WHICH SHRUB SPECIES SHOULD BE USED FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FIELD SHELTERBELTS IN ROMANIA?

In the current context of increasing air temperatures and decreasing rainfall, the field shelterbelts play an important role in the management of agricultural lands in Romania. The aim of this study was to highlight the most preferred shrub species used for establishment of the filed shelterbelts in Romania. Ten of the most common shrubs, namely Cornelian cherry, common dogwood, European smoketree, common hawthorn, European spindle, wild privet, blackthorn, dog rose, black elder and common lilac, were selected and ten criteria were taken into consideration. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was performed in order to assess the performance of the selected alternatives (i.e. shrub species) by means of pairwise comparisons. Expert Choice Desktop software was used for the analysis. Based on the results of the analysed scenarios, recommendations were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]