Oak forests provide critical ecosystem services, but are being increasingly exposed to climate variability, drought, and insect outbreaks that threaten their long-term resilience. This study aims to integrate structural canopy indicators with climate-derived indices to detect early-warning signals of decline in temperate oak stands. We monitored eight Forest Management Units in western Romania between 2017 and 2021, combining field-based assessments of crown morphology, vitality traits, defoliation, and epicormic shoot frequency with hydroclimatic indices such as the Forest Aridity Index. Results revealed strong spatial and temporal variability: several stands showed advanced canopy deterioration characterized by increased defoliation, dead branches, and epicormic resprouting, while others maintained stable conditions, suggesting resilience and suitability as reference sites. Insect defoliators, particularly Geometridae, contributed additional stress, but generally at subcritical levels. By synthesizing these metrics into conceptual models and a risk scorecard, we identified the causal pathways linking climatic anomalies and biotic stressors to structural decline. The findings demonstrate that combining structural and climatic indicators offers a transferable framework for forest health monitoring, providing robust early-warning tools to guide adaptive silviculture and resilience-based management. Beyond the Romanian context, this integrative approach supports sustainability goals by strengthening conservation strategies for temperate forests under global change.

The somatic embryogenesis is an advanced method for clonal propagation and a useful tool for ex situ conservation of genetic resources. In this paper, the results of an experiment to investigate the influence of development stage of explants and culture medium on the germination percentage in two oak species (three provenances of Quercus robur and two provenances of Q. frainetto), are presented. A high significant influence of the development stage of explants and a significant influence of the interaction provenance x stage on the germination percentage were recorded for Q. robur explants, whilst no significant differences between the germination percentages against the nutritive media used were fould for both oak species.