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

0574357 - ÚI 2024 RIV NL eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Vojta, J. - Brabec, Marek - Skokanová, H. - Kuča, K.
Legacies of historical management practices in the large-scale distribution pattern of oak-hornbeam woodlands in Czechia.
Forest Ecology and Management. Roč. 545, October 2023 (2023), č. článku 121241. ISSN 0378-1127. E-ISSN 1872-7042
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985807
Klíčová slova: Coppicing * GAMM * NATURA 2000 habitats * Naturalness * Potential natural vegetation * Woodland grazing
Obor OECD: Statistics and probability
Impakt faktor: 3.7, rok: 2022
Způsob publikování: Omezený přístup
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121241

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.
Trvalý link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0344694