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Historical depletion of agricultural soils must be remedied to maintain their long-term food production function, including soils in intensive vineyards traditionally kept without plant cover to limit resource competition. This paper reports on the impact of five contrasting soil management regimes on indicators of soil quality such as soil organic carbon, nitrogen and their indices. We exposed sandy loam Rendzic Leptosol under a vineyard in Nitra-Dražovce (Slovakia, central Europe) to the following five treatments for 14 years: no-till sward, no-till sward+NPK100, no-till sward+NPK125, plowed tillage and (5) plowed tillage+manure. We found that grass swards continuously increased the total soil organic carbon in the topsoil, but plowed tillage resulted in no change. The availability of potentially mineralizable nitrogen was also increased by grass cover; but was not modified by manure but by mineral fertilizer addition. We tested the usefulness of carbon and management indices as indicators of changing soil C and N status and found them no better than tracking total and labile forms of both elements. In conclusion, the recovery of degraded vineyard soils under no-till grass sward cover is detectable within 14 years and is not affected by fertilization or manure addition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantity and quality of soil organic matter (SOM) depending on many edaphic and environmental factors may change in response to agriculture-related practices. The SOM humification process can be supported by the application of mineral fertilizers, but in the production vineyards, such information is lacking. NPK fertilizer alters the soil quality, and therefore, the aim of this study was to: (1) assess the extent and dynamics of different NPK (control—no fertilization; 1st NPK; and 3rd NPK levels) rates to the soil with grass sward cover in a productive vineyard on changes in SOM, humic substances (HS), and soil structure, and (2) identify relationships between SOM, HS, and soil structure. Results showed that the share of humic acids in soil organic carbon decreased only in NPK1 compared to control and NPK3 treatments. The color quotient of humic substance values in NPK1 and NPK3 increased by 4 and 5%, respectively, compared to control. Over a period of 14 years, the content of soil organic carbon increased by 0.71, 0.69, and 0.53 g kg−1 year−1 in the control, NPK1, and NPK3, respectively. The content of HS increased linearly with slight differences due to NPK application. The vulnerability of the soil structure decreased due to fertilization—more at the higher NPK level. The rate of formed soil crust was decreasing in the following order: control > NPK1 > NPK3. In the control treatment, the relations between SOM, HS, and soil structure were most abundant and with the greatest significance, while with the increasing level of NPK, these relations lost their significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Significant shifts in radial growth of four European tree species during the past hundred years. • Fir showed the greatest recovery, but was found less resistant than beech. • Spruce found to be the least resilient and least resistant in the region. • Long-term BAI growth not affected by species mixture. • A small, but statistically clear effect of species diversity on BAI growth was revealed. Norway spruce (Picea abies), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), silver fir (Abies alba) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) typically co-occur in European forests, but show contrasting response to climate and environmental change. Sustainable forest management therefore depends on species- and regional-specific information. Here, we use tree-ring width measurements of 334 beech, 280 fir, 144 spruce and 63 pine trees from 75 inventory plots in Slovakia to assess the predominant factors that control radial stem growth of Europe's economically most important forest species. All four species exhibit significant shifts in stem growth over the past 100 years. Ring width patterns were, however, not significantly affected by tree species diversity and site elevation. The resistance, resilience and recovery of all species to the extreme summer droughts between 1950 and 2003 suggest that spruce is the species most unsuitable for the predicted warmer and drier future. Silver fir may benefit from warmer conditions, although we cannot conclude that it will not suffer from predicted increased frequency of climate extremes. Forest management in this locality should aim to avoid significant loss of forest cover by replacing Norway spruce monocultures with mixed stands of silver fir and European beech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Roots, stems, branches and needles of 160 Norway spruce trees younger than 10 years were sampled in seven forest stands in central Slovakia in order to establish their biomass functions (BFs) and biomass expansion factors (BEFs). We tested three models for each biomass pool based on the stem base diameter, tree height and the two parameters combined. BEF values decreased for all spruce components with increasing height and diameter, which was most evident in very young trees under 1m in height. In older trees, the values of BEFs did tend to stabilise at the height of 3–4m. We subsequently used the BEFs to calculate dry biomass of the stands based on average stem base diameter and tree height. Total stand biomass grew with increasing age of the stands from about 1.0Mgha−1 at 1.5 years to 44.3Mgha−1 at 9.5 years. The proportion of stem and branch biomass was found to increase with age, while that of needles was fairly constant and the proportion of root biomass did decrease as the stands grew older. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recently, biochar has been the focus of increasing research attention. Reflecting this trend, a field experiment was set up to test the potential of biochar as a soil ameliorant in Slovakia in 2014. This is a collaborative effort, where local core teams from the Slovak University of Agriculture and the Slovak Academy of Sciences work together with international experts to elucidate the effects of biochar addition (Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Czech Republic and the UK). Since the start of the experiment, a number of interesting findings have been made and widely published. Both positive and negative impacts of biochar application on soil function and its ability to support crop production were found. Reduction of greenhouse gas (CO2, N2O) emissions from the soil into the atmosphere after biochar application was among the key foci of the experiment. In the future, research broadening the knowledge base on biochar use should focus on: (i) economically cost-effective biochar production and application within the Slovak Republic to different soil types, (ii) the nutrient content of biochar, both total content and available forms and their ratio, with the view of eliminating negative impacts of biochar on crop yields; (iii) different types of biochar and their combinations with other organic and/or mineral fertilizers and their repeated application, (iv) optimum biochar application rates to improve the sustainability of agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]