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? Simplified geological map of the Czech Republic (based on the digital geological map 1 : 500,000 ? GEO?R500 by Czech Geological Survey 1998).
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This review summarizes basic information on the diversity of vegetation in the Czech Republic. It describes basic environmenal factors affecting vegetation, vegetation history since the last glacial, biomes occurring in the Czech Republic (zonal biomes of broad-leaved deciduous forest and forest-steppe, and azonal biomes of taiga and tundra), altit...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... eastern part (eastern and southern Moravia). The Bohemian Massif is an old mountain system created by Variscan (Hercynian) orogeny in the Late Palaeozoic and is formed mainly of igneous and metamorphic rocks of pre-Permian age such as gran- ite, granodiorite, gneiss and schist, which in places are covered by younger sedimentary or volcanic rocks (Fig. 2). In the Cretaceous the northern half of Bohemia was flooded by a marine transgression. Cretaceous sediments, occurring mainly in the lowlands of north- ern, central and eastern Bohemia, include two bedrock types: (i) acidic siliceous sand- stones, which locally form sandstone pseudokarst with deep gorges and rock towers (Fig. 3), and ...
Context 2
... occur above the timberline. Dry lowland heathlands that occur especially in central Bohemia and south-western Moravia are dominated by Calluna vulgaris, while Vaccinium species are absent; they are rich in thermophilous con- tinental species typical of dry grasslands (class Calluno-Ulicetea, alliance Euphorbio cyparissiae-Callunion vulgaris; Fig. 20b). Submontane to montane heathlands are usually co-dominated by Calluna vulgaris, Vaccinium myrtillus and V. vitis-idaea, while thermo- philous continental species are absent (Geringhoff & Daniëls 1998). Extensive stands dominated by Vaccinium myrtillus occur above the timberline in the Krkonoše, Králický Sněžník and Hrubý Jeseník Mts, ...
Context 3
... thermo- philous continental species are absent (Geringhoff & Daniëls 1998). Extensive stands dominated by Vaccinium myrtillus occur above the timberline in the Krkonoše, Králický Sněžník and Hrubý Jeseník Mts, in places where thick snow cover provides winter protection to dwarf shrubs (class Calluno-Ulicetea; alliance Genisto pilosae-Vaccinion; Fig. ...
Context 4
... composition and productivity of dry grasslands varies according to moisture availability, which depends on soil depth and precipitation. Dry grasslands on outcrops of various types of poorly weathered rocks are found mainly in northern and central Bohemia and southern Moravia (Fig. 20e). Most of these grasslands are dominated by the narrow- leaved tussocky grass Festuca pallens, which occurs both on siliceous rocks and limestone (alliance Alysso-Festucion pallentis). On the limestone outcrops in the Pavlovské Hills of southern Moravia, Festuca pallens is accompanied by sub-Mediterranean species such as Fumana ...
Context 5
... colonies or on ex- arable land) harbours some competitively poor continental species, such as Astragalus exscapus, Crambe tataria, Iris pumila and Taraxacum serotinum. Short-grass steppes have traditionally been used as pastures for livestock, typically for mixed herds of differ- ent kinds of animals grazing on common land. Semi-dry grasslands (Fig. 20g) are usually dominated by the broad-leaved rhizomatous grass Brachypodium pinnatum, but in some areas other species can also be important, e.g. Bromus erectus, Koeleria pyramidata (at higher altitudes), Dorycnium pentaphyllum agg. and Inula ensifolia (southern Moravia) and Sesleria caerulea (marlstone slopes in northern Bohemia). Based ...
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Citations
... The geology of the forest areas ( Figure 1) impacts their vegetation and soil. The vegetation is also influenced by human activities, and past bio-geographical processes [15,16]. The climate is described as temperate oceanic through temperate continental [17], with continental climate increasing from west towards east and down lowlands from the mountains. ...
... Djodjic et al. [45] found geology to have influenced soil properties and nutrient concentrations. For example, Doupovské Mts. is in a region of the volcanic complex of the Bohemian massif where basaltic rocks dominate [15,46]. Basalts are rich in Ca and Mg [47]. ...
... Basalts are rich in Ca and Mg [47]. The forest areas within the Moravia Region of the Czech Republic, such as South Moravian Valleys, Moravian-silesian Beskids and Hostýnskovsetínské Hills and Javorníky have alluvial soils and flysch [15]. Flysch is a bedrock of weakly and strongly weathered sandstones, clays and marls [48,49]. ...
