Most studies on habitat selection among animals are conducted at local scales, whereas reliable determination of species requirements at larger spatial scales can be problematic. We used data available for NATURA 2000 sites to determine the habitat requirements of two relatively widespread and common species-pine marten Martes martes and stone marten Martes foina-in Southern Europe. Using presence-absence data, we applied statistical models at two spatial scales. At the local scale (within the dispersal distances of the species), sites occupied by martens were compared with unoccupied sites using buffers of different sizes, whereas at the regional scale, unoccupied sites were selected randomly. To adjust for spatial autocorrelation of data, penalised quasi-likelihood approximations were used. Both species of martens demonstrated preferences for areas with higher proportions of forest cover and steeper terrain. At the local, but not at the regional, scale, pine martens occurred at lower elevations, whilst stone martens occurred at higher elevations. We found that climatic variables (mean temperature, precipitation) had no significant effect on the presence of the martens. The results of our analyses generally confirmed findings of previous studies on habitat selection of both marten species in Southern Europe. This demonstrates the utility of data collected for NATURA 2000 sites for use in various analyses such as conservation planning and evaluating the impact of climate change on the distribution of animal species.

We present the results of research concerning the temporal and spatial variability of the dates of the onset of the growing season (OGS) in Poland using satellite data. The data from the years 2001-2010 were obtained from the MODIS Global Land Cover Dynamics Product (MCD12Q2). The study examined the relationship between the OGS dates and types of land cover, meteorological elements (air temperature and snow depth), and atmospheric circulation conditions. In the study period, the average OGS dates for the entire country showed the strongest correlation with minimum air temperature from January to March (R 2 =0.95). The photosynthetic activity of vegetation in early spring was also considerably influenced by the strength of zonal flow and the type of land cover. The latest OGS dates in Poland were observed in areas with a higher share of wetlands and inland waters, and the earliest ones in urban areas and agricultural land.

Visible and near-infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy is extensively used in the field of soil science to predict several soil properties, mostly in laboratory conditions. When measured in situ, contact probes are used, and, very often, time-consuming methods are applied to generate better spectra. Unfortunately, spectra obtained by these methods differ greatly from spectra remotely acquired. This study tried to address this issue by measuring reflectance spectra directly with a fibre optic or a 4° lens on bare untouched soils. C, N content and soil texture (sand, silt, and clay) prediction models were established using partial least-square (PLS) and support vector machine (SVM) regression. With spectral pre-processing, some satisfactory models were obtained, i.e., for C content (R2 = 0.57; RMSE = 0.09%) and for N content (R2 = 0.53; RMSE = 0.02%). Some models were improved when using moisture and temperature as auxiliary data for the modelling. Maps of C, N and clay content generated with laboratory and predicted values were presented. Based on this study, VIS-NIR spectra acquired with bare fibre optic and/or a 4° lens could be used to build prediction models in order to obtain basic preliminary information on soil composition at the field scale. The predicting maps seem suitable for a fast but rough field screening.

Val ues of rain fall thresh olds on se lected shal low land slide slopes (Dzia³, GwoŸdziec) lo cated in the Nowy Wioenicz Foot hills are de ter mined us ing a phys i cally-based slope sta bil ity model con sid er ing a long-term pe riod of anal y sis (GeoSlope Inc. soft ware). Slope sta bil ity anal y sis in cluded de ter mi na tion of the im pact of rain fall on changes of stress state within the soil sub strate and their in flu ence on es ti ma tion of mass move ment risk. The slope sta bil ity cal cu la tion re sults have shown that the rain fall thresh old val ues are a func tion of many vari ables, pri mar ily the hy drau lic prop er ties of soil and rock sub stra tum, tem po ral dis tri bu tion of pre cip i ta tion, and soil mois ture con tent con di tions in the pe riod pro ceed ing rain fall. The re sults of the cal cu la tions in di cate that, in ex treme cases, ac cu mu lated rain fall thresh old val ues for the same slope can range from ~100 to 500 mm. Es ti mated rain fall thresh old val ues were lower than those val ues re ported in the lit er a ture for the Pol ish Carpathians, but are sim i lar to those de ter mined by Guzetti et al. (2007) for Cen tral and South ern Eu rope.

Abstract