Search

Recently, marginal lands have been attracting attention as areas of high cultural and natural value that are undergoing profound, uncontrolled transformations. These changes are seen as a threat to the cohesion and identity of existing landscapes. However, ongoing processes are often difficult to interpret and evaluate without a long-term historical perspective. Here, we focused on understanding the long-term landscape dynamics in the depopulated and economically marginalized Wiar River basin, where 87% of inhabitants were displaced after World War II. A detailed, spatially explicit land-cover analysis based on eight series of topographic data (dating from 1780 to 2017), in line with the review of archival sources and literature, allowed us for identification of patterns and drivers of change. We linked the driving forces and the resulting landscape properties to four distinct historical periods (i.e. pre-industrial, industrial, socialist, and free-market). We demonstrated how the landscape of 25 villages, dominated for centuries by open farmland, shifted after WWII into extensively forested, and that not all regions in Europe follow the pattern of increasing rate of land-cover change.

W artykule dokonano przeglądu literatury zagranicznej i polskiej dotyczącej wpływu pozyskiwania drewna na wybrane procesy naturalne i elementy środowiska na terenach górskich. Skoncentrowano się przede wszystkim na oddziaływaniu gospodarki leśnej na strukturę gleby i tempo erozji oraz na reakcji hydrologicznej w skali stoku i zlewni, w tym na natężenie i częstotliwość przepływów szczytowych oraz transport fluwialny. Z przeglądu literatury wynika, że zrywka jest tym elementem procesu pozyskiwania drewna, który w największym stopniu oddziałuje na glebę i reakcję hydrologiczną zlewni górskich, a sieć dróg leśnych może przyczyniać się do zwiększenia nawet o kilkanaście procent natężenia przepływów maksymalnych i wynikających z nich powodzi błyskawicznych.

Riparian hardwood forests of Quercus robur, Ulmus spp and Fraxinus spp that are present along major rivers are valuable communities protected by the EU Habitat Directive and recommended for monitoring. Part of the reason for that is relative rarity on the scale of Europe as a whole, and also in Poland. This in turn reflects the way in which fertile habitats were, in their majority, deforested long ago, drained and changed into grasslands or arable land. Additionally, the greater part of these habitats have lost their specific features, as a result of river engineering and – primarily – the construction of the river embankments that have acted to limit flooding and alluvial processes, in that way also initiating change in the composition of both soils and plant communities. Specifically, this article presents selected results of the research project: Riparian hardwood forest services in the middle Vistula river valley. One of the main objectives thereof was to assess the condition of forest ecosystems from which flooding has now been absent for at least 50 years, as well as to prepare guidelines for actions necessary to maintain or restore their diversity, and proper ecological and biological functions. Our research questions therefore revolved around components of riparian hardwood forest ecosystems have been most changed … and why? The research was conducted in six riparian hardwood forests (to date unmonitored) located in the valley of the middle Vistula (in Mazowieckie voivodship). Relevant work was carried out using the standard monitoring guidelines – as primarily based on an assessment of vegetation composition and structure together with water conditions. However, in the work in question, these were augmented by additional analyses allowing for detailed characterisations of soil, the topoclimate, and the species diversity achieved by selected groups of invertebrate (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus and Haplotaxida: Lumbricidae). The communities selected represent multi-functional, species-rich forests. Extensive use of the studied riparian mixed forests ensures that deadwood resources are quite considerable. Moreover, the studied forests exert a strong impact when it comes to mitigation of climate locally. The observed soil types indicate fertile and biologically-active habitats, as well as to soil development largely determined by the height of the groundwater table causing the gleyic process in the lower parts of profiles. However, in some forest patches it is possible to note transformations related to habitat drying, with significant canopy gaps and disturbances of topsoil and the undergrowth. There was a great abundance of invasive alien plant species (mainly Impatiens parviflora) in the undergrowth. Moisture conditions have an impact on the occasional occurrence of Lumbricidae associated with wet and flooded areas. In turn, the domination by Bombus of open-habitat species indicates a transformation of forest structure, and the patchy nature of riparian forests located in a rural landscape. The obtained results demonstrate that protective actions should focus on ensuring adequate soil-moisture conditions, and on restoring the natural structure of vegetation with a view to invasions of alien species being hampered. Another important issue is the proper use of land adjacent to forest patches, as fallows prove to be invaded quickly by the kenophytes preferring abandoned and disturbed places.

