•The paper analyses changes of trip frequency of visitors due to changes of the landscape at Tatra national park (Slovakia).•Travel costs as well as willingness-to-pay measures were used to estimate ...both recreation and non-use values.•Trip frequency might be substantially reduced if one of the landscape scenarios were to be realized.•The paper argues for more effective nature conservation policies at Tatra national park.
The alpine landscape of the Tatra National Park has changed significantly over the past few decades, especially as a result of the development of tourism (i.e. hotels, ski slopes) which are likely to impede the effective management of nature conservation.
This study presents the results of a survey to ascertain the preferences and the perception of visitors to the Tatra National Park and its landscape. Scenarios of tourism development and landscape changes were presented to respondents verbally and by means of manipulated photos in order to visualize potential threats to the current appearance of the landscape. The data that this survey revealed and the statements made by the respondents with regard to the frequency of their trips to the National Park were combined to assess the effects of landscape changes on the recreation benefits of visitors. Furthermore, the willingness-to-pay, in terms of a hypothetical admission fee to prevent a further degradation of the ecological quality, was also ascertained.
The results show that the frequency of trips is significantly reduced if one of the scenarios were to become a fact. Annual recreation benefits (measured by the consumer surplus) currently amount to approximately EUR 1,040 per person, while the loss of recreation benefits, as a consequence of further changes to the landscape considered to be unfavourable by the respondents, would amount to EUR 329 to 475 per person. In addition, visitors stated an annual willingness to pay from EUR 23 to EUR 26 to prevent further negative developments. The conclusions that were drawn refer especially to the effectiveness of management in the Tatra National Park, to the combination of revealed and stated behaviour data, and the willingness-to-pay of the visitors.
The main aim of the research is to identify landscape fragmentation (LF) in Slovakia with special emphasis on the contribution of protected areas (PAs) to mitigate the effect of LF. Results are ...presented in the final raster output (10 m grid). The raster contains 490,321,151 individual 10 m raster grids, with the LF average value of 59.12 % (where 0 represents fragmented landscape, 100 represents fully connected landscape by natural or semi-natural ecosystems) on the national level. Most of the territory of Slovakia falls within the range of values 55 – 65 %, which confirms the presence of significant continuous unfragmented areas. Based on the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) statistics results, there is a positive correlation of lower LF within the PAs network (p < 0.05, Table 1) in comparison to the unprotected part of Slovakia. The results of geographically weight regression (GWR) proved a medium positive correlation (r2=0.36; r2adj=0.36; n=49,003), thus confirming to a certain extent the role of PAs in the mitigation of the effect of LF. On the other hand, the level of protection does not correlate significantly with fragmentation values, where a higher level of protection is not significantly connected with a lower level of LF. For each category of PA, individual statistics of quality and quantity of LF are estimated and subsequently compared with unprotected parts of Slovakia. The comparison of all PAs with each other resulted in 1,132 unique assessments. The overall average value of LF of unprotected parts is still rather high (56.42 %) and it shows that there are still significant areas existing, which are situated in unprotected parts of the country. Spatial analysis revealed, that these important parts are covering 93,065 hectares, and are variously spread across the whole of Slovakia. The average value of LF for these newly identified areas is 68.5 %. As output, the results of this research present a comprehensive national map of the level of LF and lists of PAs ranked according to the overall assessment of LF.
Ecosystems in Slovakia Černecký, Ján; Gajdoš, Peter; Špulerová, Jana ...
Journal of maps,
12/2020, Letnik:
16, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The authors have prepared a detailed map of Slovakia's ecosystems, which identifies individual ecosystems and their spatial distribution, status, and selected properties. The impetus for the ...production of this map is the need of various stakeholders, especially nature protection bodies, forestry management, agricultural management and public administration, for better data on the distribution of ecosystems. The methodology mostly involves using GIS analytical tools to combine datasets on nature protection, forestry, and agriculture which list attributes related to habitat identification. The results can be used for ecosystem services assessment, spatial planning, nature protection analysis, and other related purposes. The spatial precision of the data is determined by that of the field data, which was mostly created at scales between 1:10000 and 1:5000. The data are stored in the form of a geodatabase containing more than 1,000,000 polygons.
