Bioindication of the beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) photosynthetic apparatus function conditions under stress circumstances

The health state of beech (Fagus sylvalica L.) in Slovakia has not developed positively in the past ten years. The health slate is especially deteriorated in young beech stands originated from the natural regeneration, whereby the beech forests of the Central Slovakia are mostly affected. We measured the parameters of the fast chlorophyll a fluorescence kinetics - F-0, F-m, F-V, F-v/F-m, T-m, Area, F-m/F-0 on selected sample trees at two localities with a different level of pollution load during the vegetation seasons 1996 and 1997. Simultaneously, assimilatory organs were collected and the concentrations of chlorophylls a and b were spectrophotometrically determined. On the base of the selected physiological-biochemical parameters (especially chlorophyll fluorescence parameters), we can observe a deteriorated physiological state of the young beech trees at the more polluted locality even at the stage of a latent (hidden) damage.