Publications by authors named "Jiri Masek"

Dry spells strongly influence biomass production in forest ecosystems. Their effects may last several years following a drought event, prolonging growth reduction and therefore restricting carbon sequestration. Yet, our understanding of the impact of dry spells on the vitality of trees' above-ground biomass components (e.

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Temperate forests are undergoing significant transformations due to the influence of climate change, including varying responses of different tree species to increasing temperature and drought severity. To comprehensively understand the full range of growth responses, representative datasets spanning extensive site and climatic gradients are essential. This study utilizes tree-ring data from 550 sites from the temperate forests of Czechia to assess growth trends of six dominant Central European tree species (European beech, Norway spruce, Scots pine, silver fir, sessile and pedunculate oak) over 1990-2014.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study emphasizes the importance of high-resolution annual forest growth maps, using tree-ring width (TRW) data, to better understand forest carbon sequestration and the impact of climate change and drought on forest ecosystems.
  • - By integrating high-resolution Earth observation data with climate and topography information, the researchers found that species-specific models could explain over 52% of variance in tree growth, enhancing the accuracy of growth predictions compared to using just climate and elevation data.
  • - The research successfully generated a map of annual TRW for 2021, demonstrating that combining different data sources can lead to more effective models for forest growth, while also identifying areas where predictions may be less reliable, particularly in climate marginal zones.
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Variations in the growth of aboveground biomass compartments such as tree stem and foliage significantly influence the carbon cycle of forest ecosystems. Yet the patterns of climate-driven responses of stem and foliage and their modulating factors remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the climatic response of Norway spruce (Picea abies) at 138 sites covering wide spatial and site fertility gradients in temperate forests in Central Europe.

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Radial tree growth is sensitive to environmental conditions, making observed growth increments an important indicator of climate change effects on forest growth. However, unprecedented climate variability could lead to non-stationarity, that is, a decoupling of tree growth responses from climate over time, potentially inducing biases in climate reconstructions and forest growth projections. Little is known about whether and to what extent environmental conditions, species, and model type and resolution affect the occurrence and magnitude of non-stationarity.

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Article Synopsis
  • Climate influences forest biomass production by affecting cambial activity directly and interacting with factors like CO levels, air pollution, and nutrient availability indirectly.* -
  • A 120-year study analyzed tree-ring data from Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies to explore trends in intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), stem growth, and the impact of sulfur and nitrogen (SN) deposition in Central Europe.* -
  • Findings revealed that iWUE increased significantly from the 1950s to the 1980s due to rising atmospheric CO levels, although this trend later slowed; low-elevation sites benefited more from improved iWUE, while high-elevation sites responded primarily to warming.*
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Extreme tree growth reductions represent events of abrupt forest productivity decline and carbon sequestration reduction. An increase in their magnitude can represent an early warning signal of impending tree mortality. Yet the long-term trends in extreme growth reductions remain largely unknown.

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Background: The two most commonly used dispatch tools are medical priority dispatch (MPD) and criteria based dispatch (CBD), but there are countries still using non-standardized emergency call processing. We compared selected characteristics of DA-CPR before and after implementation of a standardized protocol in a non-MPD and non-CBD system.

Methods: Observational study of DA-CPR recordings during 4-month periods before (PER1) and after (PER2) the standardized protocol had been implemented.

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