1. THE INCIDENCE OF NEW ECOSYSTEMS (EE – EMERGING ECOSYSTEMS) IN THE KARST BIOSPHERE RESERVE : GROUP PROJECT, FINAL REPORTKlemen Cotič, Matej Pogorelc, Matjaž Reya, Barbara Šavli, Nika Feigina, Merisa Kapić, Ӧzkan Karaçam, Mariya Perepelytsya, 2017, other monographs and other completed works Abstract: The need of wood for building and heating, the extensive grazing and population growth in the 18th and 19th centuries led to turning the Karst area in Slovenia into a bare land. In the 19th century organised reforestation started which was successfully performed with Black pine (Pinus nigra J. F. Arnold). Later on, the reforestation was replaced by the process of spontaneous afforestation. The successfulness of reforestation with Black pine also made it possible for the native tree species to grow. The abandoning of the use of agricultural land also contributes to the spontaneous afforestation. In this project we determined the changes in forest cover through time. We used aerial photographs from the years 1957, 1975, 1985 and 2015. By drawing polygons on the maps in the QGIS programme on the areas that are covered with forests, are overgrown or are used for agricultural purpose we compared the areas from the maps of different years. We found out that the area covered with forest had increased by more than 50 % from the year 1957 to 2015. The increase in the area of forest cover due to afforestation provides new habitats for fauna and flora to live in. Keywords: Karst, afforestation, new habitat, Black pine, human impact Published in RUNG: 07.11.2017; Views: 5756; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |