FOREST HEALTH CONDITIONS IN THE TATRA-BIOSPHERE-RESERVE

The negative effects of abiotic factors (mainly pollution, but also in cluding climatic extremes) together with biotic factors, have caused t he decay of individual trees and consequently the decay of forest stan ds. Several complementary methods have been used for the forest health condition assessment. The basic one was the assessment of defoliation and discolouration on a regular network of 2 x 2 km (totalling 180 mo nitoring plots with 2700 individual trees). Our idea of location and i ntensity of damaged forest stands on an area of roughly 150 000 ha was reached by the interpolation of point data using a PC. Landsat imager y from August 1990 has provided more detailed and more objective infor mation about forest health condition. Both results have indicated a ve ry serious disturbance in the health condition of the Reserve forest. The assessment was supplemented by other indicators - the content of p ollution in needles, the increment, the fertility and the seeds germin ative capacity. Stand factors (altitude, soil conditions) and the fore st stands state (stand density, social rank) have been found to be imp ortant factors influencing the forest health conditions.