The countries of the European Union have joined, inter alia, soil protection in the Common Agricultural Policy (hereinafter referred to as CAP). Accelerated soil erosion is a problem resulting from ...inappropriate land management, which affects both the presence of organic matter and the soil structure. The tool for elimination of negative impacts on soil can be its sustainable use. This requires the use of an accurate system to improve its condition. The first step should be problem identification and localisation. The research is aimed at the identification of water erosion risk areas by using selected methodological procedures. The research area was located at the intensively used hilly land of the Southwestern Slovakia. The digitisation of the manual interpretation of erosion risk areas with the use of aerial photos, erosion modelling, chemical analysis of soil organic matter (SOM) and analysis of soil structure were used. Verification was implemented via the field research with the use of the soil probes. Methods affirmed significant presence of the water erosion in the area. Efficient identification of erosional processes is possible via combination of presented methods by taking into consideration geological, geomorphological, pedological and geographical conditions and the use of the area over a longer period of time. The results of using methods that ensure accurate and effective localisation of erosion surfaces can be used for sustainable land use and its conservation.
The research of pastures influenced by Carpathian sheep milk farming as a typical archetype was conducted in study areas of the mountain even subalpine landscape in the forest zone of the Western ...Carpathians in the Slovak Republic. We have chosen 28 areas that have been effected by mountain sheep farming since the period of the Wallachian colonization. The research works were under way from 1998 to 2016. The pastures of observation were from 615 to 1 421 meters above sea level (m a.s.l.) in the areas of 1 398 ha in total that was of various exposition and inclination, from flat surface to steep hillsides with 28° slope. The studied pastures ranged from the species‑rich to species‑poor, from Festuca‑Agrostis grasslands through Nardo‑Agrostion tenuis alliance to Nardion. The number of plant species (from 18 to 48, average 33 at 1 m2) shows a rather varied composition of grasslands. There were only two study sites with higher dominance of Festuca rubra (51 % and 64 %) recorded. The quality of grassland depends on the floristic composition (cover in %) and forage value of the particular species. Evaluation of the grassland quality (EGQ) reached the average value 57.5 in the scale from 0 to 100. Value varied from least valuable grasslands with 40.1 points in two study plots to valuable grasslands with 69.4 points. Relations between selected environmental factors were analysed by means of redundancy analysis (RDA). Among the significant factors of environment, the impact on data set variability was the strongest by altitude (18.1 %), then by total precipitation in the vegetation period (5.6 %) and grassland quality EGQ (5.2 %).
In the report we concentrate on the influences of water-induced morphodynamic processes and surface flow on the development of tarns in alpine environment conditions of selected valleys in the High ...Tatras. Model areas are represented by higher basins parts in the Malá Studená valley and the Veľká Studená valley, where we confirmed that slope-gravitational processes in the form of rockfall, water-gravitational processes in the form of debris flows, but also fluvial-proluvial processes as the accumulation of the soft fractions from the area of debris cones take part in the material deposition in the tarns. In this context we focused on the creation of the model of spatial distribution of the water-induced potential of material deposition in drainage tarn basins. The model includes three basic factors: slope and curvature of the relief and land cover character. Map processing with GIS technologies was done on the basis of a 3-D relief model, which allowed the locating of the local erosion bases areas, where the material could be accumulated. The achieved results confirmed the hypothesis that tarn basin development of the alpine environment is subordinated to permanent backfilling as a consequence of the cumulative influence of the several processes connected with rainfall and the runoff regime of the drainage basins.
Tatra’s lakes are vulnerable ecosystems and an important element of the alpine landscape. Mainly some shallow lake basins succumb to intense detritus sedimentation, fine fractions of material from ...the catchment area or to the overgrowing of water level by vegetation. In this paper, changes and dynamics of the 12 Tatra’s lake shorelines that were selected based on the detailed mapping of their extent are pointed out. Changes were assessed by accurate comparisons of historical and current orthophoto maps from the years 1949, 1955 and 2015 – and therefore, based on the oldest and the latest relevant materials. Due to the overgrowing of lakes caused by vegetation, their water surface decreased from −0.9% up to −47.9%, during the examined period. Losses were caused by the overgrowing of open water surface by the communities of sedges and peat bogs. The most significant dynamics of the shorelines during the last decades were reached by those lakes, into which fine sediments were simultaneously deposited by means of mountain water coarse. These sediments made the marginal parts of the lake basins shallower and accelerated rapid expansion of vegetation to the detriment of the open water surface. The overgrowing of shallow moraine lakes lying in the vegetation zone is a significant phenomenon of the High Tatras alpine landscape. It leads to their gradual extinction, turn into peat bogs and wet alpine meadows.
