Spatiotemporal changes in Krkonose Mts alpine tundra

Bc. Marina Souza Faria

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The Diploma Thesis aims to analyze the spatiotemporal changes of the arctic-alpine tundra in the Krkonoše mountains and compares it with the changes in the montane belt represented by three landscape subsets. The research embraces the historical context, analyses of aerial imagery, maps, and assessment of landscape structure to allow the development of recommendations for nature conservation and landscape protection. The areas of interest are: alpine belt - western part of arctic-alpine tundra, and montane belt - Subset 1 - Horní Malá Úpa; Subset 2 - Růžohorky in Pec Pod Sněžkou and Subset 3 - Špindlerův Mlýn. Using the historical and current aerial imagery from 1953 and 2018, the spatial analysis of the study sites was made in eCognition and ArcGIS software. The statistics and graphics we processed in MS Excel and Power BI programs. Four main trajectories of land cover/land use changes were found: Firstly, the forest/shrub encroachment (all study sites), in tundra related to the afforestation plan; secondly, the land abandonment of grassland farming (Subset 1 and 2); thirdly, the transformation of traditional agricultural villages to tourist resorts (Subset 1 and 3); and lastly, the impact of skiing on the landscape (Subset 3). The results show that the alpine tundra demonstrates considerably higher stability compared to the montane belt where the changes were much more dynamic. Overall, I detected a strong trend of increasing forest in subsets and shrubby vegetation in the tundra. Moreover, a decrease in grasslands in all study sites, as well as growing urbanization has been observed. To conclude, the tourism and related abandonment of traditional farming and afforestation impacted, directly and indirectly, the environmental conditions of both zones, nevertheless, it is more prominent in the montane belt. Whereas in the alpine tundra, the changes can be attributed mainly to the historical planting of woods, however, they were most likely affected also by global change promoting spontaneous shrub encroachment. The detailed spatiotemporal analysis presented in this study enabled me to derive the following recommendations for conservation. In tundra, management of expanding dwarf pine should be carried with respect to the site history and valuable relict soils. As for the montane belt, the main strategy is to prevent further landscape degradation and fragmentation, but also regulate tourism and preserve traditional grassland management.

Keywords

Aerial imagery, Arctic-alpine tundra, Krkonoše Mountains, Land use/land cover change, Long-term spatiotemporal analysis, Tourism, Wood encroachment

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 30. 3. 2021

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: Mgr. Jana Müllerová, Ph.D.
• Oponent: Johana Zacharová, externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Environmental Sciences

Master programme / odbor:
Landscape Engineering / Landscape Planning