Western-Carpathian mountain spruce woodlands at their southern margin: natural or anthropogenic origin?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985939%3A_____%2F20%3A00533878" target="_blank" >RIV/67985939:_____/20:00533878 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216224:14310/20:00114367

Result on the web

<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0313716" target="_blank" >http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0313716</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.23855/preslia.2020.115" target="_blank" >10.23855/preslia.2020.115</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Western-Carpathian mountain spruce woodlands at their southern margin: natural or anthropogenic origin?

Original language description

Origin and dynamics of spruce woodlands in central Europe is an important topic due to the current disturbances triggered by bark beetle outbreaks and extreme climatic events. We focused on the Late Holocene development of spruce-dominated woodlands at their southern margin in the Western Carpathians. We analysed eight peat profiles along an altitudinal gradient of 730–1358m a.s.l. and evaluated the pollen spectra separately for the period before and after the start of intense medieval or post-medieval human intervention in the landscape. We focused on the relative proportions of spruce, beech, fir and noble hardwood trees. Spatial variation in the proportions of beech and spruce exceeded the temporal variation, contrary to fir that declined generally. Proportion of spruce significantly increased over time but the effect differed among sites. Proportion of beech was highest at 800–1000ma.s.l., while that of spruce increased linearly with annual precipitation rather than altitude and reached the highest values on windward slopes and in wet valleys. Different dominant trees at the two highest altitude sites indicate that altitudinal gradient was less important in the area studied. Although foresters consider spruce woodland on the highest summits as naturally monodominant, we found an apparent admixture of fir, together with a small admixture of beech, in the period before human intervention. We conclude that spruce is a major natural component of mountain woodlands even at its southern margin. Contrary to previous expectation, we demonstrate that the proportion of spruce was not associated with altitude but with mesoclimate and soil humidity. The natural spruce woodlands were mixed or existed as mosaics at all altitudes and the monodominant character of spruce woodlands in the area of summits is not natural.

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

10611 - Plant sciences, botany

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA17-05696S" target="_blank" >GA17-05696S: Holocene development of temperate European biota: effects of climate, refugia and local factors tested by complex datasets of independent proxies</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

Preslia

ISSN

0032-7786

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

92

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

21

Pages from-to

115-135

UT code for WoS article

000573572400002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85093088583