Base cations have declined within European forests due to leaching, accelerated by atmospheric acid deposition. This study aims at predicting the spatial distribution of pseudototal content of Ca, Mg, and K for coniferous, broadleaved and mixed forest stands. A harmonised database of about 7000 samples from the top mineral layer of 0–30 cm from the entire forest areas of the Czech Republic was used. A regression kriging model was used for spatial prediction of the content of the elements. The influence of the covariates used for the prediction was assessed using generalized additive models for location scale and shape (GAMLSS). The variance explained by the model was best for Ca with the R2 of 0.32, the R2 for Mg was 0.30, and the R2 for K was 0.26. Model fitting assessed by the ratio of performance to inter-quartile distance (RPIQ) showed K as the best fit with a value of 1.12, followed by Mg with the value 0.87, and Ca with 0.25. Ca exhibited the best prediction fit for the GAMLSS, compared with K and Mg, based on their AIC matrix values. The predicted spatial distribution in this study provides information for policy and will provide information for the sustainable management of forests.
... Furthermore, a database including 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values from Moravian human, geological and animal samples was performed (see Online Resource SI 1: Table 3) and grouped according to the geographical and geological formations where the samples were taken (excluding those coming from migratory animals) ( Fig. 3) (see Online Resource SI 1: Table 4). These formations included the Tertiary and Quaternary soils from the Carpathian Foredeep, the Ždánický les mountains (corresponding to the beginning of the Carpathians), the Quaternary soils east of the Ždánický les, the Bohemian Massif Paleozoic and the Bohemian Massif Proterozoic (Chytrý, 2012). To work with as much accuracy as possible, only the values from geological samples, snails and Sus Scrofa (the domestic animal more likely to be less mobile) were ultimately considered (see Online Resource SI 2: Fig. 1). ...
This research combines Strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and Oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotope analysis to challenge the prevailing interpretation of patrilocal exogamic practices among eastern European Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) communities. Patrilocality has been considered the key factor influencing the mobility patterns of central Europe’s first farmers (c. 5500–4900 cal. BC), especially in the south-eastern Moravian region (Czech Republic). Focusing our attention on both male and female tooth enamel samples from cemeteries, settlement graves and small clusters of graves, this paper reassesses the correlation between mobility, biological sex, and funerary practices. This task is accomplished by establishing a new isotopic footprint using new ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr data, as well as significantly increasing the number of sampled individuals for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O. The outcome of this research contributes to a better understanding of the mobility patterns among early farmers in central Europe, challenging existing theories and providing new insights into their social and cultural dynamics.
... Broad-leaved forests (code 311), mixed forests (code 313) and transitional woodland-shrub (code 324) were the assessed near-natural forest habitats using CORINE. Coniferous forests (code 312) were included in the plots above 1000 m a.s.l. in elevation where these forests represent natural forest vegetation (Chytrý, 2012). Using NATURA 2000, we added the area of all natural forest habitats (Chytrý et al., 2010). ...
Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation are major causes of the ongoing decline of epiphytic and epixylic lichen species in temperate forests throughout Europe. We investigated how extant species richness and composition of epiphytic and epixylic lichen communities in ten hot-spots of lichen diversity in the Czech Republic reflected the occurrence and properties of potentially suitable microhabitats and habitats. At each hot-spot, we surveyed a pair of 1-ha square plots, one in (over-)mature managed and the second in unmanaged forest. In total, we recorded 513 epiphytic and epixylic lichen species which represent a substantial part of lichen biota in Central Europe. Species richness and composition of lichen communities were explained by microhabitat heterogeneity, and also by the area of near-natural forest habitats (habitat extent) at the landscape scale. In addition, lichen species richness and number of red-listed species were explained by a categorial variable distinguishing mature managed and unmanaged plots, used as a proxy of temporal continuity of natural succession. This finding illustrates that temporal continuity of natural succession in unmanaged forests likely had an extra stimulus for lichen communities that may not be reflected by observed aspects of forest habitats. Hence, we confirmed indispensable positive effects of (micro)habitat heterogeneity, and spatial and temporal continuity for preserved hot-spots of lichen diversity in Central Europe. Due to generally slow colonization-extinction dynamics of epiphytic and epixylic lichens we call for strengthening microhabitat heterogeneity, and the spatial and temporal continuity of European temperate forests at the landscape scale.
... Forest-related predictors were total forest area, percentage of forest area, percentage of conifers, and percentage of pine (Pinus L. spp.) within each district [50]. Pine was considered the most flammable tree species in the study area [60]; it usually grows under dry conditions, produces resinous and easily combustible debris, and older stands have a In the absence of humans, mixed beech (Fagus sylvestris L.) forests would dominate most of the Czech Republic, with oak (Quercus L.)-dominated deciduous forests in the lowlands, and coniferous forests with spruce (Picea L.) at higher altitudes [49]. Because of the intensive forest management practiced since the nineteenth century, the current forest composition consists predominantly of Picea abies L. (Karst.) ...
Citation: Berčák, R.; Holuša, J.; Trombik, J.; Resnerová, K.; Hlásny, T.
