Summary:

The paper presents trends in average annual soil moisture in the area covered by the sixty-year old pine stand. The area of analysis is located in the Tuczno Forest District, the Martew Forestry, in the north-western part of Poland. The calculations were based on the measurements of soil moisture at seven different depths below the ground level. A set of probes was installed for measuring the moisture using TDR method in order to calculate retention changes in the unsaturated zone. Humidity measurements used in this work were carried out at daily intervals throughout the year 2014. Designated trends were analysed using the non-parametric Mann- Kendall test, which is used for detecting trend of hydrological and meteorological parameters. Negative values of the Mann-Kendall statistics point to a declining trend for most - six out of the seven, analysed levels of measurement. The tendency toward dryness was not confirmed by the data set of precipitations. Although precipitations are considered to be the main driver of variations in soil moisture their impact severity seems to be controlled by other characteristics of the catchment area and components of the water balance, such as evapotranspiration.