- 1Climate Research Department, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland (akaszkiel@twarda.pan.pl)
- 2Dendrolab IBL, Department of Natural Forests, Forest Research Institute (IBL), Bialowieza, Poland
- 3Dendrolab IBL, Department of Silviculture and Forest Tree Genetics, Forest Research Institute (IBL), Sekocin Stary, Poland
- 4Department of Past Landscape Dynamics, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- 5Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden
Climate change has the influence on the functioning of natural ecosystems, even those barely affected by human activity. Some of the endangered ecosystems, such as pine bogs, strictly depend on groundwater availability, which, due to progressive dry climatic conditions, may be limited in the future (IPCC 2022). Furthermore, the current microclimatic conditions of pine bogs remain poorly understood, making the future of these ecosystems difficult to predict. Having accurate microclimate datasets would enable the identification of relationships between individual components of this ecosystem, leading to increased accuracy in forecasting the impacts of climate change on it.
The objective of the study was to investigate microclimatic functioning of the pine bogs of the Bialowieza Primeval Forest, which is the largest area of old-growth forest in Europe. The research was conducted at the eight study sites between 2023 and 2024.
In order to gain insight into the microclimatic functioning of the pine bogs, a series of air temperature and humidity measurements in the near ground air layer were conducted. Furthermore, comparisons were made between soil temperature and moisture at the sites, as well as with the reference station situated outside the forest. Additionally, groundwater level was recorded at each site and peat thickness was mapped. Analyses of vegetation composition and horizon obscuration were also performed.
The results indicate that the microclimate of the pine bogs in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest differs significantly from the climate of the open areas outside the forest, with the scale of these differences being seasonally determined. The sites exhibited notable differences in water conditions, peat thickness and vegetation, which influenced the microclimatic functioning. The subsequent step will be to attempt to model the microclimatic conditions of the pine bogs based on the collected data, which will facilitate the prediction of shifts occurring in these ecosystems in the context of climate change.
How to cite: Kaszkiel, A., Pilch, K., Czarnecka, K., Klisz, M., Kowalczyk, P., Słowiński, M., Zin, E., and Słowińska, S.: Microclimatic functioning of pine bogs in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-463, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-463, 2025.
