The changes in pine forest condition under the global pressures in Lithuania

Abstract

In the present study, as a working hypothesis we wanted to see if the detected changes in mean temperature and amount of precipitation of seasons could disrupt forest resiliency to regional pollution load and through the interaction with air concentrations of ozone, acidifying compounds and their deposition could have some additional effect on crown defoliation of the prevailing tree species in Lithuania – Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Climate changes significantly resulted in seasonal variation of acid deposition, which over the dormant period had a tendency to decrease and over vegetation - to increase. Both these different tendencies resulted in: first - reduction of pine vulnerability to acid deposition, second – enhanced resiliency of pine trees mainly to surface ozone which most likely will have a tendency to increase in future.