... It covers more than 300 km 2 of continuous forest, mostly between 270 and 300 m a.s.l., with only a few volcanic hills rising above 500 m a.s.l. The region is formed by Cretaceous sediments with sand deposits and is characterized by poor soil fertility (Chytry, 2012;Czech Geological Survey, 2023). The region experiences a moderately warm and dry climate (Vondráková et al., 2013) with an average air temperature of 7.2 • C during the breeding season (April -August; CHMI, 2023) and average annual precipitation of 635 mm. ...
... The region is formed by the Bohemian Massif. The prevailing soil type is the cambisol (Chytry 2012, Czech Geological Survey 2023. The highest points in the area contain Cambrian conglomerates and sandstones dominated by quartz. ...
... The hypothesis of an anthropogenic origin of oak-hornbeam woodlands at least in a part of their current distribution range has been more or less accepted by vegetation ecologists (Ellenberg, 1996;Chytrý, 2012;Boublík et al., 2013;Novák et al., 2023). However, a straightforward extrapolation of vegetation studies to large scales would not be accurate because of a scarcity of data and because the intensity of past human involvement is hard to ascertain. ...
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 cur rent 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 spatial and temporal relationships between the fossil pollen record and evidence of past human settlements in the Czech Republic, central Europe (Fig. 2), for which there are digital large-scale datasets, were studied. This country is dominated by the temperate forest biome, but the lowlands also contain biomes of hemiboreal taiga and forest-steppe biomes; and in the mountains encompass vegetation of coniferous spruce forests, and limited areas of alpine tundra at the highest elevations (Chytrý 2012). Currently, forests cover 34% of the area, 57% is covered by agricultural land and 6% is covered by urban areas. ...
Tracing human-vegetation interactions that occurred in the past has always been one of the key topics of paleoecology. Here we use the pollen and archaeological databases available for the Czech Republic to determine links between individual pollen taxa and archaeological data and search for the spatial scales of comparability. The datasets include 1,500 pollen samples and 65,000 archaeological components covering the period from 12,000 to 700 cal. BP , divided into time windows of 250 years. Spearman’s rank correlation was used to measure the link between pollen and archaeological data at different sites. Using generalized additive models for the whole dataset, we explained the variance of pollen by archaeologically registered human activities and by two environmental variables . The first was the overall trend for each taxon in the Holocene representing the long-term dynamics of the species, the second was the elevation of pollen sites. Both factors affect species representation over the whole period studied or/and the area and cannot be statistically separated from human-induced changes. Both decrease the indicative strength of anthropogenic pollen; however, elevation did so more than the Holocene trend, since past human activities and elevation are strongly correlated and account for the first main gradient. The pollen taxa with a positive correlation with the level of past human activity, indicated by all methods, are: Plantago lanceolata, Artemisia and Amaranthaceae, re-sprouting edible trees that tolerate fire and pruning (Quercus) and pioneer trees (Pinus). Probability indicating the presence or absence of archaeological evidence when pollen of these species is present or absent is high (0.56–0.76). However, explained variability by the full model is low (0.01–0.09). Fagus, Carpinus and Abies expand during the late-successional stages after human disturbance, therefore their relationships to past human activity are negative when considering a 250-year time window. Secale does not correlate at the level of individual sites due to its late appearance during the Holocene. We ascribe the weak relationship between archaeological data and pollen of Cerealia to inconsistent determinations. The radius of comparability of pollen and archaeological evidence is around tens of kilometres due to the spatial resolution of archaeology is the area of a parish, but lower for herbaceous plants (15–20 km) than for trees (30–40 km). This critical comparison delimits overlaps and gaps between widely-used assumptions and data-based evidence.
... In the absence of humans, mixed beech (Fagus sylvestris L.) forests would dominate most of the Czech Republic, with oak (Quercus L.)-dominated deciduous forests in the lowlands, and coniferous forests with spruce (Picea L.) at higher altitudes (Chytrý 2012). Because of the intensive forest management practiced since the nineteenth century, the current forest composition consists predominantly of Picea abies L. . ...
Background
Central Europe is not a typical wildfire region; however, an increasingly warm and dry climate and model-based projections indicate that the number of forest fires are increasing. This study provides new insights into the drivers of forest fire occurrence in the Czech Republic, during the period 2006 to 2015, by focusing on climate, land cover, and human activity factors.
Results
The average annual number of forest fires during the study period was 728, with a median burned area of 0.01 ha. Forest fire incidence showed distinct spring (April) and summer (July to August) peaks,with median burned areas of 0.04 ha and 0.005 ha, respectively. Relationships between the predictors (climate data, forest-related data, socioeconomic data, and landscape-context data) and the number of forest fires in individual municipality districts were analyzed using Generalized Additive Models (GAM) on three time scales (annually, monthly, and during the summer season). The constructed GAMs explained 48.7 and 53.8% of forest firevariability when fire occurrence was analyzedon a monthly scale and during thesummer season, respectively. On an annual scale, the models explained 71.4% of the observed forest fire variability. The number of forest fires was related to the number of residents and overnight tourists in the area. The effect of climate was manifested on monthly and summer season scales only, with warmer and drier conditions associated with higher forest fire frequency. A higher proportion of conifers and the length of the wildland–urban interface were also positively associated with forest fire occurrence.
