Abstract
For more than four centuries, the Tatra Mountains were affected by many factors, such as forest and pastoral management, mining and metallurgy, windthrows, snow avalanches, and bark beetle outbreaks. Due to the availability of the long-running Landsat program enabling acquisition of spatially and spectrally consistent information, it is possible to the use these data for forest disturbance analysis. The main aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between the frequency of disturbances detected over the period of 1985–2016 and selected topographic features, such as elevation, exposure, and slope, derived from a digital elevation model (DEM); stand features, such as vegetation community type, age, structure, and degree of naturalness of the stand; and the management protection zone, which was extracted from thematic layers of the Tatra National Park (TNP). Using the normalized difference moisture index (NDMI), we detected forest disturbances in each year and analyzed them in the context of these topographic features, forest stand characteristics, and the management protection zone. We observed that forest stands in the lower montane zone, slopes between 10°–30°, and eastern exposures were primarily affected by disturbances. These consisted of artificially planted spruce stands aged between 51 and 100 years old.
Highlights
Forest disturbances and subsequent recovery from these disturbances are integral parts of an ecosystem’s dynamics, leading to increased landscape diversity [1]
This study demonstrated the relationships between selected factors and forest disturbances in general, without differentiation into particular biotic and abiotic agents, as stated in the Introduction
The study showed differences in the frequency of forest disturbances depending on the elevation zone, slope, exposure, vegetation community type, age, structure, degree of naturalness, and the performance of protective management activities
Summary
Forest disturbances and subsequent recovery from these disturbances are integral parts of an ecosystem’s dynamics, leading to increased landscape diversity [1]. Depending on the geographical location and other local factors, the disturbances can be related to topography, stand features, or management protection activities [4,5,6]. The differences in forest change types are primarily caused by topography and land-use history [7]. These features are interrelated, due to the fact that some areas will have been more preferable for agriculture or timber collection in previous centuries. Topographic variations may affect the windstorm direction [8]. This may lead to more frequent disturbances for certain elevations, exposures, or slopes.
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