Agrology (Sep 2023)
Forest strips of Ukraine in the modern realities, state assessment and ways of their restoration
Abstract
Abstract. The optimized system of forest strips in Ukraine had been developed on the landscape and ecological bases in order to ensure the formation of a sustainable agroforestry landscape; stabilize the ecological state, preserve the natural resource potential of a studied area, and create optimal conditions for the growth, development, and productivity of agricultural crops. Over nearly a hundred years, there have been developed the principles of combining tree and shrubby species, optimal designs of forest strips, their width parameters, species composition and placement of planting groupings, and their location in the fields. Also, agrotechnical and forestry measures for their care were designed in different soil and climatic conditions of Ukraine. All accounted factors would provide the maximum ecological and economic effects with a minimum planting. The paper presents the results of phytodiversity study and initiated studies of the syntaxonomy of field-protective forest strips in the regions of Ukraine. The issues of the global practice of field-protective afforestation, which is part of the newest direction – agroforestry, were highlighted. They combine the simultaneous cultivation of tree and shrubby species and agricultural crops in the same areas for environmental, economic, and social benefits. The authors analyzed the current situation related to forest strips in Ukraine and described the negative changes that have occurred over the past thirty years. Mitigation of natural and anthropogenic threats in agricultural lands is a chalange due to the lack of comprehensive land-reclamation measures in agricultural landscapes and the strengthening of degradation processes caused by the global climate change. We conducted analysis and assessment of the state of forest strips and changes they have underwent because of military operations, concluding that optimizing the windbreak system in Ukraine as a particularly effective environment-forming factor is now especially relevant and requires research, updated using modern methods. For this purpose, one should take into account their intended purpose, spatial orientation, placement, optimal composition, considering typological characteristics, design parameters, and other forest-reclamation characteristics, identification of their syntaxonomic diversity, and identifying regularities in formation and differentiation and development of scientific bases of optimization. It would ensure the maximum efficiency of developing conditions for ecological rehabilitation of forest strips and increase their ecological capacity, and, in general, would promote balanced development of agroecosystems. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to analyze the current state of forest strips in Ukraine and substantiate the need to conduct priority measures to restore their functioning as forest-reclamation objects in connection with the latest circumstances in the conditions of military operations.