W artykule dokonano oszacowania wpływu pozyskiwania drewna na wybrane procesy naturalne i elementy środowiska w 15 nadleśnictwach w Karpatach Wschodnich, w tym na strukturę gleby i tempo erozji oraz na reakcję hydrologiczną w skali stoku i zlewni. Główny nacisk położony został na oszacowanie gęstości i przestrzennego układu dróg leśnych i szlaków zrywkowych oraz intensywności ich wykorzystania, ponieważ z przeglądu literatury wynika (por. Affek, 2019), że zrywka jest tym elementem procesu pozyskiwania drewna, który w największym stopniu oddziałuje na glebę i reakcję hydrologiczną zlewni górskich. Do badań wykorzystano wysokorozdzielcze dane LiDAR i dane leśne. Uzyskane wyniki wskazują, że ok. 5% analizowanego obszaru ma naruszoną strukturę gleby na skutek stosowanej naziemnej zrywki, przeważająca część powierzchni analizowanych oddziałów leśnych może być zagrożona skutkami efektu brzegowego powodowanego przez drogi, a gęstość dróg leśnych, z uwzględnieniem szlaków zrywkowych, należy do najwyższych notowanych w literaturze.

The estimation of the value of nature in terms of benefits derived by humans is becoming increasingly popular in environmental assessments and spatial planning worldwide. In line with this approach, the value of any ecosystem can be determined on the basis of its potential (capacity), or the actual amount of goods and services delivered (flow). The aim of this work was to develop indicators of the potential of ecosystems to deliver services related specifically to bees, i.e. to pollination and honey production. A new operational definition of ecosystem potential dedicated to the evaluation of bee-related services was introduced and applied. Two ratio scales were constructed, showing the potential abundance of nesting wild bees (indicating pollination) and the availability of honey substrates (indicating honey production). The expert assessment carried out was closely linked to real regional data. Specific values were assigned to 29 types of ecosystem relevant to bees and identified in the lowland rural landscape of Central Europe. The original scales for the indicators were then classified into the 0–10 ecosystem capacity scale. A specific study area in north-eastern Poland (815 km 2 ) was chosen to show a possible spatial pattern for ecosystem potential in relation to the two bee-related services. Dry grassland and early successional pine forests were assigned highest values in terms of pollination potential, as well as cropland, young swamp pine forests and dry grassland in the case of honey production. In turn, mature alder and riparian forests, together with wetlands, ranked lowest for both bee services. This study confirmed that ecosystem capacities to deliver bee services tend to contrast greatly with potentials as regards many other ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration or erosion control). This obviously complicates management policies and requires that the concept of trade-offs be embraced. The proposed indicators, as combined with detailed mapping of ecosystem capacities differ from pan-European modelling in being of value to particular stakeholders, and in support of decision-making processes regarding beekeeping, farming and nature conservation.

Specifying the upper bound of C storage in forest ecosystems allows an estimate of the amount of C that can be stored in the future. The Bialowieza Forest in NE Poland is the last relic forest in the European lowlands. Still, it has been subject to various natural and human-induced disturbances and its C stock has been reduced. The main goal of our study was therefore to assess the current and potential C stock in the forest communities of the Bialowieza Biosphere Reserve (597 km2), taking into account the diversity of habitats as well as different protection and management practices. For this we identified 13 forest communities and quantified their current C stock stored in all major pools (living trees, deadwood and soil). We used vegetation and soil data collected in 2018 at 1391 systematically distributed 0.04 ha forest plots (sampling grid 650 × 650 m). We used the concept of potential natural vegetation (PNV) and randomized upscaling of plot level current biomass C stock values to estimate the upper bounds of biomass C stocks possible to obtain at the stand level. We showed that the Bialowieza Forest stores currently 300 Mg C ha−1 (17.2 Tg C), of which 41% is accumulated in biomass, with significant variation among different forest communities and management regimes. We obtained the upper bounds of biomass C stocks ranging from 94 Mg ha−1 for swamp pine forest to 223 Mg ha−1 for lime-oak-hornbeam forest. We estimated the gap between the current and potential C stock in biomass at 66 Mg ha−1 (3.8 Tg); 62% of the potential level is achieved in managed forests, and 76% in the National Park. Our findings may be used in planning forest management aimed toward long-term C storage, and the obtained upper bounds can serve as benchmarks in assessing C storage potential of similar forest types elsewhere. We also suggest that the potential of ecosystems to store C should be considered in the landscape context, i.e. by taking into account the spatial extent of PNV habitats and their unequal capacity to provide C storage service.

The aim of the research was to determine the scale and forms of logging road impacts on the natural environment and residual cultural heritage of Ruthenian Highlanders that characterise the Polish part of the north-eastern Carpathians. To this end, we used LiDAR-derived DEM to detect and map forest roads and skid trails, and to estimate road density, in 60 forest divisions sampled at random from among the 2639 km2 of forest managed in the above region by the State Forests National Forest Holding. The determined road network was then validated by GPS ground control. Supplementary, detailed LiDAR data were used to detect features of the past cultural landscape, and to determine the interference in that due to contemporary logging roads. Overall skidder traffic was estimated on the basis of a thorough analysis of State Forests documents, including legal acts, guidelines, management plans, detailed databases and maps of planned cuts. LiDAR data proved to be an adequate tool in the mapping of the network of logging roads present under the tree canopy, although it slightly underestimates road density in a densely vegetated, post-landslide topography. Our LiDAR-assessed density of Carpathian logging roads (at 108.5–140.7 m ha−1, including skid trails) is nevertheless among the highest reported in the literature, and one that far exceeds recommended values. Spatial pattern analysis further revealed the unfavourable phenomenon of multiple parallel roads forming contiguous areas of disturbed soil and constituting dispersal paths for invasive plants. Many examples of cultural remains being run over and destroyed by skidders could also be reported. The observed process of log extraction is one of the least sustainable aspects to forest management in the Carpathians, and our results emphasise very clearly the need for rules to support the preservation of cultural heritage in forested areas, as well as improved tools by which skidding practices can be monitored.

The study aimed to determine how direct users of local ecosystems perceive the potentials of those ecosystems to provide services, and how their assessments are influenced by different factors (i.e. socio-demographic characteristics, the actual use of services and proximity to particular ecosystems). To elicit social values we carried out a door-to-door questionnaire survey among residents and visitors (N = 251) staying in Wigry National Park and its vicinity (the Suwalki Lakeland of NE Poland), a renowned area of high natural value. Respondents were asked to detail the frequency of use made of 45 different provisioning and cultural services, and then to evaluate 7 local ecosystem types as regards their capacity to supply 11 groups of services. Direct users of ecosystems were shown to possess a capacity to differentiate local ecosystems in terms of their potentials to provide services. Better education, multifaceted interaction with nature and frequent use of natural resources are all found to contribute to better understanding and more accurate assessments of potential. Between-group hierarchy variations also show clearly how personal experience influences the assessment of ecosystem potentials. The perception of cultural and regulating potential in particular appeared to be affected greatly by the frequency of use of cultural services.

Chapter 6 is the main analytical part of the book and forms the basis for the following synthetic chapters. It presents the entire path of indicator development for the evaluation of ES potentials in the postglacial landscape. Altogether, 29 ecosystem services were assessed by means of 35 indicators. Services are arranged firstly according to the type of assessment (expert/social), and then follow CICES V5.1 classification and coding. In expert assessment provisioning and regulating services were taken into account while cultural services were evaluated through social assessment. All subchapters devoted to particular services comprise: ES description (a table with ES location in CICES V5.1, indicator metadata, and briefly mentioned data sources), theoretical framework, assessment method and indicator values. Each subchapter ends with a map showing ES potential in the study area. Additionally, all services assessed for ecosystems in the narrow sense have their spatial pattern described by means of landscape metrics.

This chapter is a synthesis of the analytical results presented in Chapter 6 . However, the investigation was conducted only on 29 ecosystem services (ES) indicators for which the ecosystem (detailed or Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services [MAES]–derived) was the spatial reference unit. To start with, synthetic assessment matrices were generated, which served as a basis for the majority of further analyses. Rank values obtained through expert and social assessment were compared, where possible. In the next step, the aggregated potential for each ecosystem type was calculated and ES hotspots were identified and then both mapped, separately for each ES section and in total. Next, the interactions among services and similarities among ecosystem types were investigated. Finally, spatial patterns of ES potentials, described in short for each indicator separately in the analytical chapter, were compared with each other and further analyzed using landscape metrics.

This chapter is the summary of the book. It presents briefly the content of previous chapters and reflects on the potential approach and methodological solutions adopted in the research. It also discusses the advantages and limitations of the two main assessment methods used: expert and social. The main research outcomes are listed, followed by the verification of hypotheses framing the research. Finally, possible applications of the developed methodological solutions are shown.

This chapter describes the impact of various factors on the social assessment of ecosystem services (ES) potentials. The data on the frequency of ES use and sociodemographic characteristics of beneficiaries (e.g., age, gender, place of residence, level of education) were obtained through questionnaire survey. The results indicate that the intensity of ES use depends on the level of education. In general, better-educated people benefit more from nature. In turn, frequent use of the gifts of nature contributes to a better understanding of its value and appreciation of the services provided. It was also shown that the more often people interact with nature, the greater they perceive the ecosystem potentials to provide cultural and regulating services. However, this effect was not observed in the case of provisioning services. Moreover, people staying permanently and making their living in the area differ from tourists as regards their hierarchy of needs and expectations toward local nature.

This chapter presents the basic assumptions of the most recent version of the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES V5.1), selected as the framework of our research. It has been designed to help measure, account for, and assess ecosystem services. In contrast to many other classification systems, it includes only three main sections (provisioning, regulation and maintenance, and cultural) and relates only to final ecosystem services, which are defined as the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being. In principle, CICES covers contributions that arise from living processes. However, the latest version (V5.1) includes also the nonliving parts of ecosystems, for example, water, mineral substances, wind, and solar energy. Nevertheless, when framing our research scope, we decided to focus only on biotic ecosystem outputs and we restricted further ecosystem services to those that are provided by animals, plants, and fungi that were formed in the Holocene.

This chapter presents the spatial reference units applied in this study. Four different types of reference unit were distinguished: ecosystem in the narrow sense, Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES)-derived ecosystem, hunting unit, and landscape. When distinguishing ecosystems in the narrow sense account was taken not only of land cover, but also of habitat conditions (fertility and humidity) and forest succession stage. The extended typology of rural postglacial ecosystems, used in expert assessment, includes 35 terrestrial and 7 lake ecosystem types. If the type of data did not give a possibility to estimate the potential of nature for ecosystems, it was calculated for heterogeneous spatial units, covering a number of different ecosystems: 15 hunting units and 91 individual landscape units. In the questionnaire survey aimed at assessing ecosystem potentials from the beneficiary perspective, a simplified ecosystem division was introduced, based on the MAES level 2 typology. Only forests were further divided into the three subtypes.

Riparian forests with oaks, ashes and elms, now highly fragmented and rare in Europe, are considered hotspots for ecosystem services. However, their capacity to provide pollination seems to be quite low, although reports from in-situ research supporting this view are scarce. Our goal was therefore to thoroughly assess their pollination potential based on multifaceted field measurements. For this, we selected six test sites with well-developed riparian hardwood forests, located in the agricultural landscape along the middle Vistula River in Poland. We used seven indicators relating to habitat suitability (nesting sites and floral resources) and pollinator abundance (bumblebees and other Apoidea) and propose a threshold value (AdjMax) based on value distribution and Hampel’s test to indicate the level of pollination potential for this type of riparian forest. The obtained AdjMax for bumblebee density was 500 ind. ha−1, for Apoidea abundance—0.42 ind. day−1, while for nectar resources—200 kg ha−1. We demonstrate that the investigated small patches of the riparian hardwood forest have a higher pollination potential than reported earlier for riparian and other broadleaved temperate forests, but the indicators were inconsistent. As forest islands in the agricultural landscape, riparian hardwood forests play an important role in maintaining the diversity and abundance of wild pollinators, especially in early spring when there is still no food base available elsewhere.

