Succesional development of vegetation on permanent plots in the High Tatra Mts

Abstract

This paper deals with development of vegetation in the High Tatra Mts, following the wind storm on November 19, 2004. The issue has been discussed with data acquired from permanent plots established for this purpose on various windfall-affected sites allowing comparing among effects of various management treatments. The research plots series consists of a control plot unaffected by the windstorm (REF), a plot which the windthrown timber has been removed from (EXT), six plots affected by fire (FIR), a plot with windthrown timber, left to self-development (NEX), and a hydrologically managed plot (WTR). On these plots, phytosociological relevés were recorded from 2005 to 2008. The data were subjected to table analysis with using the Braun-Blanquet approach, and statistically processed with the CANOCO software. The communities were compared through PCA and CCA analyses. PCA has resulted in indicating as the most similar sites REF and NEX with typical forest plant species associated with moist, shady and cool sites, and acidic, nutrient-poor soils. The sites FIR, EXT and WTR showed opposite tendencies. Conditions typical for these sites were preferred by species indicating sunny and warm sites, richer in nutrients.