Legacies of historical management practices in the large-scale distribution pattern of oak-hornbeam woodlands in Czechia

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985807%3A_____%2F23%3A00574357" target="_blank" >RIV/67985807:_____/23:00574357 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00027073:_____/23:N0000080

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121241" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121241</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121241" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121241</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Legacies of historical management practices in the large-scale distribution pattern of oak-hornbeam woodlands in Czechia

Original language description

Historical woodland management practices like coppicing and grazing have formed the diversity and structure of oak-hornbeam woodlands. We analysed large-scale, high-resolution spatial data on the distribution of woodland communities in Czechia to find out whether past human impacts influenced the distribution of oak-hornbeam woodlands in present-day landscapes. We tested the relation of oak-hornbeam woodlands to the past and current settlement distribution pattern, woodland continuity since about 1840 and distance to the woodland edge, on top of natural environmental predictors, using generalized additive mixed-effects models (GAMM). The results show a positive association between oak-hornbeam woodlands and current towns and villages, but only at higher elevations at the edge of the supposed natural distribution of oak-hornbeam woodlands. This effect was enhanced in the vicinity of old (pre-1450) settlements. By contrast, we found no effect of distance to current settlements in the elevational optimum of oak-hornbeam woodlands and even a decreasing trend of oak-hornbeam at the lowest elevations. In addition, oak-hornbeam stands often occur on former agricultural land and close to the woodland edges. Our results do not contradict the traditional view of oak-hornbeam woodlands as natural vegetation in the lowlands and at middle elevations. However, they clearly show that this natural range was extended to higher elevations by past human influence, probably at the expense of beech woodlands. Additionally, historical woodland management probably supported thermophilous oak woodlands at the lowest elevations. These past human activities are still detectable in the current distribution pattern of woodland communities.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10103 - Statistics and probability

Project

<a href="/en/project/SS02030018" target="_blank" >SS02030018: Center for Landscape and Biodiversity</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Forest Ecology and Management

ISSN

0378-1127

e-ISSN

1872-7042

Volume of the periodical

545

Issue of the periodical within the volume

October 2023

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

121241

UT code for WoS article

001051791300001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85166474100