Energy Potential of Biomass Sources in Slovakia

Renewable energy has provided many potential benefits, including a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the diversification of energy supplies, and a reduced dependency on fossil fuel markets (oil and gas in particular). The growth of renewable energy sources (RES) may also have the potential to stimulate employment in the European Union (EU), through the creation of jobs in new green technologies. In this chapter, first, we introduce the information on renewable energy sources, their statistics, and legislation background in Slovakia. In more detail, we further introduce the information on forest and agricultural biomass as a renewable energy source. In the experimental part, we introduce two case studies—the assessment of the potential stock of woody biomass and the determination of energetic properties of woody biomass, i.e., selected fast-growing tree species based on the implementation of laboratory fire tests and calorimetric analyses

At the table with the big three carnivores - a sympatric occurrence of the golden jackal with bear, wolf and lynx captured on a camera trap in Slovakia

In last decades, golden jackals expanded significantly their distribution range, increasing their population density, being nowadays present in many countries in Europe. In Slovakia, their dispersion and population increase became more constant from 2009. Records of wolves, lynx and bear from camera traps are rather common across Slovakia, while those of golden jackals are still rare, despite a large number of active traps. In this work, we present records of a camera-trap, located on the east side of the Kysuce Protected Landscape Area, where, for the first time, we detect a sympatric occurrence of the golden jackal with all three native large carnivores