Land-use changes and their social driving forces in Czechia in the 19th and 20th centuries

Bičı́k, Ivan; Jeleček, Leoš; Štěpánek, Vı́t

doi:10.1016/s0264-8377(00)00047-8

Cited by 257 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Dominant land cover changes in Eastern and East-Central Europe in the 1985-2000 period were farmland abandonment, afforestation, forest overutilisation and in some areas cropland expansion (Bičík et al 2001;Palang 2006;Kuemmerle et al 2007Kuemmerle et al , 2008Łowicki 2008;Lakes et al 2009;15 Main-Knorn et al 2009;Feranec et al 2010;Hatna and Bakker 2011;Baumann et al 2011), while in Western Europe urbanization, afforestation and in many areas farmland abandonment (Hietel et al 2005;Falcucci et al 2007;Feranec et al 2007Feranec et al , 2010Schneeberger et al 2007a,b;Hersperger et al 2009;Gimmi et al 2011;Monteiro et al 2011). We argue, that any unusual processes (e.g.…”

Section: Historical Legacy and Local Adaptation As Explanations For Umentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Most landscape change studies in this region focus on changes in forestry practices, forest cover and pattern changes and were mainly performed in the Carpathians, where deforestation, forest and bush encroachment, and changing tree composition were found to be the most common changes (Kuemmerle et al 2007;Main-Knorn 2009). On the other hand, 15 farmland abandonment is also of major concern in many areas (Bičík et al 2001;Lakes et al 2009;Baumann et al 2011;Hatna and Bakker 2011). These studies show that in several East-Central European countries, including Poland, Czech Republik, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, the most important land cover changes during the period of socialist-capitalist transformation were similar (abandonment of farmland, overexploitation of forests and afforestation), but the intensity 20 and also, partly, the direction of the changes varied significantly across regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

et al. 2012

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The increase in the speed of land-cover change experienced worldwide is becoming a growing concern. Major socio-economic transitions, such as the breakdown of socialism in Europe, may lead to particularly high rates of landscape transformations. In this paper we examined the loss of semi-natural grasslands in Hungary between 1987 and 1999. We studied the relationship between 9 5 potential driving forces and the fate of grasslands using logistic GLMs.Grassland loss was found to be very high (1.31 % per year), which is far higher than either before or after this period. The most influential predictors of grassland loss were environmental and landscape characteristics (soil type, area of remnant grassland patches), and the socio-economic context (distance to paved road, and nearest settlement, human population density). Several 10 processes and relationships can only be understood from a historical perspective (e.g. large extent of afforestation, strong decrease of soil water table). Grassland loss during the study period emerged as a consequence of survival strategies of individual farmers seeking adaptation to the changing environmental and socio-economic conditions, and not urbanization and agricultural intensification which are the main underlying drivers for the ongoing landscape transformations in 15 most parts of the developed world.Though globalization increasingly influences local land use decisions , reconstructing and modelling recent landscape changes cannot be done without a proper understanding of local history and culture. Our analysis shows the importance of large-area yet high resolution landscape change research, which may reveal unexpected patterns of land cover change, undetected at coarser scales. 20Keywords: East-Central Europe, land-cover change, logistic GLMs, proximate and underlying driving forces LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY, 28: (5) pp. 789-803. (2013) 3

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Section: Historical Legacy and Local Adaptation As Explanations For Umentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

et al. 2012

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“…For this environmental change study, we have endeavored to separate the roles of human activities, natural ecological processes and political decisions in environmental change (Bičík et al, 2001;Hietel et al, 2005). Through repeated photography, our analysis shows that the recent status (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011) of the examined environmental indicators is better than it was in earlier decades, second only to the 1930s for woody vegetation when not including eucalyptus (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Environmental conditions and human drivers for changes to north Ethiopian mountain landscapes over 145 years

Nyssen

Frankl

Haile

et al. 2014

Science of The Total Environment

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As quantitative or spatially distributed studies of environmental change over truly long-term periods of more than 100 years are extremely rare, we re-photographed 361 landscapes that appear on historical photographs (1868-1994) within a 40,000 km² study area in northern Ethiopia. Visible evidence of environmental changes apparent from the paired photographs was analyzed using an expert rating system. The conditions of the woody vegetation, soil and water conservation structures and land management were worse in the earlier periods compared to their present conditions. The cover by indigenous trees is a notable exception: it peaked in the 1930s, declined afterwards and then achieved a second peak in the early 21 st century. Particularly in areas with greater population densities, there has been a significant increase in woody vegetation and soil and water conservation structures over the course of the study period. We conclude that except for an apparent upward movement of the upper tree limit, the direct human impacts on the environment are overriding the effects of climate change in the north Ethiopian highlands and that the northern Ethiopian highlands are currently greener than at any other time in the last 145 years.

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“…These findings are against the presumption of fallows, the abandoned agricultural fields, to be nutrient exploited. In other Central and Eastern European countries less fertile land that produces lower yields was often left aside (Bičík et al 2001;Smelansky 2003;Prishchepov et al 2013). In contrary, another report from Poland showed that soil of high quality for agriculture was also abandoned (Niedźwiecki et al 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil physicochemical properties and floristic composition of two ecosystems differing in plant diversity: fallows and meadows

2016

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Background and aims European farmland has been abandoned at an unprecedented rate over the last few decades, resulting in an increase of the area of fallows and a decrease in plant diversity in meadows. This work was aimed at determining whether differences in the persistence and plant diversity of the two ecosystem types, similar in plant biomass and geographical location, resulted in changes in soil physicochemical properties. Methods Soil physicochemical properties and floristic composition were studied in six fallows at the initial stage of secondary succession and six fresh meadows with high plant diversity.Results Fallow soils had several-fold higher content of available phosphorus, potassium and nitrates. Meadow soils had a slightly higher C:N ratio and water-holding capacity (WHC), what suggest more humus in meadow soil. Conclusions The main differences in soil properties between meadows and fallows were after-effects of agricultural management, most probably previous fertilization. The difference in the C:N ratio and WHC can be attributed to ecosystem ages. Abandoned farmlands had relatively good nutrient supply but low species diversity. Meadows, though depleted in available nutrients, showed high floristic richness. The legumes, which were more abundant in meadows, might have supplemented this ecosystem with the limiting N.

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Land-use changes and their social driving forces in Czechia in the 19th and 20th centuries

Cited by 257 publications

References 4 publications

Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

Drivers of grassland loss in Hungary during the post-socialist transformation (1987–1999)

Environmental conditions and human drivers for changes to north Ethiopian mountain landscapes over 145 years

Soil physicochemical properties and floristic composition of two ecosystems differing in plant diversity: fallows and meadows

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