Predicted occurrence of ancient coppice woodlands in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Coppicing started in the Neolithic period and has been practiced throughout European history. This traditional silvicultural system was abandoned in many European countries during the 20 th century. The Czech Republic now has a very low proportion of coppice woods (CW), as more than 1000 km 2 CW were converted into high forests after World War II. Nevertheless, many CW were maintained as stored coppices, which could be the last remainders of ancient coppice woods (ACW) in the Czech Republic. Knowledge of area and distribution of stored coppices is currently missing in the Czech Republic, because they are recorded as high forests in forest management plans. Many stored forests are currently approaching the maturity age, with a high risk that these last ACW remainders will be lost; therefore, an inventory of ancient coppice woods is necessary. In our study, we develop an index of likelihood of coppice occurrence (COP) based on the distribution of habitats favourable for coppices, as well as on past and current occurrence of CW in the Czech Republic from historical maps. COP index values were then used to generate a map showing the relative likelihoods of occurrence of ACW, which can serve as a baseline to support the compilation of an ACW inventory and their mapping in the field. Our results can help prioritize forest areas to be inventoried based on their higher probabilities of ACW occurrence.

Effectiveness of Natura 2000 system for habitat types protection: A case study from the Czech Republic

“…For this particular habitat, changing the agricultural nitrogen management on the surrounding land is therefore of higher importance than declaring the SAC. Maintaining the defined character of L3.1 Hercynian oak-hornbeam forests (TANH cz = 1,010 km 2 , NCEI = 0.26) requires re-implementation of the now defunct forest management type -coppice and coppice-with-standards (Machar 2009;Maděra et al 2017). Functioning of the natural dynamics of beech forest habitats (L5.1 Herb-rich beech forests, TANH cz = 1,229 km 2 , NCEI = 0.49 and L5.4 Acidophilous beech forests TANH cz = 1,473 km 2 , NCEI = 0.49) depends on the natural beech restoration which is, however, being prevented by the overpopulation of deer (Machar et al 2017c) due to the absence of their natural predators (Kovarik et al 2014).…”

Use of soil enzyme activities to assess the recovery of soil functions in abandoned coppice forest systems

“…As the high sessile oak forest developed naturally and was not managed, the soil is expected to be of maximum quality (Gil-Sotres at al., 2005). After abandonment of coppicing at the beginning of the 20 th century, no forests remained under active coppicing in the region (Müllerová et al, 2014;Madera et al, 2017). However, comparison of the levels of organic matter and enzyme activities in abandoned coppice forest soils and high forest soils (undisturbed sessile oak forest) will enable assessment of the degree of recovery of the soils after abandonment of coppice management.…”

The Role of Anthropogenic Landforms in Sustainable Landscape Management

“…The results of anthropogenic landform assessment can serve landscape planning purposes and can assist in arguments for conserving specific sites (e.g., registration of new important landscape elements, declaration of new protected monuments), as it has been applied in studies [99,100]. Likewise, they can justify the inclusion of conservation, tourism, education and related activities in the local/regional landscape, as well as land use planning and development strategies.…”