey and expert elicitation on perceived impact of environmental change triggers and management interventions (planning and/or governance). This is followed by a structured review of the state of affairs in four European cities (London, Amsterdam, Sofia, Ljubljana), representing different macro-geographical regions with distinct socio-economic drivers in managing these provisioning services. The pan-European expert elicitation exercise noted active management of the urban common as positively impacting on the performance of the majority of provisioning services, while environmental change impacts were found to be overriding and adversely influencing the provisioning of material resources (mainly NTFPs and woody biomass). The four-city case study highlighted some regional peculiarities in connecting the city dwellers to the urban common and identified the need to overcome socio-cultural barriers for enhancing pan-European best practice sharing in the management of goods and services provisioning. This is deemed essential to pave way for an emerging perspective on sustainable utilization of the urban common as an enabler for nature-based solution, making it fit for purpose in meeting the astronomical demands of future urban living.

The purpose of this study, which contains historical data recorded over a period of 40 years, was to identify the main factors that influence and control the level of wood mass production. The main reason was to optimize the management of forest areas and was driven by the necessity to identify factors that can influence most of the volume produced by coniferous forests located in southeast Europe. The data was collected between1980 and 2005 at the National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry, for forests located in the Southern Carpathians, Romania. The studied data refer to the parameters that model forest structure for spruce, fir, pine, and larch. These are the main resinous species found in the Southern Carpathians. The total area covered by these forests is 143,431 ha. At the forest species level, the analysis consists of 16,162 records (corresponding to the elements of the trees), covering an area of 45,008 ha for fir, 4711 ha for larch, 81,995 ha for spruce, and 11,717 ha for pine. The aim of this research has been to investigate and to assess the impact and magnitude of abiotic factors such as altitude and field aspect on forest structures from the main resinous stands located in the Southern Carpathians. Taking into account the size of the database as well as the duration for collecting data, a complete statistical and systematic approach was considered optimum. This resulted from our wish to emphasize and evaluate the influence of each analysed factor on the wood mass production level. The relationship between abiotic factors and forest structure has been analysed by using a systematic statistical approach in order to provide a useful theoretical reference for the improvement of forest management practices in the context of multiple climatic, environmental, and socio-economic challenges. These common characteristics have been found by applying ANOVA and multivariate statistical methods such as PCA and FA methods. A series of parameters were considered in this investigation, namely altitude (ALT), forest site type (TS), forest type (TP), consistency (CONS) etc. In order to obtain a complete image, we have also applied multivariate analysis methods that emphasize the effect size for each database parameter. At such a level of recorded data, the statistical approach ensures a factor level of p &lt, 0.001 while the accuracy in evaluating effect size is increased. As such, they influence the spreading and structure of the studied resinous stands to a higher degree, regardless of species.

Soils are a natural capital which support life on Earth and are responsible for many ecosystem services that are the foundation for human wellbeing. However, soils have been intensively used and subject to degradation, particularly in urban areas. The main objective of this study is: i) to give an overview of soil conditions in urban protected areas (UPAs), and ii) to provide suggestions how the nature-based solution (NBS) can enhance the soil health in three UPAs located near or in the city of Belgrade, Serbia (Byford’s and Zvezdara forests, and Avala mountain). In this study pH values and soil organic matter content were analyzed as main parameters for the soil characterization. The Byford’s and Zvezdara forests have similar slightly alkaline soil pH, while the Mt. Avala soils are slightly acidic as a consequence of geological settings. The lower content of soil organic matter (1.26%–5.73%) in the Byford’s and Zvezdara forests might be improved with appropriate management practices. Introducing the principles of the NBS (e.g., incorporation of compost and biochar) in soil management practices in the protected areas, combined with conservation and restoration of forests, can provide enhanced soil health and supporting new green infrastructure (GI). The citizens and the society would highly benefit from a network of small green areas connected with UPAs in a number of ways, such as cleaner air, mitigation of noise stress, maintaining everyday wellbeing, recreation opportunities, contribution to employment and supporting social cohesion.

The present study evaluates the applicability performance of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in small forested watersheds (less than 1000 km2). This open-source software is widely used in investigations focused on water availability and quality. Overall, SWAT model performance ranges between satisfactory to good. Normally, underestimates daily peak discharges. The limitations of the model are related to the accuracy of climate data used and to the time period used for validation. Watershed area, forest cover and streamflow spatial distribution have an important influence on modeling processes. Overall, from the analyzed studies, we observed for discharge a decreasing tendency, more pronounced towards the end of the 21st century (up to −54%). For surface runoff, was noticed the same decreasing tendency up to 41%. Regarding sediment yield, the results vary within very wide limits. These findings vary according to watershed location, scenarios adopted, and the eligible period of time.

