Abstract

Krnačova Z., Hreško J., Kanka R., Boltižiar M.: The evaluation of ecological factors affecting environmental functions of the soils in area of traditional agrarian structure. Ekologia (Bratislava),Vol. 32, No. 2, p. 248-261, 2013. Cultural landscape can be seen as a result of hundred years of founding and sensitive cultivation of landscape structures respecting natural conditions. Specific geomorphological, climatic as well as social conditions enabled the conservation of original agrarian landscape structures mainly in the marginal regions of Slovakia. They are created by mosaic structures of extensively used small-scale landscape elements of permanent agricultural and arable land. An example of traditional agrarian way of using is foothill meadow-grazing landscape of the village Liptovska Teplička. By using the traditional extensive maintenance of the agricultural landscape, optimal environmental characteristics of soils were preserved. These were modified to some extent by the way of using and management. The submitted contribution is focused on the following:• Indication of environmental characteristics of soils• Quantification of the influence of chosen ecological factors on these environmental functions Seven research localities representing main types of the traditional landscape maintenance were chosen for needs of the research of soil and environmental conditions in a relation with the way of using the land and management. In given localities, we chose 21 sampling sites for secondary landscape structure (according to the legend of project Corine Land Cover, 2000), geological, soil, physical, biochemical and chemical conditions evaluation. Environmental functions indication was assessed in the following way: by assigning an amount of organic carbon (Cox) in a standard way (Fiala et al., 1999) for production functions, by assigning a ratio of granular fractions (pipetting method according to Novak) for retention functions. Buffering functions were evaluated potentiometrically by assigning an active soil reaction of pH (H2O) and exchange reaction of pH (KCl) in a soil. Highest values of Cox in the Ap horizon (7.67-6.62%), as well as pH of the soil environment (pH/KCl 7.26-7.21, pH/H2O 7.69-7.68) were assigned to anthrosolic and cultisolic rendzinas of extensively used grasslands. On the contrary, the lowest monitored values of organic matter Cox (2.51-2.53%), as well as pH of the soil environment (pH/KCl 4.81-5.21) (pH/ H2O 5.21-6.19) were indicated for soil subtypes anthrosols of the large fields and lithosol of theextensively used grasslands on non-carbonate substrates. Most favourable production and buffering soil properties were preserved in rendzinas on the carbonate substrates and extensively used meadows. Similarly, this type of soil on limestone used in a form of extensive meadows preserved also the most favourable retention functions according to the stated ratio of granularity fractions. Quantification of the influence of chosen ecological factors on environmental functions was performed using multivariate statistical methods, specifically principal component analysis (PCA). PCA is an indirect gradient analysis using the linear correlation of data, with a biplot as an output. Closeness of points in ordination graph represents their similarity of composition. The CANOCO (Ter Braak, Šmilauer, 2002) software was used to perform the analysis and to create the graph.

Fazekašova D., Boltižiar M., Bobuľska L., Kotorova D., Hecl J., Krnačova Z.: Development of soil parameters and changing landscape structure in conditions of cold mountain climate (case study Liptovska Teplička). Ekologia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 2, p. 197-210, 2013.Soil physical, chemical and biological properties and the content of heavy metals were investigated between 1997 and 2010 and changing landscape structure was evaluated for years 1948-2010 under production conditions in the investigated area Liptovska Teplička (48° 57´ N; 20° 05´ E), situated in the marginal region of north-eastern Slovakia. Research showed that soil physical properties get adjusted after a long-term application of ecological farming system and the measured values were stabilised. High doses of organic fertilizers had positive effect on soil fertility, and thus indirectly on maintaining soil pH, available nutrients content and accumulation of humus in soil. The values of soil enzymes activities changed minimally during the research period. At the same time, it was proven that increasing the content of soil organic matter promotes natural protection of soil enzymes. This study underscores the importance of long-term, quantitative soil monitoring in determining the changes in agricultural land and ecosystem processes over time. Statistically significant effect of experimental year on all observed soil parameters was confirmed by analysis of variance. Effect of experimental locality, with the exception of pH/CaCl2, Cox and Nanorg, on other soil parameters was also statistically significant. This area represents a specific mountain grassland-arable landscape with conservation of traditional agriculture. The results of this paper also analyse landscape structure changes by using the historical maps and aerial photographs of the past 160 years.

The hydration potential of a landscape is an increasingly important attribute in a time of advancing climate change, making its assessment also a matter of some urgency. This study used the landscape ecological approach involving the hydrological balance, in which the soil water retention capacity (SWRC) and landscape water retention capacity (LWRC) are evaluated. To support our assessment of the water retention capacity in the landscape (LWRC), we used a synthetic interconnection of analytical vector layers of selected physical parameters of soil subtypes and secondary landscape structure (SLS) to create homogeneous polygons in the GIS Arc/Map10 computing environment. Selected abiotic and biotic attributes were assigned coefficients using a simple algorithm according to the authors, which were projected into landscape ecological complexes (LEC) in the GIS computer program in the Arc/Map10 program. We used hydrological balance calculations to specify the volumes of water retained in the landscape. The aim is to spatially estimate the retention capacity of the landscape, taking into account the current land use, including historical anti-erosion measures to reduce unwanted water runoff and soil erosion. Using zonal statistics, we achieved the following results. The part of the model area with very low or low LWCR represents 39.91% of the agricultural land used. We recorded a high LWCR on 17.69% of the area, with a predominance of meadows and cultizol cambis and cultizol fluvials. The calculation of the hydrological balance, which represents only 22.9% of atmospheric precipitation, also made a significant contribution to our knowledge of the LWRC.