Vertikálna migrácia taxónov vyšších rastlín v alpínskom pásme ako nový, akcelerujúci fenomén

Observed climate change, especially warming, is having significant impacts on the distribution of European flora and these impacts include uphill range shifts, as well as predict potential local and regional extinctions of species. This process can be also called as a vertical migration of species. The related research in subalpine and alpine belt of the European mountains brought several interesting results during the last 15 years, above all by the GLORIA initiative network and a project sUMMITDiv with repeated plant survey from 302 mountain summits across Europe and spanning 145 years of observation. A continent-wide acceleration in the rate of increase in plant species richness, with five times as much species enrichment between 2007 and 2016 as fifty years ago, between 1957 and 1966 has been confirmed (Steinbauer et al., 2018)

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (−0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world\u27s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (−0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Predictive Modelling of Landslide Susceptibility in the Western Carpathian Flysch Zone

Landslides are the most common geodynamic phenomenon in Slovakia, and the most affected area is the northwestern part of the Kysuca River Basin, in the Western Carpathian flysch zone. In this paper, we evaluate the susceptibility of this region to landslides using logistic regression and random forest models. We selected 15 landslide conditioning factors as potential predictors of a dependent variable (landslide susceptibility). Classes of factors with too detailed divisions were reclassified into more general classes based on similarities of their characteristics. Association between the conditioning factors was measured by Cramer’s V and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients. Models were trained on two types of datasets—balanced and stratified, and both their classification performance and probability calibration were evaluated using, among others, area under ROC curve (AUC), accuracy (Acc), and Brier score (BS) using 5-fold cross-validation. The random forest model outperformed the logistic regression model in all considered measures and achieved very good results on validation datasets with average values of AUCval=0.967, Accval=0.928, and BSval=0.079. The logistic regression model results also indicate the importance of assessing the calibration of predicted probabilities in landslide susceptibility modelling

Distribution of the Traditional Agricultural Landscape Types Reflecting Geological Substrate and Slope Processes in the Kysuce Region

Traditional agricultural landscapes (TAL) are landscapes in which primarily traditional sustainable agricultural practices are currently carried out and where biological diversity is conserved thereby. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the extension of traditional landscape structures and their relationship to geological substrate and slope processes (landslides). The evaluation was concentrated on two types of TAL (extended to Kysuce region): TAL with dispersed settlements (subtype 1a and b) and TAL of arable-land, grasslands and pastures (subtype 4a and b). Localities with typical dispersed settlements of subtype 1a mostly occur on Zlin formation and cover 707.9 ha. On the deluvial formation, this type extends to 531.8 ha and on the Solaň formation, to 403.6 ha. The active landslides are mostly represented in the TAL of subtype 4a (cadastral areas of Čadca and Oščadnica villages), of subtype 4b (cadastral areas of Riečnica and Svrčinovec villages) and of subtype 1a (cadastral area of Svrčinovec village). The largest representation of potential landslides is on the subtype 4a, subtype 1a and subtype 4b

The Evaluation of the Potential of Developing Tourism in Kysuce Region

Tourism is an industry with a strong long-term potential of becoming one of the key industries in securing the country’s economic growth. Tourists are nowadays interested in not only getting to know the cultural-historical peculiarities, but also the way of life and cultural traditions of the inhabitants of the individual regions. Kysuce region is characterised by scattered settlement, which used to be a significant type of settlement in remote and inaccessible parts of the area in the past. Nowadays, however, the majority of the objects of the scattered settlement either serve as holiday chalets or are uninhabited.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the recreational potential of tourism in Kysuce region. Based on the established methodology, the individual villages were divided into five categories: areas with less suitable potential of tourism development (PTD), areas with suitable PTD, areas with quality PTD, areas with PTD of high quality and areas with the most significant PTD. These categories have been established based on the point evaluation of the potential of input indicators – natural potential, cultural-historical potential, recreational infrastructure and environmental infrastructure. The most significant PTD in the monitored area is the village of Oščadnica (279 points), and the villages of Horný Vadičov (231 points), Raková (224 points) and Nová Bystrica (219.5 points) were evaluated as the areas with PTD of high quality. Agro-tourism in this region is, however, the least developed, despite the location of the region being very favourable for such an activity. Its development could lower unemployment and offer a source of income of the inhabitants, or reduce movement of the inhabitants into other regions of Slovakia. Subsequently, the character of the landscape with all its key functions for sustaining the quality of the environment could be preserved

Landsliding as a Limit to Possible Territorial Development in the Kysuce Region

The growing development of settlements in mountainous areas and their sustainable development constantly requires new approaches to assess the land in terms of occurrence of landslides. The flysch zone, where the monitored area is located, is one of the most landslide prone areas in Slovakia. Landslides respond sensitively to the quality of the individual factors that form the landscape and to the change of natural conditions. Their occurrence is a geo-barrier that reduces or totally prevents the use of natural environment and negatively affects the life of population and territorial development. The reason for the increased hazard of landslides is not only demographic pressure on territories, but also its poor management. Consistent spatial planning addresses not only the spatial layout but also the functional use of the territory. Landslides represent one of the limits of land use. This study is based on the assessment of landsliding as a limit to possible territorial development. The input parameters for the assessment were elements of the current landscape structure (built up structure, forest stands, transitional woodland-shrubs, traditional agricultural land, permanent grasslands and arable land) and occurring landslides (active, potential and stabilized). On most of the determined elements of the landscape, landslides occur on about a quarter of their area. They have a smaller share only in areas of mixed forests, built up areas and have the smallest share on arable land. Potential landslides have the largest proportion on all landscape elements. They occupy the largest areas on coniferous forests (1578.93 ha) and on permanent grasslands (741.33 ha). By evaluating the overall endangerment of the area by landslides according to the degree of threat, we found that the greatest threat of landslides is in the Skalité and Svrčinovec cadastral areas, the smallest threat is in the Čadca cadastral area. In addition to the danger of landsliding in the individual elements of the landscape, we have also set limits for its development. Spatial planning limits have been divided into two categories according to the sectors they affect the most: limiting the development of an area assigned for residential building, or restricting the development of an area designed for agricultural and forestry purposes

Historical changes in dispersed kopanitse land type and changes in use of agricultural land on Kysuce region example

Territory of Kysuce is characterised by a high proportion of the traditional agricultural landscape (TAL), which occupy almost 12% of the area. Two types of TAL were allocated here. The first type is represented by TAL with dispersed settlement. The second type is represented by TAL of arable land and grassland landscape. The largest representation has typical forms of anthropogenic relief (FAR). TALs represent the most diverse mosaic of man-made habitats and natural habitats too. In the past, there were the largest representations of arable land and regularly mown meadows. Currently, these areas are dominated by abandoned meadows (fallow meadows), occasionally grazed pastures and meadows. Arable land is represented only minimally. The large part of areas is overgrown by non-forest woody vegetation or passes to the forest vegetation. In this process of landscape changes, significant changes in biodiversity of the areas are realised. Successively, the species of segetal and ruderal vegetation are less represented and species of forest vegetation obtained greater representation. In the process of mapping and evaluation, FAR - shape and orientation of plots, types of balks and some of their basic characteristics - were monitored