Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Long-term socio-ecological research platform LTSER Trnava was founded in 1985. Since then, long-term ecosystem research has been underway at the site. It is located in the south-west Slovakia, in the territory of Trnava and 44 rural municipalities with a total area of 741.33 km2. The territory has 132,524 inhabitants and a density is 179 inhabitants per km2. The main part of the LTSER (central and southern parts) is located in the Danubian Lowland. The soils quality (chernozem and floodplain soils), with favourable climate conditions, create there a high potential for agricultural development. The agricultural soil of the study area belongs to the best quality and most fertile soils in Slovakia. Hilly northwest part of the LTSER, located in the Malé Karpaty Mts., belongs to the Malé Karpaty Protected Landscape Area that has vineyard character; vineyards forms transition belt between lowland arable land and forested hills/mountains. Several types of deciduous forests are developed—oak-hornbeam and beech forests are most common; in steeper sites are developed ravine forest dominated by ash and maple. Some of the forests are used for forest management; part of them are protective forests. Numerous small protected areas (17 sites), 3 protected bird areas, and 4 sites of the Natura 2000 network are also present in the study area. Natural capital and natural resources determine the potential land use. Agricultural land (65.13 %) and forests (17.78%) are dominant land use elements. In the post-transformation period, there was also intensive growth in built-up areas due to the construction of industrial and service areas as well as residential areas. Currently, the built-up area accounts for 7.84% of the total study area. The LTSER represents intensively used industrial and agricultural areas with specific environmental problems (strong degree of contamination of the environment, the degradation processes of agricultural land, etc.). It is highly human-impacted landscape with a very low degree of ecological stability. The construction of industrial parks and residential areas on the most productive soils is one of the significant environmental issues. The development of construction is also associated with significant pressures on natural ecosystems. The paper aims to assess changes in representative geo-ecosystems (REPGES) in the study area. REPGES are homogeneous landscape-forming units that are determined on the basis of synthesis (Izakovičová et al. 2011, Miklós et al. 2006). abiocomplexes—was based on a digital spatial database of abiocomplexes processed at Slovak Geological Institute Dionýz Štúr within the project Geological maps for the needs of the landscape-ecological basis of integrated landscape management (KEZIMK) with a detail corresponding to the scale of 1:50 000. The database contains spatially delimited (based on 1:10 000) topical synthetic units that are described by the following set of parameters: abiocomplexes—was based on a digital spatial database of abiocomplexes processed at Slovak Geological Institute Dionýz Štúr within the project Geological maps for the needs of the landscape-ecological basis of integrated landscape management (KEZIMK) with a detail corresponding to the scale of 1:50 000. The database contains spatially delimited (based on 1:10 000) topical synthetic units that are described by the following set of parameters: relief: morphographic-morphometric-positional type of relief, average slope, geological basis – substrate: lithogenetic characteristics of the substrate, hydrogeological characteristics of the substrate, engineering geological zone, genetic types of quaternary sediments, soil: soil subtype, soil type, skeleton, depth, etc. climate type, groundwater regime. relief: morphographic-morphometric-positional type of relief, average slope, geological basis – substrate: lithogenetic characteristics of the substrate, hydrogeological characteristics of the substrate, engineering geological zone, genetic types of quaternary sediments, soil: soil subtype, soil type, skeleton, depth, etc. climate type, groundwater regime. map of potential vegetation—represents the vegetation that would have developed in the territory if man had not affected the landscape. It is important to know which natural vegetation units were present in the area and how they were spatially distributed. The characterisation of potential vegetation was done on the basis of internal data of the Institute of Geobotany of SAS (Michalko et al. 1986). map of potential vegetation—represents the vegetation that would have developed in the territory if man had not affected the landscape. It is important to know which natural vegetation units were present in the area and how they were spatially distributed. The characterisation of potential vegetation was done on the basis of internal data of the Institute of Geobotany of SAS (Michalko et al. 1986). In the study area altogether, 26 types of abiocomplexes were allocated in four basic categories (plains, uplands, highlands, and mountainous areas), 11 types of potential vegetation determined according to bioclimatic conditions, and 4 types determined according to azonal conditions. Based on the synthesis in total, 95 basic types of REPGES were designated in the LTSER Trnava. Subsequently, individual REPGES were evaluated based on several supportive coefficients: naturalness coefficient, which expresses the current percentage of natural vegetation within each REPGES type degree of protection, which expresses the proportion of the area of REPGES that falls under the 2nd to 5th degree of protection pressures degree, which reflects the load of a given type of REPGES with stress phenomena. naturalness coefficient, which expresses the current percentage of natural vegetation within each REPGES type degree of protection, which expresses the proportion of the area of REPGES that falls under the 2nd to 5th degree of protection pressures degree, which reflects the load of a given type of REPGES with stress phenomena. Based on the above coefficients, it is possible to evaluate not only current changes in ecosystems but also trends in their development (based on threats and protection, etc.). The characteristics of the types of representative geo-ecosystems should serve as an ecologically founded systemic basis for designing new protected areas as well as a primary basis for creating functional territorial networks of ecological stability. The representative geo-ecosystems in each region should be declared as elements of the skeleton of the ecological networks, i.e., according to our legislation: biocentres, biocorridors, interaction elements, or core areas in other states (Jongman and Kristansen 2001, Miklós et al. 2019). At the same time, this knowledge can be used to design the effective use of ecosystem services.
Source: ARPHA Conference Abstracts
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4410826293