The Rothwald jungle as a guiding principle for existing transformations in the spruce-Tannen-Buchenwald stage in the Gesäuse National Park

The task for forest management in the young Gesäuse National Park is to reintroduce the stocks that have been dominated by forest management over long distances to the potentially natural forest societies. Due to the extensively intensive forestry of the last centuries throughout Central Europe, in the sense of forests in its natural state, only a few, small residual stocks can be found. That the jungle Rothwald, which according to ZUKRIGL et al. In 1963 and LEIBUNDGUT in 1993 represents the largest Uwaldrest of the Eastern Alps and Central Europe, located just under 40 km from the Gesäuse National Park, is therefore to be regarded as a lucky fall, all the more so since Gesäuse and Rothwald also have a high comparability in terms of geology and climate space. However, the jungle area of the Rothwald falls only in the altitude range 940 to 1 480 m, so that it is primarily the upper stage of the spruce-taps. Beech forest types of the northern limestone Alps. For the lower-lying forest societies (including beech forests of the lower beech stage, pine forest types) and subalpine forest types (subalpine spruce forests, larch-circle forests), no direct comparisons can be made. Forest surveys are located for the Rothwald jungle (ZUKRIGL 1961, ZUKRIGL et al. 1963) as well as for the groom forests (CARLI 2007). The above-mentioned works allow a differentiated comparison of the location and existing conditions. Furthermore, on the basis of several studies from the Rothwald jungle, the existing ecological differences between jungle and economic forest for the type of the north-eastern Alpine lime-fichten-tannen-beech forest are worked out in this thesis.