Balancing development and conservation needs of stakeholders in the Tusheti Protected Landscape

Public governance and civil society play an important role in the preservation of the environmental and cultural values of the specific region of Tusheti. This area is an interesting study object also due to its unique governing model and different management issues including the historical background of the region and the current growth of tourism. In the region, where there is a significant number of initiatives supported by donors, a management plan for the protected landscape was prepared and put into practice and selected measures were implemented. Our evaluation of the activities was focused on relevance, efficiency, effectiveness,impacts and sustainability of outcomes. On the basis of the formulated conclusions, a few recommendations related to process and system nature, implementation and replicability of approaches are suggested. The results show an increase in tourism in the region,which leads to an improvement in the quality of life of the local population. On the other hand, it represents a threat to natural and cultural values, historical identity and uniqueness. The Management Plan is an excellent platform for stakeholder cooperation and implementation of specific measures to protect this exceptional territory.

Sustainable Land Management: Growing Miscanthus in Soils Contaminated with Heavy Metals

Miscanthus grows well in some marginal and contaminated soils, and it has the potential to be used as a biofuel. Copper and cobalt are heavy metals that sometimes are present as contaminants in soils at concentrations that may impact the safety of products that are harvested. Laboratory research has been conducted with Miscanthus sacchariflorus M. to investigate metal uptake of copper and cobalt because metal concentrations in the harvested parts of miscanthus are important for biofuel applications. The results show that the use of miscanthus for biofuel from soil contaminated by heavy metals depends mainly on the nature of contaminated metals: cobalt was detected only for highest treated concentration of metal and mainly in the roots. The highest concentration of copper was detected in the roots however this metal was detected in stems and leaves of miscanthus as well. Miscanthus biomass harvested from cobalt contaminated soil may be used for energy production because the harvested part accumulated only limited traces of the metal. The experimental results are in reasonable agreement with other results from the literature.

Application of Matrix Approach for Evaluation and Assessment the Potential of Recreational Ecosystem Service in Model Regions in Slovakia

Recreation and tourism are important for economic growth and human wellbeing. They are directly related to the cultural services provided by ecosystems. Recreational services, as part of tourism, have the greatest potential for development within the sector of services in the Slovak economy, and they are able to generate a significant number of new jobs especially in small rural regions. There is a gap in the literature providing assessments of geographically small regions in relation to their potential to provide different types of ecosystem services. The aim of the article was to evaluate and assess the recreational potential of ecosystem services in two small pilot regions of the Slovak Republic, Brezno district and Krupina district. Modified matrix of indices was used. Results showed that Brezno district has a higher area of ecosystems with a higher potential for recreation, therefore the conditions for recreation and tourism are much better in comparison to Krupina district. However, the use of recreation potential in Brezno district is negatively affected by the availability of sites and transport options, which is reflected in a lower ratio of visitors to the capacity of recreation potential. This finding opens up discussion about opportunities to create new jobs within sustainable tourism in Brezno district. This study provides an alternative view to the assessment and evaluation of the recreational potential of ecosystem services in small regions. Moreover, the methodology developed in this paper is replicable and could be applied by planners using geographical information systems.

Current State and Development of the Soil Health Index in Localities with Various Soil-Climatic Conditions in the Slovak Republic

The aim of the study was to assess the current state and development of the Soil Health Index (SHI) at 13 localities with various soil-ecological conditions in the Slovak Republic. The SHI was developed using a minimum soil data set, physical and chemical soil parameters in combination with environmental parameters (land use, gradients). The SHI is one numerical value accumulates information about the state of soil health and its ability to provide soil functions and thus ecosystems in the optimal range. The highest SHI values were determined at model localities used as arable land (Haplic Chernozem, Fluvisol) located in a warm climate at altitudes up to 200 meters above sea level. Ecosystems with very low and low value are mostly grasslands with mildly cold climate (Cambisol) and considerable slope, agroecosystem on low organic matter (Arenosol). Arable ecosystem SHI is also reduced in areas of geochemical anomalies and areas with anthropogenic load, where there is a higher content of risk elements. The SHI changes are mainly the result of changes in dynamic indicators such as soil response and soil bulk density.

Impact of Fast-Growing Trees Planting on Degraded Land from Perspectives of Ecosystem Services—Case Study from Slovakia

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of natural phytoremediation, impact of growing fast-growing trees on contaminated agricultural land on ecosystem services using a Matrix evaluation system. The Matrix system is a table that links an ecosystem to its potential to provide ecosystem services. To determine the monetary price of natural capital for the provision of ecosystem services, we chose the value transfer method, based on which it is possible to assign a price (1 point = 40.7 EUR) to point values. Monitoring of the study site Kuchyňa (Mollic Fluvisol) is running since year 2010. The fast-growing willow was planted (between 2006 to 2018 year) on an area of about 43 hectares. During the monitoring of soil parameters, we observed a slight decrease in the value of the active soil reaction, a negative trend in the content of available phosphorus and a positive trend in the development of the total content risk elements in the soil. The phytoremediation ability of willow regarding risk elements was manifested by an increase in the value and price of production and regulatory ecosystem services at the monitored location. The price of natural phytoremediation of fast-growing willow on the given area was 218762.5 EUR for production services and 171509.8 EUR for regulatory services.

Regulating Ecosystem Service (Filtering/ Immobilization of Inorganic Pollutants) Supplied by Soil in Model Regions of Slovakia

The immobilization of soil contaminants (as one of the regulating ecosystem services) plays very important role in environment. This regulatory service prevents groundwater contamination and the entry of contaminants into the food chain. The evaluation as well as the spatial distribution of this regulatory service is important for optimal land management in a specific region. Mapping system combining input layers—slope topography, soil texture, climate region and land use (arable land, grassland)—were created for the analysis and the evaluation of potential of agroecosystem services. Filtering potential was calculated as accumulative function of soil sorption potential and potential of total content of inorganic pollutants evaluated according to The Slovak Soil Law. Calculated potential was categorised into five categories: very low, low, medium, high and very high. Four model areas were selected for the analysis of pollutant filtration, as one of the regulatory agroecosystem services, which are located in different climatic areas and different soil-ecological conditions of Slovakia. The greatest differences among model regions can be found in relation to climatic conditions, land use and diversity of soil types. The warm, dry, and lowland region has a higher potential for pollutant filtration than the moderately warm or cold region. These results are consistent with the location of the soil, its properties, processes and functions within the concept of agro-ecosystem services. Based on the results, we can state that the high risk of inorganic contaminants is inherent in soils with low content and quality of organic substances, low pH value and high concentration of contaminants.

Ecosystem Services in Differently Used Agroecosystems along a Climatic Gradient in Slovakia

For analysis and evaluation of potential of agroecosystem (arable land and grassland) services (provisioning, regulating and cultural) in Slovakia we have created a mapping unit combining these input layers: slope topography, soil texture and landuse in four climatic regions. Evaluated potential of agroecosystem services was categorised into five categories (very low, low, medium, high and very high). Our results show that climate has the most significant impact on agroecosystem services. Warm, dry lowland region has a higher potential of provisioning services, regulation of water regime, filtration of pollutants and control of soil erosion in comparison to moderately warm and cold regions. In moderate cold region, more than 90% of the total area of arable land has low potential of water regime regulation and cleaning potential (immobilization of risk elements). In the moderate warm climatic region, there is a high share of categories of low and moderate potential of provisioning services and low and moderate potential of water regime regulation. Majority of the total area of warm climatic region belongs to the categories of moderate to high potential of provisioning services and high potential of regulation of water regime. In this climatic zone low potential categories of risk elements immobilization are present in more than 65% of the arable land total area. On the other hand, in very warm climatic zone, more than 89% of the total area of arable land belongs to the category with a very high cleaning (buffering) potential. Potential of natural conditions for recreation is higher only in moderate cold and moderate warm climatic zones with a higher proportion of area of grassland agroecosystems and protected areas NATURA 2000. Moreover, the methodology developed in this paper is replicable and could be applied by planners in the case that they are proficient in geographical information systems.

Morphometric and geological conditions for sediment accumulation in the Udava River, Outer Carpathians, Slovakia

The accumulation of sediment in river channels is a phenomenon that is not only influenced by the channel morphology, but also by the physical and geographical character- istics and the endogenous and exogenous processes taking place in the catchment. This paper presents an analysis of the impact the changes in lithological conditions have on the morphological and morphometric parameters of the Udava River channel and their relation to the channel accumulation forms representative of the river＇s longitudinal profile as well as of its planform. Results document when accumulation forms occur and what is their spatial dis- tribution within the longitudinal and cross-sectional river profiles. More resistant structures created sections with a lower degree of sedimentation, while in depression segments the degree of sedimentation was higher. With the increase in longitudinal slope, the impact of channel width on the average channel bar size increased. Also a difference in the accumula- tion was observed between the left and right bank which could be possibly explained by the impact of Coriolis force.

Conditional Probability on the Kpka's D-posets

Kopka＇s D-poset is a very important notion in quantum structures. In this paper the conditional probability on the Kopka＇s D-posets is studied. The notion of conditional probability is introduced and the basic properties of conditional probability are proved.

Topology and topological sequence entropy

Let X be a compact metric space and T:X-→X be continuous.Let h*(T)be the supremum of topological sequence entropies of T over all the subsequences of Z+and S(X)be the set of the values h*(T)for all the continuous maps T on X.It is known that{0}■S(X)■{0,log 2,log 3,...}∪{∞}.Only three possibilities for S(X)have been observed so far,namely S(X)={0},S(X)={0,log 2,∞}and S(X)={0,log 2,log 3,...}∪{∞}.In this paper we completely solve the problem of finding all possibilities for S(X)by showing that in fact for every set{0}?A?{0,log 2,log 3,...}∪{∞}there exists a one-dimensional continuum XAwith S(XA)=A.In the construction of XAwe use Cook continua.This is apparently the first application of these very rigid continua in dynamics.We further show that the same result is true if one considers only homeomorphisms rather than continuous maps.The problem for group actions is also addressed.For some class of group actions(by homeomorphisms)we provide an analogous result,but in full generality this problem remains open.