Conclusions
Forest fire occurrence was influenced by a combination of climatic, forest-related, and social activity factors. The effect of climate was most pronounced on a monthly scale, corresponding with the presence of two distinct seasonal peaks of forest fire occurrence. The significant effect of factors related to human activity suggests that measures to increasepublic awareness about fire risk and targeted activity regulation are essential in controlling the risk of fire occurrence in Central Europe. An increasing frequency of fire-conducive weather, forest structure transformations due to excessive tree mortality, and changing patterns of human activity on the landscape require permanent monitoring and assessment of possible shifts of forest fire risk.
... The range of values published by Mikeska and Prausová (2013) seems to be significantly imprecise (EQ = 26-39), namely due to the lower interval boundary in the transition towards the 2 nd FVZ. A lower elevation line of natural presence/absence of beech is difficult to identify in the field because of intensive human activities and the alteration of the natural special composition (Chytrý 2012). ...
The Ellenberg quotient (EQ) is a climate index defined as a ratio of the hottest month's temperature and the average annual precipitation sum. The quotient indirectly expresses the relationship between climate and vegetation , and its application is related to the ecological niche of Fagus sp. Although the quotient was curated on the grounds of field research primarily on German vegetation, the possibilities of its utilisation are not limited to the Central European region. The objective of this study is (i) to compare the EQ values calculated for the forest vegetation zones in the Czech Republic with the published data using the ecological niche of Fagus sylvatica; and (ii) to compare the new EQ-based vertical model with field empirical mapping. The study area is the Czech Republic, Central Europe. We used climate data from 1970-2000 and the data of the National Forest Inventory, 2 nd cycle (2011-2015), representing an objective data design. Geospatial analytic methods, machine learning (boosting), and verification through statistical testing were performed. The results indicate higher EQ values between the two most substantial spatial frames-the Hercynicum and Carpaticum regions. By comparing empirical mapped units to their climatic potential (in the EQ), a match was found only within the Carpaticum region. The study presents a concretisation of the general climate index for a specific region, adds to the knowledge about the Fagus ecological niche in context with the Central European vegetation, and also points to the EQ's potential for evaluating the concept of vertical differentiation of forest communities , as well as a possible prediction tool for the vegetation migration in context with climate change.
... The study area is located in South Moravia (Czech Republic) and is approximately delimited by the boundaries of the forest-steppe biome in this area (Chytrý 2012). Foreststeppe biome occurs here in the rain shadow of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. ...
... Foreststeppe biome occurs here in the rain shadow of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. Long-term annual precipitation drops below 500 mm/year in places (Zíková 2009), while average annual temperatures exceed 8.25 °C (Chytrý 2012). The region represents a north-western tip of the zonal forest-steppe biome of the Pannonian Basin, adjacent to the forest-steppe of the eastern Austria and southern Slovakia and Hungary (Wendelberger 1954;Martinovský and Kolbek 1984;Chytrý et al. 2022). ...
Approaches to the classification of thermophilous fringe and tall-herb vegetation in Central Europe vary in many respects. In this study, we provide new vegetation-plot data from South Moravia (Czech Republic), develop a new classification based on differences in overall species composition and compare it with recently used classifications. A dataset of 169 relevés fulfilling the condition of at least 50% cover of tall herbs or lower broad-leaved herbs characteristic of fringe vegetation was classified into six informal vegetation types, four of which may be considered equivalent to phytosociological associations. The most mesophilous and species-rich type Potentilla alba-Laserpitium latifolium is distributed on deep loamy soils developed over the Carpathian flysh, mainly in the White Carpathians. Potentilla argentea-Geranium sanguineum is the most heliophilous type, including acidophilous species and occurring on siliceous rock outcrops along the eastern margin of the Bohemian Massif. Type Vincetoxicum hirundinaria-Origanum vulgare is confined to hard base-rich rocks and occurs mainly in the limestone areas of the Moravian Karst and the Pavlov Hills. Type Geranium sanguineum-Peucedanum cervaria occurs mainly on deep calcareous soils developed over loess and Tertiary claystones in the central part of the South Moravian forest-steppe. The floristic classification of the thermophilous fringe and tall-herb vegetation in South Moravia yielded ecologically and geographically well characterized units that simultaneously differ from dry grasslands by the dominance of herbs, mainly tall herbs. It may serve as a model for future revisions of the national syntaxonomic classification scheme of fringe and tall-herb vegetation in the Czech Republic.
