Climatic Characteristics of Forest Vegetation Zones of the Czech Republic

Correct derivation of climatic characteristics of forest vegetation zones is the Achilles heel of Forest site classification in the Czech Republic. A combination of low density of climatic stations, and their unsuitable location (in regard to distribution of forest complexes) make obtaining data problematic.

An important contribution to this issue is an application of aladin-climate.cz model materials from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) for the second time period of normal climate years 1961-1990, and the current period from 1991-2009. Calculation of climatic (temperature, precipitation, etc.) fields was conducted on a basis of observation stations. The original station series were subjected to quality control, meaning they were homogenised and supplemented by missing values in measurements. The actual calculation of the technical series is based on the IDW (Inverse Distance Weighting) method; data is used when surrounding stations are first standardised to altitude point, for which we expect a new line, and then calculated a weighted average of new value. The station data were interpolated using the geostatistical linear kriging method.

The outputs are the spatial averages for basic climatic zonal forest vegetation level, occurring in the different Natural Forest Areas (NFA). The individual climate parameters of forest vegetation zones were evaluated by regression analysis. The climate-vegetation segments (CVS) of the Czech Republic, which share similar climatic characteristics of the forest vegetation zones (FVZ), were proposed.