https://ojs3.seefor.eu/index.php/seefor <p>The <strong>South-east European forestry (SEEFOR)</strong> is an <strong>open access</strong>, <strong>peer-reviewed</strong>, <strong>international journal of forest science </strong>established in 2009 by eight Institutions from the South-East European Region.</p> Croatian Forest Research Institute (Jastrebarsko, Croatia); University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Forestry (Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina); University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Forestry (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina); University of Novi Sad, Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment (Novi Sad, Serbia); University of Belgrade, Faculty of Forestry (Belgrade, Serbia); Institute of Forestry (Belgrade, Serbia); Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Hans Em Faculty of Forest Sciences, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Engineering (Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia) en-US South-east European forestry 1847-6481 <h3><span>South-east European forestry Copyright Notices</span></h3><h4><em>South-east European Forestry</em> journal is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a> which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</h4><p><span>Authors (</span><span lang="EN-GB">i.e. the corresponding author on behalf of co-authors)</span><span> who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:</span></p><ol><li><span>The manuscript submitted is an original work and has not been previously published or submitted elsewhere;</span></li><li><span lang="EN-GB">It is the author's responsibility to obtain a written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that were published elsewhere;</span></li><li><span lang="EN-GB">The Publisher (Croatian Forest Research Institute) retain the copyright on all papers published in the Journal (whether in print or electronic form), but allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, distribute or copy them, as long as the original author(s), title, and source (<em>South-east European forestry</em>) are properly cited;</span></li><li><span lang="EN-GB"><span>Authors retain wide rights to use their work (e.g. use part of the work as a basis for a future publication, use a different or extended version of the work for a future publication, include the work in future derivative works, including a dissertation or thesis, use the work in a compilation of works or collected works, expand the work into a book form or book chapter, use the work for their own personal use, including educational use, classroom teaching, study guides, conference presentation, distribute to colleagues for their research use, deposit the work in an institutional or funding agency repository, post the work on author’s personal or institutional web site);</span></span></li><li>Authors retain the above permissions as long as the original work and source (<em>South-east European forestry</em>) are properly cited. To request permission in any other manner not outlined above, please contact Editorial Office.</li></ol> https://ojs3.seefor.eu/index.php/seefor/article/view/113 <p><strong>Background and purpose:</strong> The purpose of this study was to assess the structural and functional properties of common beech forest ecosystems in Croatia across a wide macro-climatic gradient (Mediterranean, Alpine and Continental) and to gain insight into the ways they adapt to progressing short-term climatic extremes and anomalies.<br /><strong>Material and Methods: </strong>Research was undertaken by integration of the expert based, country scale typological delineation of 13 beech ecosystem types, climatic and topographic grids and indices of ecosystem performances such as the JRC FAPAR (Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation).<br /><strong>Results:</strong> This study reveals preferential environmental conditions for beech ecosystem types together with limiting conditions in three margins of the beech distribution area: highest altitudinal zone, south-eastern continental Pannonian zone and the Mediterranean. The results show that the common beech can adapt to a very wide range of environmental conditions: annual mean temperatures from 2.1<span>o</span>C to 13.5<span>o</span>C, annual precipitation from 739 mm to 3444 mm, and altitudinal range from 20.3 m up to 1576 m above sea level. FAPAR reveals some new insight into the adaptive potential and response mechanisms of the common beech to emerging climate change.<br /><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The common beech has great potential to adapt to increasing spring warming by a preterm shift of phenology onset and retain relatively stable productivity during the phenology peak in July and August, unrelated to external climatic forcing. These findings indicate that the flexibility of phenological timing, especially during springtime, present one of the important mechanisms of adaptation and resilience of the common beech.</p><p> </p> Ivan Pilas Ivan Medved Jasna Medak Melita Perčec Tadić Damir Medak Copyright (c) 2016 South-east European forestry 2016-12-29 2016-12-29 7 2