Minimal change of thermal continentality in Slovakia within the period 1961–2013

Abstract

Abstract. Thermal continentality plays an important role not only in the basic characterisation of the climate in particular regions but also in the phytogeographic distribution of plants and ecosystem formation. Due to ongoing climate change, questions surrounding the changes of thermal continentality are very relevant. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics of thermal continentality and its temporal changes in the Slovak Republic between the years of 1961 and 2013. The study was carried out on several meteorological stations selected in respect to the geographical and geomorphological heterogeneity of Slovakia. Our results show that the continentality of Slovakia increased in the period 1961 to 2013; however, this trend is not significant. These non-significant trends are confirmed at all the stations. Nevertheless, it is necessary to be aware of this signal, especially because these changes could cause changes in ecosystem formation in future.

Evaluation of thermal continentality within southern Romania and northern Bulgaria (1961-2015)

“…Despite the interannual variability and determined trends, we cannot conclude that there is a tendency of continentality increase in southern Romania and northern Bulgaria as the trend is not statistically significant. These results correspond to those for Central Europe obtained by Brázdil et al (2008a), Melo (2002) and Vilček et al (2016). On the basis of Gorczynski index, Topliiski (2002Topliiski ( , 2002a pointed out that the continentality in Bulgaria decreased in the period 1961-1990 versus the period 1931-1960.…”

“…This is one of the most widely used indices to render continentality of a climate and it was introduced by Gorczyński (1920Gorczyński ( , 1922. It was applied by numerous researchers (Ciaranek, 2014;Brázdil et al, 2008b;Szabó-Takács et al, 2015;Vilček et al, 2016) as GCI, while others used the same formula, but the index was called Johansson Continentality Index (Andrade and Corte Real, 2017;Baltas, 2007;Deniz et al, 2011). It was calculated according to the following formula:…”

“…is an index proposed by Ivanov (1959) and then used by different researchers (most recently, Vilček et al, 2016). The formula is:…”

“…Study area and location of the meteorological stations. (Brázdil et al, 2008a, b), Turkey (Toros et al, 2008;Deniz et al, 2011), Romania (Strat, 2014), Italy (Nistor, 2016), the Iberian Peninsula Corte Real, 2016, 2017), Slovakia (Vilček et al, 2016), Bulgaria (Vekliska, 1975;Topliiski, 2002aTopliiski, , 2002b.…”

Long-time changes of the thermal continentality index; the amplitudes and the phase of the seasonal temperature variation in Ukraine

“…The studies presented in [Vilèek et al, 2016], showed that the continentality indices (Gorczynsky, Conrad, Khromov, Ivanov) calculated for Slovakia for the period of 1961 2013 tend to the insignificantly increase, and hence a slight increase in the amplitude of the seasonal temperature variation.…”