Bialowieza National Park - Poland

LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) Bialowieza National Park became part of LTER Poland in 2006. It covers core area of the Bialowieza National Park - the best preserved (the most pristin) patch of European lowland temperate forests. The site has a complex structure, because it covers several monitoring projects carried by independent research institutes. Many of those monitorings has been continued since half of 20th century. Coordinator of the site (Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Bialowieza Geobotanical Station, University of Warsaw) is personally responsible for carrying and handling data only for following monitoring projects: vascular plants phenology in mixed deciduous forests (since 1964), biodiversity of vascular plants, bryophytes and fungi (since 1990), coarse woody debris and stand in mixed deciduous forest (since 1964), plant species composition dynamic in hydrogenic forest habitats (1981), wild boar rooting in mixed deciduous forests (1973), ground water dynamics in Narewka river valley (1980). Numerus projects are carried by other institutes: Forest Research Institute (monitoring of vegetation, insect assemblages, forest ecosystems, ground water, pollution), Faculty of Forestry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (stand dynamics - since 1936), Mammal Research Institute (dynamics of mammalian populations), Faculty of Biology of the University of Wroclaw (dynamics of birds populations). Contacts are available via the site coordinator. Bialowieza National Park site is one of the best known forest ecosystems in Europe with long-term data series of the major components of its ecosystems. Researchers from Poland and Europe use the site for their studies when long-term data, expensive infrastructure or complex research logistics are on demand. The site covers the area with continuous forest cover since the last glaciation and protected in strict way (zero management) since 1921, which allows concluding on natural dynamics of European forest ecosystems.