Forest ecosystems are faced with a variety of threats, including increasingly prolonged droughts and other abiotic stresses such as extreme high temperatures, very strong wind, invasive insect ...outbreaks, and the rapid spread of pathogens. The aim of the study was to define crucial abiotic stressors affecting Central Europe forest ecosystems and, with regard to their possible simultaneous effect, develop a universal method of multi-hazard evaluation. The method was then applied to the particular area of interest represented by part of the Czech Republic with forest land cover (12–19 ° E, 48–51 ° N). Based on National Threat Analysis, the most significant threats of natural origin with a close relationship to forest stability were identified as drought, high temperature, and wind gusts. Using suitable indicators, a level of their risk based on occurrence and consequences was estimated. The resulting combined level of risk, divided into five categories, was then spatially expressed on a grid map. The novelty of our paper lies in: (i) all relevant climatic data were combined and evaluated simultaneously with respect to the different level of risk, (ii) the developed methodological road map enables an application of the method for various conditions, and (iii) multiple hazards were estimated for the case study area.
The paper presents the results of the study on participative mapping of landscape values and conflicts and a subsequent interpretation of the indicated localities from respondents’ point of view. The ...study focused on younger groups of landscape users—lower-secondary-school students (aged 11–15) and university students (aged 20–25)—in comparison with experts’ points of view. The research presumed that the perception of landscape values and issues are determined by age, level of education and by experience in the field. The study was conducted in the southeastern area of the Czech Republic (49° N, 16° E) via online data collection. Based on the obtained records, we conclude that, in terms of the typology of the valuable and problematic locations, the individual groups of respondents did not differ significantly and the selection of location types was similar across all groups. Lower-secondary-school students rather identified cultural values associated with everyday activities, and the descriptions contained emotional overtones. University students preferred natural values associated with formal values based on general consensus or conflicts associated with society-wide impacts. The experts base served as the benchmark for other groups.
Environmental degradation, for example, by wind erosion, is a serious global problem. Despite the enormous research on this topic, complex methods considering all relevant factors remain unpublished. ...The main intent of our paper is to develop a methodological road map to identify key soil–climatic conditions that make soil vulnerable to wind and demonstrate the road map in a case study using a relevant data source. Potential wind erosion (PWE) results from soil erosivity and climate erosivity. Soil erosivity directly reflects the wind-erodible fraction and indirectly reflects the soil-crust factor, vegetation-cover factor and surface-roughness factor. The climatic erosivity directly reflects the drought in the surface layer, erosive wind occurrence and clay soil-specific winter regime, making these soils vulnerable to wind erosion. The novelty of our method lies in the following: (1) all relevant soil–climatic data of wind erosion are combined; (2) different soil types “sand” and “clay” are evaluated simultaneously with respect to the different mechanisms of wind erosion; and (3) a methodological road map enables its application for various conditions. Based on our method, it is possible to set threshold values that, when exceeded, trigger landscape adjustments, more detailed in situ measurements or indicate the need for specific management.
Successful upscaling of the direct measurement of evapotranspiration at individual plant level to canopy level with specific microclimatic conditions has recently received considerable attention of ...scientific community. And since the knowledge of transpiration is among important inputs of various experiments on solitary plant level the paper employs the reverse approach – the downscaling from the canopy to individual plant. The main task of the study is thus to compare Penman–Monteith method of computing potential evapotranspiration with directly measured values of transpiration of maize. Since the model deals with canopy level and the direct measurement is being carried out on level of individual plants, this comparison answers the question if the time-consuming and demanding measurement of transpiration on plant level could be substitute by relative easily reachable model outputs. The results shown that evapotranspiration of maize computed by Penman–Monteith model cannot be successfully downscaled back to the solitary plant level. The correlation coefficient between these two data series for three individual phenological stages vary from 0.5831 to 0.7803 (α = 0.01) while for whole growing period regardless phenological stage is 0.6925 (α = 0.01). The directly measured data of transpiration cannot by simply replaced by modelled data, but their application after conversion using regression equations is possible with certain level of inaccuracy.