Post-WWII displacements in the Polish Carpathians resulted in widespread land abandonment. Most of the pre-war agricultural areas are now covered with secondary forests, which will soon reach the felling age. Mapping their exact cover is crucial to investigate succession–regeneration processes and to determine their role in the landscape, before making management decisions. Our goal was to map post-agricultural forests in the Polish Eastern Carpathians using archival remote sensing data, and to assess their connectivity with pre-displacement forests. We used German Flown Aerial Photography from 1944 to map agricultural lands and forests from before displacements, and Corona satellite images to map agricultural lands which converted into the forest as a result of this event. We classified archival images using Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) and compared the output with the current forest cover derived from Sentinel-2. Our results showed that mature (60–70 years old) post-agricultural forests comprise 27.6% of the total forest area, while younger post-agricultural forests comprise 9%. We also demonstrated that the secondary forests fill forest gaps more often than form isolated patches: 77.5% of patches are connected with the old-woods (forests that most likely have never been cleared for agriculture). Orthorectification and OBIA classification of German Flown Aerial Photographs and Corona satellite images made it possible to accurately determine the spatial extent of post-agricultural forest. This, in turn, paves the way for the implementation of site-specific forest management practices to support the regeneration of secondary forests and their biodiversity.

Genotoxicity studies (using SOS chromotest and comet assay) of Escherichia coli and carp (Cyprinus carpio) were performed for three pharmaceutically active compounds, ciprofloxacin, 17α-ethinylestradiol and 5-fluorouracil, used in the treatment of humans. The values of genotoxicity induction coefficient (I) in the SOS chromotest clearly showed genotoxicity for ciprofloxacin, both in the presence and in the absence of S9 fraction; 17α-ethinylestradiol demonstrated slight genotoxicity at the highest tested concentration; and 5-fluorouracil did not induce genotoxic effects in Escherichia coli mutants. Statistical analysis of the results of the comet assay revealed significant differences in cell populations derived from carp placed in a solution of 5-fluorouracil in comparison with the negative control. Statistical analysis also showed a significant increase of "% DNA in tail" of comets in cell populations incubated in solutions of 17α-ethinylestradiol at concentrations of 10000, 2000 and 400 µg/L and in solutions of 5-fluorouracil with S9 fraction at concentrations of 50,000 and 2,000 μg/L in comparison with the negative controls.

Spatially explicit analysis of land ownership changes can provide a unique opportunity to trace land ownership and determine spatial patterns of inheritance. In this paper, the structure of land ownership in the age of feudalism (1852), communism (1965) and capitalism (2008) was reconstructed for a landscape-scale study area – the Upper Wiar River Basin in the Polish Eastern Carpathians. Austrian cadastre and post-war land registers were used as source data. Trajectories of land ownership changes were mapped and discussed. The similarity of landowner types was determined by means of correspondence analysis. The results generally showed how highly unstable land ownership is when socio-political systems are in flux.

The objective of this study was to map traces of the past Carpathian landscape recorded in the microtopography in the chosen study area (25 km2) within the Wiar river basin. The area comprised two deserted villages (Boryslawka and Posada Rybotycka) that were abandoned and afforested after forced displacement of Ruthenian highlanders in 1940s. Three groups of complementary research methods were used: remote sensing (airborne laser scanning – ALS as the main data source), analysis of archival sources and field survey. Sky-view factor (SVF) was applied as the main visualisation technique of the LiDAR-derived DTM for mapping purposes. The results demonstrated that there are numerous, well preserved earthworks created before World War II lying under the tree canopy, such as hollow ways, agricultural terraces, remnants of settlements, border mounds etc. They form a unique cultural heritage of former inhabitants that deserves to be protected.