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Knowledge about past agricultural land management can bring solutions for future needs. One undervalued historical type of historical rural landscape in temperate Europe is termed plužiny. It consists of individual historical agricultural landforms framed by linear woody vegetation. Our multidisciplinary research quantified the distribution of plužiny in Czechia, utilizing archive materials, geographic information systems, and field surveys for verification. Several case studies give merit to the societal relevance of plužiny and justification for their protection and inclusion in landscape planning. We have assessed the contribution of plužiny to secondary geodiversity by describing the landforms morphometrically, using geophysical imaging of their inner structure, and assessing the possible downslope erosive segregation of soil particles. The results of these analyses prove the positive effect of these landscape features on secondary geodiversity and biodiversity at the species level through the process of induced landscape diversification. The results also document management changes during the last 170 years and provide a basis for assessing their present-day endangerment. Although plužiny are less known compared to bocage landscapes of Western Europe, they are similarly valuable. Landscape managers should better recognize the ecological, cultural, and aesthetic values of plužiny as historical agricultural landforms and protect them as a bio-cultural heritage.

The ecological value of abandoned quarries has gained increasing scientific attention in the last few decades, resulting in a paradigm shift in restoration programs regarding the use of natural processes. The linkages between biotic and abiotic diversity, such as landform and microclimatic diversity have been analyzed only slightly, however. In this paper, we use an interdisciplinary approach that includes vegetation mapping, geomorphological mapping, microclimatic measurements and modeling to reveal the specific two-way linkages between abiotoc and biotic diversity. The present case study shows that in only 60 years landform diversity allowed the development of nine distinct biotopes with 134 identified species. At the same time, the vegetation diversity at these human-induced biotopes is of high ecological value as it displays significant similarities with natural biotopes in the region (e.g., scree slope and rock cliff biotopes). Based on the results presented, the paper aims to contribute to current restoration programs involving processes of spontaneous succession and landforming.

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The article deals with landscape character assessment using the example of the Jeseník area (in eastern Czechia). Significant landscape features (relief, settlement type, land use, agrarian landforms and their vegetation) were identified and described and their interactions discovered. The landscape character type of the study area, i.e. "strip semibocage", was identified by combination of significant landscape characteristics. Areas of this landscape character type in the geomorphological unit Jesenická podsoustava subsystem were mapped.