More than a third of Romania’s surface has low-productive soils, at the same time exposed to risks of climatic phenomena and generating high economic loss. Afforestation with pine has been the most common solution for the recovery of sheet erosion. Many of the pines grown on such land have run down. This paper presents the results of the first dendroecological investigation of degraded lands in Romania, 80 years after the first ecological reconstruction. In this way, the effects of reconstruction were assessed, supporting the adoption of future solutions for the improvement and efficiency of recovered ecosystems. Reconstructed radial growth was set against rainfall, air temperature, and management history. A total of 330 black pine and Scots pine trees (Pinus sylvestris L. and Pinus nigra Arn.) of different ages and social positions from 11 stands of different densities were cored for retrospective tree-ring analysis. Scots pine has made better use of these sites, with a better growth rate than black pine especially in plantations with lower survival and on dominant trees. The dynamics of radial growth distinguish the two pine species, with Scots pine showing an accentuated juvenile growth spurt and bigger growth range. The growth decline is predominantly a maturation effect that begins when the tree is around 40 years old and seems to be irreversible. After this age, weak or moderated removal is not enough to revive growth. The contribution of climate (air temperature and rainfall) to the last radial increments in decline is 3–57% and is higher than in the previous decades. On moderately degraded land by farming and grazing, the mixture of Scots pine and black pine, rather than monocultures, proved to be a sustainable solution. Dendrochronological surveying of restored ecosystems allows development of management strategies, which becomes critically important in the circumstances of climate warming.

14 páginas.- Ilustraciones.- © The authors 2017. Open Access under Creative Commons by Attribution Licence. Use, distribution and reproduction are unrestricted. Authors and original publication must be credited., Over the past decades, the altitudinal and latitudinal advance of forest lines has increased due to global warming and the abandonment of less productive areas previously subject to agricultural activities. The intensity and speed of the forest line advance also depend on numerous physical, biological and human factors that are region-specific. It is important to fully understand the mechanisms behind forest line behaviour, as existing studies do not report global figures. We selected 4 study areas in which to analyse the temporal and spatial behaviour of the forest line and of forest cover based on selection criteria such as minimal human interference and maximal representativeness at the European level. The sites were located in national parks that were evenly spread across some of the dominant European mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees, Alps and Carpathians, at comparable altitudes and latitudes, and with similar land cover proportions in the year 1970. Methodologically, we used cloud-free Landsat satellite images that were acquired in the same month during the growing season. A post-classification comparison technique, using all bands but the thermal one, was implemented to evaluate forest line behaviour, while the accuracy of image classification was evaluated by random sampling. Four time frames were used to evaluate forest cover behaviour in relation to the non-forested areas: 1971-1980, 1981-1990, 1991-2000 and 2001-2014. Also, climate and topography data were included in this study, which enabled comparison and computation of dependence relations. Our results indicate significant differences between the analysed areas. For instance, for the same reference period (1981-1990), the greatest differences in terms of forest cover change were specific to the Austrian Alps (28%), whereas the lowest differences were those from the Spanish Pyrenees (1%). Similar forest line shifts were found in the Austrian Alps and in the Romanian Carpathians, whereas the lowest altitudinal advancement was specific to the Spanish Pyrenees. According to this study, the temperature trend could have significantly influenced tree line behaviour., This article is based on work from COST Action ES1203 SensFor, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology, www.cost.eu).

Particulate matter (PM) deposited on Platanus acerifolia tree leaves has been sampled in the urban areas of 28 European cities, over 20 countries, with the aim of testing leaf deposited particles as indicator of atmospheric PM concentration and composition. Leaves have been collected close to streets characterized by heavy traffic and within urban parks. Leaf surface density, dimensions, and elemental composition of leaf deposited particles have been compared with leaf magnetic content, and discussed in connection with air quality data. The PM quantity and size were mainly dependent on the regional background concentration of particles, while the percentage of iron-based particles emerged as a clear marker of traffic-related pollution in most of the sites. This indicates that Platanus acerifolia is highly suitable to be used in atmospheric PM monitoring studies and that morphological and elemental characteristics of leaf deposited particles, joined with the leaf magnetic content, may successfully allow urban PM source apportionment.

Spatially explicit knowledge of recent and past soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in forests will improve our understanding of the effect of human- and non-human-induced changes on forest C fluxes. For SOC accounting, a minimum detectable difference must be defined in order to adequately determine temporal changes and spatial differences in SOC. This requires sufficiently detailed data to predict SOC stocks at appropriate scales within the required accuracy so that only significant changes are accounted for. When designing sampling campaigns, taking into account factors influencing SOC spatial and temporal distribution (such as soil type, topography, climate and vegetation) are needed to optimise sampling depths and numbers of samples, thereby ensuring that samples accurately reflect the distribution of SOC at a site. Furthermore, the appropriate scales related to the research question need to be defined: profile, plot, forests, catchment, national or wider. Scaling up SOC stocks from point sample to landscape unit is challenging, and thus requires reliable baseline data. Knowledge of the associated uncertainties related to SOC measures at each particular scale and how to reduce them is crucial for assessing SOC stocks with the highest possible accuracy at each scale. This review identifies where potential sources of errors and uncertainties related to forest SOC stock estimation occur at five different scales—sample, profile, plot, landscape/regional and European. Recommendations are also provided on how to reduce forest SOC uncertainties and increase efficiency of SOC assessment at each scale.