Soil and habitat studies

Soil and habitat work provides the forest manager with a range of data on the natural diversity of habitats and vegetation growing on them. They also inform on the effects of human impact on these habitats. The information collected and processed during habitat work is widely used to develop the nature-based foundations for future management in a given forest object.

Habitat survey reports are created primarily on the basis of Forest Management Planning Guidelines. The research subject is habitat conditions, which are expressed in the form of the forest habitat type (abbreviated to TSL in Polish). The outcome of habitat work is documentation prepared for the needs of silviculture and forest management planning. It contains a detailed description of the habitat type of forest in a given object along with proposals for potential species compositions of forest stands desirable in individual forest habitats, taking into account economic objectives resulting from the production capacity of forest habitats, as well as the requirements of nature protection. This research also provides information on the soil and moisture conditions of the object.

It is assumed that the validity of a habitat elaboration is about 30 years, however, very frequent changes in the natural environment occur so quickly that it is necessary to shorten the period between subsequent habitat research. Habitat survey reports are usually prepared before the start of management works in a given forest district, so that new information on changes in habitat conditions, which are closely related to climate, can be included in the forest management plan and properly arrange forestry activities for the next 10 years of plan's validity.

All physicochemical analyses of the materials collected during work are carried out in our two laboratories:

• accredited laboratory in the Branch in Kraków
• certified laboratory in the Branch in Poznań.