This article provides an overview and results of the pilot national ecosystem services assessment in Slovakia. It follows the MAES process and past ecosystem services (ES) research in Slovakia and is ...based on original research methodology using spatial and statistical data. The initial step of national ES assessment resulted in the selection of significant ES for the evaluation process, where 18 ES in three groups were selected (five provisioning, 10 regulatory/maintenance and three cultural ES). An original assessment model provided the theoretical and methodological framework for national ES evaluation. The principal result is an assessment of the national landscape’s capacity for ES provision, based on evaluation of the landscape units and selected properties and indicators at the ecosystem level. These inputs included habitat types and watersheds, administrative units, natural topology, geology, soils, climate, water and biota. The ES capacity models were created and evaluated for each ES, for the main groups and, finally, for overall ES provision. The highest capacity to provide ES in Slovakia comes from natural and semi-natural ecosystems, mainly deciduous, mixed and coniferous forests which cover over 38% of Slovak territory. The water ecosystems and wetlands are also significant, followed by grasslands and permanent crops. The research highlights the crucial importance of the mountainous and sub-mountainous areas in Slovakia and confirms the significant contribution of the natural and semi-natural ecosystems for ensuring ES provision.
Due to the destruction of alpine ecosystems by extreme human trampling, some alpine areas are closed to tourists. After years of regeneration, a tendency toward reopening these areas for tourism is ...envisaged. Although numerous studies have documented vegetative responses to trampling disturbance, research that thoroughly examines the trampling impacts on the vegetation at different organizational levels is often limited. Most of the previous studies on the human disturbance of vegetation focused on the impacts on vascular plants, while the impacts on lichens or mosses are less well-documented. To understand how regenerated communities respond to further trampling disturbance, we repeated the experimental research on short-term trampling after 14 years in three high-altitude communities in the Tatras in northern Slovakia. According to Cole and Bayfield’s protocol, we evaluated the resistance of communities trampled in 2008 and 2022, with a focus on groups of lichens and mosses and their individual species. This research brings new knowledge regarding the different behaviors of regenerated vegetation, especially lichens and mosses, to trampling disturbance. The results show that human trampling in alpine communities has a large negative impact and, therefore, management plans should discourage off-trail hiking and limit recreational activities in sensitive or reopened alpine areas.
The water erosion research was carried out in the lowland type of hilly landscape. The aim was to monitor and evaluate the importance of environmental factors (steepness of slope, relief shapes, ...aspect, slope length, combination slope length (L) and slope (S)—LS factor, types of land use changes) for the development of water erosion. We focused on the identification of areas threatened by erosion by interpreting aerial photographs from several time periods. This was followed by verification of erosion using soil probes. We identified 408.44 ha of areas affected by erosion, and measured the depth of soil and “A” horizons thickness. The environmental factors were modeled in geographical information systems by tools for spatially oriented data. Subsequently, the influence and significance of individual environmental factors were compared, and the probability of erosion was statistically estimated. The decisive factors in the formation of erosive surfaces are the LS factor and the slope. We also consider the factor of the relief shape to be important. The shape did not appear to be very significant as a separately evaluated factor, but all convex parts correlate with the identified erosion surfaces. The susceptibility of erosion related to the aspect of the slopes to the cardinal directions has not been confirmed. Types of land use changes with the most significant relation of erosion were confirmed in areas of strong intensification. We confirmed the importance of factors and land use for the development of erosion processes.
Over the past decades, outdoor recreation in mountains has become progressively more important and as a result human induced potential damage has increased. Alpine communities are particularly ...susceptible to human recreational activities, such as tourist trampling. Although there are a number of studies that explicitly assess the effects of trampling on alpine communities, they do not reflect on terrains with a rich topography and the presence of more communities in very small areas. In this study, effects of short-term trampling on some alpine communities in the Tatras, the highest mountains of the Carpathians, were studied experimentally. Vulnerability to disturbance was compared among plant communities in terms of resistance and resilience, which are based on cover measurements. With proximity to trampling intensity, we found a significant decrease in plant cover and abundance of deciduous shrubs, lichens, and mosses. These results demonstrate that human trampling in alpine communities has major negative impacts on lichen and moss abundance and species richness. A short-term trampling experiment required several years of community regeneration. Therefore, management plans should discourage hiking activity off paths and restrict recreational activities.
According to scientific evidence in general, the disappearance of the Tatras tarns as a result of external geomorphological processes has been accepted since the long term analyses of lake sediments ...and peat bogs, geomorphological mapping, geophysical measurements (–all indirect methods). It is paradoxical that the direct cartographic evidence of such changes has not existed until now. In this paper, we evaluate shore line changes of the small mountain glacial lake in the High Tatras - Litworowy Staw lake using a multitemporal analysis of a series of historical orthophotomaps and a historical map. Over the last 100 years, the tarn has lost 46.4% of open water level area. Significant visual changes were caused by vegetation growth of Carex species (sedges) on the water’s surface. The accumulation of fine sediments and dead plant residues in the tarn basin create suitable conditions for this process, all together causing the tarn to become more shallow.
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