Multi-temporal analysis of an agricultural landscapetransformation and abandonment (Lubietová, Central Slovakia)

Abstract

AbstractSocio-political changes in the countries of Easternand Central Europe in the era of socialism had significant effects on agricultural landscape. Collectivisation(1950 - 1970) lost almost all of traditional agricultural landscapes.On the other hand, the phenomenon of agriculturalabandonment started to be significant after 1989. Inthe model area (part of The Polana Biosphere Reserve)these two processes that formed the agricultural landscapestructure were analysed. The analyses were carriedout using orthophotos that represented the landscapestructure in 1949, 1986 and 2006. It was found that almostcomplete extinction of the traditional agricultural landscaperepresented by a mosaic of narrow fields and permanentgrasslands occurred during the period. At the sametime, increasing trend of abandonment processes was observed.In 2006, non-forestwoody vegetation covered 48%of agricultural land.Natural reforestation as the final stageof agricultural abandonment extended to 46% on the formeragricultural land in 2006. Abandonment processeswere the most significant already in the period of socialistagriculture. To describe the changes, landscape metricssuch as Number of patches (NP), Mean patch size (MPS),Patch size standard deviation (PSSD) and Mean shape index(MSI) were used.