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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Dynamics of natural hemiboreal woodland in the Moricsala Reserve, Latvia: the studies of K. R. Kupffer revisited

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Abstract Karl Reinhold Kupffer (1872–1935), an outstanding botanist and plant ecologist, took the initiative that led to the establishment of the first nature reserve in Latvia, on Moricsala Island in 1912. The reserve provided an excellent reference area for natural hemiboreal woodland for future generations. There have been very few studies on the dynamics of natural broadleaved forest in Europe, probably owing to lack of primeval forests of this type. However, Kupffer produced a map of forest types in the reserve with accurate descriptions of the vegetation by layers, and his descriptions include interpretations of forest dynamics processes. This information, together with the present age and diameter structure of mixed pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) stands in the Moricsala Reserve in Latvia, was used to reconstruct the past successional sequences of tree species in 2006–2007. Tree age and diameter at breast height of trees in two transects (total area 6600 m2) and four plots (each 400 m2) were measur...