The landscape in several countries of Central and Eastern Europe went through the most dramatic change in the socialist period. Agricultural land was considered only as a productive area. The size of ...arable land plots increased and stabilizing elements in the landscape were removed. This land consolidation of agriculture has led to the development of soil erosion. This paper presents a case study focused on comparison of landscape structure of model territory in two periods. The first period shows landscape before collectivization of agriculture, and the second one presents current landscape. The research dealt especially with evaluation of ecological stability and water erosion risk of the landscape. The identification of land use trends helps to characterize landscape of the model territory during monitored period. The following trends: decreasing area of arable land, increasing area of built‑up areas and other areas and increase area of vineyards showed different character of current landscape. The evaluation of ecological stability confirmed the loss of stable landscape elements. Based on the calculated values of ecological stability coefficient, the evaluated landscape has degraded from the category of “disturbed landscape capable of self‑regulation” to “devastated landscape”. The results also show the vulnerability of current large plots of arable land and vineyards to water erosion.
The positive effect of nitrogen fertilization in agriculture inevitably increases residual nitrogen losses. Water pollution led to legal restrictions of some farm practices within the framework of ...the Nitrates Directive of the EU. Nevertheless, even several decades later, the situation has not improved significantly. We present a possible science-based explanation of such a state and provide it to farmers and government as a support for environmental management settings. This study aimed to compare an established approach to implementing the Nitrates Directive, specifically the climate-based zoning of nitrogen fertilization restrictions using data from the mid-20th century. We evaluated this approach by juxtaposing the initial climate data with more recent data spanning from 1991 to 2020. Subsequently, we examined this zoning framework from the perspective of the non-vegetative period, characterized by temperatures below 5 °C, which is widely acknowledged as a critical threshold for nitrogen intake by plants. We found out that i) the employed climate-born zoning does not correspond to recent climate data; ii) nonvegetation period is longer than nitrogen fertilization restrictions. Therefore, despite a noteworthy 22 day reduction in the nonvegetation period from 1961/1962 to 2019/2020, we cast doubt on the notion that the period limiting nitrogen fertilizer application should also be shortened, while admitting that there are other abiotic and biotic factors affecting nitrogen behaviour within the ecosystem.
Display omitted
•Nitrogen management in the Czechia affects water quality of 11 states.•Continuous unsatisfactory water quality calls for Nitrates Directive scrutiny.•We bring climatologically based contribution to the discussion on nitrogen management.•Vegetation period in Central Europe has prolonged about 20 days over last 6 decades.•Nitrogen application bans and nonvegetation period differ about tens of days.
This article is focused on the land use development in the cadastral area Žabčice since the mid of the 20th century. Žabčice lies in South Moravia at a distance of less than 25 km south from Brno and ...its land area is 817 ha. This selected cadastre is part of University Agricultural Enterprise (UAE) Žabčice area and has been chosen because of the relevance for the MUAF in Brno. Dominant activity in this cadastral area is agriculture. The land use was evaluated from 1950’s to the present time.According to availability of suitable map underlays three basic time profiles (1953, 1990 and 2007) were chosen. For evaluation of land use development following materials were used: archival aerial photographs, ortophotos, basic and cadastral maps, archival documents. Field survey of selected area was also necessary. Thirteen land use categories have been identified as an outcome of interpretation of maps. These categories were compared by methods of comparative measurement of areas. The area of particular land use categories in landscape with regard to land area of whole model area in hectares and further their percentage representation were found out. Data processing and all analyses were done in GIS environment (software ArcGIS 9.1).In 2007 (compared with 1953) forest area had increased by about 1 %, orchards by 2 %, vineyards by 12 % and the increase of built-up and other areas by 8 % was also evident. The area of following categories decreased: arable land by 21 %, TTP by 2 %, garden by 1 %. The most significant trend in the cadastral Žabčice is decrease of arable land area recorded during the whole period. Other trends are following: the increase of vineyard areas, smaller increase of the orchard area and increase of built-up and other areas. In the context of political and socio-economic factors, non-forest vegetation was negatively marked. These changes correspond with changes in Czech Republic in the same time interval.
