Nature Reserve Rode Forest and Laan Valley - Belgium

Basic Information
Site Name
Nature Reserve Rode Forest and Laan Valley
Short name
Rode Forest
Country
Belgium
Operating Organisation
Agency For Nature and Forest (ANB)
Site Manager
Kris Vandekerkhove
Site Description
The Nature Reserve Rode Forest and Laan Valley is a diverse site, covering a small rivulet valley (river Laan) with grasslands and marches, and the adjacent plateau forest of Rodebos. The forest on the plateau consists of acidophylous oak-beech forests. The slope forest habitats are influenced by an aquifer that feeds slope sources. Hydrochemically, the water of this aquifer can be characterized as acid and nutrient poor. The slope displays an acid tolerant vegetation with Sphagnum as well as a more neutrophilic Querceto-Carpinetum. Lower on the slope, also base-rich sources are present, resulting in neutrophylous spring and alluvial forest. The research in this LTER-site focuses primarely on ecohydrology of this forest ecosystem, and forest dynamics in two sampling areas (resp. 1ha and 0.5 ha) within the unmanaged strict reserve area in the northern part of the reserve (23 ha). consists of a valley part, a slope part and a plateau part.
Relationships to other sites
This site belongs to:
Last modified
2023-07-25 08:07:06

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
1991
Observed properties
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
ILTER✔This site is a verified "ILTER" member.
LTER Europe✔This site is a verified "LTER Europe" member.
LTER Belgium✔ (LTER_EU_BE_30)This site is a verified "LTER Belgium" member.
Projects
Natura 2000
Photos
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Geographic
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 50.7668 Longitude: 4.6164

Size
ca. 90.00ha
Elevation (average)
55.00msl
Elevation (min)
32.00msl
Elevation (max)
85.00msl
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml]
Bounding Box [.shp] [.kml]
Boundaries [.shp] [.kml]
GEO-BON Biome
Terrestrial
Biome
Deciduous Forest
Ecosystem Type
Forest
Deciduous Forest
Biogeographical Region
Atlantic Bio-geographical Region
EUNIS habitat
Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G)
Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G) » Broadleaved deciduous woodland (G1)
Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G) » Broadleaved deciduous woodland (G1) » Acidophilous oak-dominated woodland (G1.8)
Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G) » Broadleaved deciduous woodland (G1) » Broadleaved swamp woodland not on acid peat (G1.4)
Woodland, forest and other wooded land (G) » Broadleaved deciduous woodland (G1) » Meso- and eutrophic oak, hornbeam, ash, sycamore, lime, elm and related woodland (G1.A)
Air Temperature: Average Annual
11.00°C
Precipitation Annual
764.00mm
Geology
tertiary sandstone banks covered with niveo-aeolean quarternary loam. The tertiary layers surface at the plateau; loam partly covers the slopes; colluvium in the lower valleys within the forest
Vegetation
on the plateau : Fago-Quercetum with Pteridium aquilinum, Convallaria majalis, Maianthemum, etc...
on the slope : Stellario- and Primulo-Carpinetum with Anemone nemorosa, Stellaria holostea, Primula elatior, ...
at the nutrient-poor springs in the slope, a nutrient-poor spring forest with facies of Sphagnum species occurs, while in the neutrophylous spring and alluvial zone at the lowest elevations, a species rich alluvial forest (Alno-Padion) occurs, with Allium ursinum, Equisetum telmateia, ...
Hydrology
In the slope, a nutrient-poor aquifer in a tertiary sand-layer results in diffuse springs producing acid nutrient poor water.
In the colluvial area, nutrient rich water is supplied.
Extensive ecohydrological studies analyse the natural dynamics of the hydrology in this system
Protection Level (IUCN category)
Category IV – Habitat/Species Management Area
Site Type
Stationary land-based site
Design of Experimentation
mainly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
plot scale
Design of Observation
mainly observation
Scale of Observation
plot within catchment
Permanent Power Supply
No
Equipment
Data infrastructure » Data services » Other data services
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Spatial database (GIS)
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Spatial data file (GIS)
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Relational database
Equipment notes
The infrastructure mainly consists of sampling probes for groundwater level. Some of them are equipped with electronic divers.
The sampling plots are permanently marked with feno-markers.
Accessible All Year
Yes
All parts of Site Accessible
Yes
Access Type
dirt road (4WD)
Permanent Operation
Yes
Operation Notes
operation costs are mainly labour costs for periodic observations (groundwater level measurements and periodic read-out of electronic divers, 10-yearly intensive monitoring of vegetation and forest structure).
Site Visit Interval
150
General Data Policy
Co-authorship on publications resulting from use of the dataset
LTER Site Classification
Regular
There is EURO-CORDEX climate scenario data available for this site:
Projected Near Surface Specific Humidity ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Precipitation ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Sea Level Pressure ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Surface Downwelling Shortwave RadiationRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Wind SpeedRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Daily Maximum Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85

You can also download the entire climate scenario dataset for this site from the EUDAT B2SHARE data store.