Current state and development of land degradation processes based on soil monitoring system in Slovakia is evaluated in this contribution. Soil monitoring system in Slovakia is consistently running since 1993 year in 5-years repetitions. Soil monitoring network in Slovakia is constructed using ecological principle, taking into account all main soil types and subtypes, soil organic matter, climatic regions, emission regions, polluted and non-polluted regions as well as various land use. The result of soil monitoring network is 318 sites on agricultural land in Slovakia. Soil properties are evaluated according to the main threats to soil relating to European Commission recommendation for European soil monitoring performance as follows: soil erosion and compaction, soil acidification, decline in soil organic matter and soil contamination. The most significant change has been determined in physical degradation of soils. The physical degradation was especially manifested in compacted and the eroded soils. It was determined that about 39% of agricultural land is potentially affected by soil erosion in Slovakia. In addition, slight decline in soil organic matter indicates the serious facts on evaluation and extension of soil degradation processes during the last period in Slovakia. Soil contamination is without significant change for the time being. It means the soils contaminated before soil monitoring process this unfavourable state lasts also at present.
The concept of agroecosystem services combines environmental and socioeconomic approaches to the analysis and evaluation of natural capital. A multi-criteria approach to spatial quantification of ecosystem services allows explicit assessment of the potential of agroecosystems to provide agroecosystem services and to adapt the land management under regional conditions. For the spatial quantifying of agroecosystem services potential of agricultural land in Slovakia, we have created a mapping unit by combining four input layers (climatic region, slope topography, soil texture and land use). In ecosystems of agricultural land, regulation of water regime, control of soil erosion, climate regulation and soil filtration are the main regulating 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). The distribution of the filtering potential using spatial mapping units show that in Slovakia more than 41 per cent of agroecosystems have very high filtering potential (for inorganic pollutants), mostly in the Bratislava, Nitra and Trnava regions. Ecosystems with low potential (more than 41 per cent of agricultural land) are predominantly located on Fluvisols (along Váh, Hron and Bodrog rivers) with a higher content of risk elements in alluvial sediments (caused by anthropogenic deposition). The mountain soils on grassland are also strongly involved in very low category of filtering potential, predominantly in the Banská Bystrica, Žilina and Prešov regions. The greatest differences among regions was found in relation to climatic conditions, land use and the diversity of soil types.
<p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><em></em><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;">Two different approaches to assess and map the potential of regulating agroecosystem<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> services have been used, the assessment of the potential of regulating agroecosystem services based<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> on a composite index and the assessment of the potential of individual regulating agroecosystem<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> services were used in the Krupina study area. The overall composite index indicates a general overview of the performance of an agrosystem in terms of providing ecocosystem services. Result from<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> our study showed that the composite index accumulates information on soil condition and its ability to perform regulating agroecosystem services, mainly the potential of water regime regulation<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> and cleaning potential of ecosystem. The modeling and evaluation of individual regulating services<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> allows more detailed assessment of regulating agroecosystem services and defiing the sources of<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> variability and spatial differences. Moreover, the methodology developed in this paper is replicable<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> and can be applied by planners if they are profiient in geographic information systems (GIS).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></span></p>
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