Volume 3 (2010): Issue 1 (June 2010)

The first biocorridors were established in the territory of the Czech Republic in the nineties of the 20^th century. One of them, planted on a formed agricultural land, was the Vracov biocorridor. This paper deals with the growth and development of trees on two permanent research plots in the period of 1993 to 2007. Repeated inventories of trees as well as monitoring of biometrical parameters were carried out there in both, the tree and shrub layers. The number of trees decreases with the increasing level of stand canopy. Moreover, mean heights and diameters of Quercus robur, Tilia cordata and Cerasus avium were compared. Under the given conditions, the growth of these tree species can be positively evaluated.

This article deals with a conflict between the exploitation of mineral resources and nature protection at the study area of gravel mining lakes in the floodplain of the Morava River near the town of Tovačov (central Moravia, Czech Republic), and presents a concept of the compromise solution to this conflict, based on linking historical research with application of restoration ecology.

Topographic exposure is a topographic characteristic representing a degree of protection by a surrounding topography of a certain site. Detailed knowledge of topographic exposure has broad use in a number of applications ranging from studying forest wind damage through research on snow storage dynamics to optimisation in positioning wind power stations. This paper describes a method for creation of topographic exposure on the basis of a digital elevation model (DEM) using GIS. In combination with other climatic data on wind direction and speed, this factor is used to define the degree of terrain ventilation. Low terrain ventilation has, among other things, a significant influence on the creation of valley inversions and related vegetation zoning inversions. By combining the degree of terrain ventilation with DEM and forest vegetation zones in the area of the Training Forest Enterprise Křtiny, a clear relationship between the influence of topographic exposure, or terrain ventilation, and the creation of the vegetation zoning inversion was determined.

Habitat connectivity plays a paramount role in the biodiversity of fragmented landscapes. Commonly, connectivity is measured using simple structural metrics, e.g. Euclidean distances between habitat patches. Recently, functional measures such as cost-distance metrics have been proposed. Cost-distance metrics account for behavioural aspects of investigated organisms. They weight the habitats of the investigated landscape according to specific cost values, and model the optimal dispersal corridor according to these values. This study investigated i) if structural or functional connectivity measures explain biodiversity in a focal habitat better and ii) if the appropriateness of the measure differs between patch and landscape scale. We mapped the landscapes within a 500 m radius around 30 fragmented traditional orchards (focal patch). Connectivity measures were based on either Euclidean distances (structural) or cost-distances (functional) to other suitable habitat patches. Birds were used as biodiversity indicators. For analysis, we calculated species richness and total abundance of all species with a preference for woody habitats. In addition, abundances of four wood-preferring bird species were also examined individually. Linear models were created using stepwise forward selection. The relative performance of structural and functional connectivity measures was scale dependent. Structural metrics explained more variance at the patch scale whereas functional metrics explained more variance at the landscape scale. We conclude that simple structural metrics can be used to investigate local or small-scale effects on bird diversity but that investigations of landscape scale connectivity should consider behavioural aspects by using more complex functional metrics. The comparison between group and single species showed that not all individual species behave similarly to group results. Whilst the use of organism groups must be treated with caution, it is certainly worthy of future study.

Ecosystems and landscapes are the two major spatial units for ecological research and practice, but their definitions and meanings are vague and ambiguous. Examining critically the meaning and complexity of both terms from a holistic landscape ecological systems view, the confusing applications of the ecosystem concept could be avoided by conceiving ecosystems as functional interacting systems, characterized for the flow of energy, matter and information between organisms and their abiotic environment. As functional systems they are intangible with vaguely defined borders. On the other hand, landscapes should be recognized as tangible, spatially and temporally well defined ecological systems of closely interwoven natural and cultural entities of the Total Human Ecosystem. Ranging from the smallest discernable landscape cell or ecotope to the global ecosphere, they serve as the spatial and functional matrix and living space for all organisms, including humans, their populations and their ecosystems. Both are medium-numbered complex ecological systems. However, the organized complexity of ecosystems is based solely on the monodimensional complexity of material processes of flow of energy/matter and biophysical information. But the organized complexity of landscapes is multidimensional and multifunctional, dealing not only with the functional dimensions of natural bio-ecological processes and the natural biophysical information, but also with the cognitive mental and perceptual dimensions, transmitted by cultural information and expressed in the closely interwoven natural and cultural landscape.