In conservation biology, there is a general consensus that protected areas (PAs) are one of the most effective tools for biodiversity protection. Worldwide, the area of PAs is continually increasing. ...But is the effectiveness of biodiversity protection improving with it? Since many PAs only exist as "paper parks" (i.e. they exist on maps and in legislation but offer little actual protection), the answer is uncertain. Moreover, it has long been known that, not only an increase in the extent of PAs, but also the efficiency of their management is fundamentally important for effective nature conservation. Therefore, there is a wide-ranging discussion about the actual effectiveness of PAs and factors that influence it. In the course of the EU pre-accession phase, a comprehensive field mapping of natural habitats took place in the Czech Republic in years 2001â2004. The mapping results were used to designate Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) as part of the Natura 2000 network. In this study, the aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of this newly created system of SACs for protection of biodiversity represented by the mapped natural habitats. The NCEI index (Nature Conservation Effectiveness Index) was applied, calculated as the total area of a particular habitat type in all SACs in the Czech Republic divided by the total area of that same natural habitat in the entire Czech Republic. Habitat protection in the Czech Republic is focused primarily on the smallest types of rare habitats, many of which are classified as critically endangered. The Czech national system of SACs provides protection to a total of 4,491.68 kmsup.2 of natural habitats. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the overall effectiveness of the SAC system in the Czech Republic, which is specifically aimed at protecting natural habitats, is low (NCEI = 0.36). Nevertheless, the critically endangered habitats receive maximum protection (NCEI = 1). Keywords: Conservation effectiveness, natural habitats, mapping, Nature Conservation Effectiveness Index, Special Areas of Conservation
Nature trails have become very popular and have become the most widespread method of interpreting natural and cultural heritage. This paper presents the result of evaluation research of a nature ...trail in the High Tatras National Park (Slovakia). The holding power and attention capture of the individual panels were assessed by observation including further analysis of other factors related to the interpretive quality or location of the panels. Evaluation shows that the trail is overloaded with text and does not adequately link the communicated content with the surroundings. The individual trail panels have a relatively low degree of holding power and attention capture. The evaluation reveals the importance of good quality and thoughtful interpretation of natural heritage. Overall, the study also shows the difficulties associated with the use of statistical methods to analyze the effectiveness of selected trail features.
The present paper focuses on the distribution of Pinus mugo in the Carpathians, in an area on the border between Slovakia and Poland. We analyze the response of P. mugo distribution to abiotic ...habitat conditions in the western Tatra Mountains and discuss possible implications for research. The source data for this study were aerial photographs from 3 periods (1965, 1986, and 2002). Mountain areas covered by dwarf pine were identified and analyzed by ArcGIS 9.2, and pine fields were classified with the help of the gray scale mode. A strip of dwarf pine above the upper limit of the forest represents a well-identifiable boundary on the aerial photographs: 25 well-recognized localities were selected to examine the changes in the tree line in the western Tatras. The distribution of dwarf pine systematically increased in the western Tatra Mountains from 1965 to 2002 on all monitored sites. The percentage of total surface area covered in P. mugo increased from 41.8% in 1965 to 51.8% in 1986 and to 58.2% in 2002. The study also analyzes the dispersal of dwarf pine over 40 years in relation with slope and elevation. The results of this study explain ongoing and future vegetation changes and can be used as an important contribution to monitoring of climate change in the mid-European mountain areas.
Tatra National Park is considered as the most visited protected area in Slovakia. Striking a balance between the preservation of natural resources and opportunities for public recreation often forces ...responsible authorities to make compromises between visitation impacts and protection. In this case, the microbial investigation of recreation effects on water and soil in the Tatra National Park were studied.
The study areas were two valleys – Malá Studená, accessible by trail from south with higher human impact and visitation, including mountain huts Téryho and Zamkovského chata and Javorová, accessible from the northern part with a low number of visitors. Soil samples were taken from the main path, 30 cm away from it and water samples from or near the main path in both valleys. The selected colonies, after the cultivation on TSA medium were also analysed according to the dry and semi-extraction procedure of MALDI–TOF method. Most of the obtained strains are endospore forming, psychrotolerant species like
,
or
away of path, which corresponds with the climate and geographical conditions. But, the relatedness of soil sample strains in both valleys increases with rising altitude, with distance away from path; in contrast, the relatedness of water samples strains in both valleys increases with increasing distance sample areas from chalet and frequent visitors’ places. Water and soil samples were processed for community level physiological profiling using Biolog EcoPlates. The obtained results of carbon source utilization abilities of bacterial communities in both valleys suggested lower diversity in Javorová Valley, which corresponds probably with less visitor intensity, with less anthropogenic impact as well as with less risk of xenobiotics presence in environment.
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