Urban climate causes intensive physical stress with negative impacts on health. One of the main risk factors is incidence of long-term period of high temperatures during the summer months, so-called ...heat waves. As a heat wave, a period of at least 3 consecutive days with maximum daily air temperature ≥ 30 °C was considered. In this paper the heat-wave incidence and its dynamics are defined in the long-term monitoring in the cadastral of Brno. To determine the impact of urban heat island on observed characteristics, the temperature data series directly affecting the urban environment and temperature data series of non-urban area were evaluated. Urban climate is represented by Brno-Zabovresky station, and sub-urban climate by Brno-Turany station. Results are presented for the longest possible period, i.e. since 1987 when measurements in Zabovresky began till 2008 (22 years). For the evaluation, the homogenized data of daily maximum air temperature was used. The basis of the data was obtained by measurement at CHMI station network. The longest average length of the heat wave was recorded in 1994 (Zabovresky and Turany 8 days). The longest maximum length of the heat wave was recorded in 1994 (Zabovresky 19 days, Turany 17 days). The maximum number of heat waves per year was 6 at the station Brno-Zabovresky and 4 at Turany (1992, 1998 – Zabovresky and 2003 – Turany). The results showed significant specifics of urban climate as compared to suburban areas.
Development and prediction of selected temperature and precipitation characteristics in Southern Moravia Fukalova, P., Mendel University in Brno (Czech Republic). Dept. of Environmentalistics and Natural Resource; Stredova, H., Mendel University, Brno (Czech Republic). Dept. of Landscape and Applied Ecology; Vejtasova, K., Mendel University in Brno (Czech Republic). Dept. of Environmentalistics and Natural Resource
Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis,
2014, Volume:
62, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
In recent years, rising temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns have a significant impact on agriculture. This paper presents analyses of selected climatic characteristics of the South ...Moravian region. The evaluation was based on the data from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. Climatic data for future periods were gained using the A1B emission scenario. With regard to the agricultural activity of this region, climatic characteristics (average air temperature, heat waves, average precipitation and periods without precipitation) were selected and compared in the following three periods 1961-1990, 2021-2050 and 2071-2100. The results showed an increase of the average air temperature, increase in the number of tropical days and days in heat waves. It was also found that as a result of rising air temperatures and different distribution of precipitation, the period of drought will significantly prolong in the future. Very unfavourable climate situation is expected in the particular period of 2071-2100 in this region. Increasing drought, predicted by climate models, presents major problem for the agriculture of South Moravia. It is necessary to adapt to these anticipated changes not only in the agricultural activities but also in the landscape management in general.
Soil frost and the depth of freezing are important for the plant development and for the building industry as well. The depth of soil frost is estimated directly by soil frost tube and indirectly ...from diagrams of soil temperature according to the isotherm of 0 ◦ C (zero-isotherm). The soil temperature measurement is often used for evaluation of freezing depth, because the frost tubes measurement is rarely performed. Measurement by frost tube is done once a day at 7 a.m. and soil temperature in 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 cm is measured in three observation terms at 7 a.m., 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. Data from agroclimatological station Pohoˇrelice (1971-2000) were used for the evaluation. Three specific real cold periods (1978-1979, 1984-1985 and 1990-1991) and mean frost depth and absolute maximal frost depth for the whole period were evaluated. Course of frost, terms of beginning and the end of frost period and the term of maximum freezing assessed by both methods are almost identical in all real evaluated periods. The results show that the soil frost depth measured by soil frost tube is often higher than that estimated from soil temperature diagrams. It might be caused by graphical processing, as soil temperatures are measured only at five given depths and the depth of zero isotherm is determined by their interpolation. The most significant differences between both methods were observed when evaluating average values for the entire period 1971-2000.
PDF
