The condition of forest stands on afforested agricultural land in the Orlické hory Mts

Abstract

The paper presents an evaluation of the growth of newly established forest stands on former agricultural land and furthermore describes the state of the upper part of the soils in these stands in comparison with neighbouring grassland in the Orlické hory Mountains. The new Norway spruce stands show an extremely high growth potential, usually significantly higher in comparison with areas forested for more generations/rotations. The formation of the surface humus layer also showed fast progress, the amount of dry mass of soil organic matter reaching values almost typical of permanently forested sites. The soils of newly afforested lands tend to resemble the status of forest soil - there was observed a process of acidification and nutrient depletion, probably connected with accumulation of the tree biomass.