in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, slovak republic * author for correspondence abstract skokanová H., Falťan v., Havlíček M.: Driving forces of main landscape change processes from past 200 years in Central Europe -differences between old democratic and post-socialist countries. Ekológia (Bratislava), vol. 35, no. 1, p. 50-65, 2016.The article compares and points out differences in driving forces of four main landscape change processes that shaped post-socialist countries and old democratic countries of Central Europe during the last two centuries. studying landscape change processes and corresponding driving forces helps in understanding patterns of present landscape and can help among others in better prediction of future landscape change trends. Here, the presented results are based on review of scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2014. Driving forces affecting these processes were grouped into four categories. Economic forces drove mainly agricultural intensification; agricultural land abandonment and urbanisation and were pronounced especially in the second half of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century. Technological driving forces affected agricultural intensification especially in the 19th century and the second half of the 20th century while cultural driving forces had the biggest impact on urbanisation at the beginning of the 21st century. political driving forces affected agricultural intensification, urbanisation as well as agricultural land abandonment and were pronounced mainly during the second half of the 20th century in the post-socialist countries. political forces in the form of subsidies drove agricultural extensification at the beginning of the 21st century. The drivers for the agricultural intensification as well as urbanisation seem to be similar for both old democratic and post-socialist countries. in contrast, agricultural land abandonment in the old democratic countries was driven by technological, cultural and economic driving forces while in the post-socialist countries the political driving forces were mainly responsible. Changes in systems for subsidies and changes in the agricultural commodity markets are also responsible for different frequencies and rates of extensification of agriculture between the two groups of countries.

Transformational changes after 1989 were primarily caused by major social changes, including those in the economy and agriculture. Slovakia is also affect by globalization processes. The aim of this article is to characterize the changes in agricultural land use and their spatial distribution in relation to the political transformation of society after 1989, using the Dunajská Streda, Levice, Prievidza and Stará Ľubovňa districts as examples. These districts contain all individual agricultural production types in Slovakia. Changes in agricultural land use were analyzed on the basis of the total areas of land use categories for these districts between 1980 and 2010 and for municipal cadastral areas in selected districts between 2000 and 2010. Two basic indicators of changes in land use were selected for this purpose. The first was the percentage increase or decrease in individual land use categories and the second was the dominant processes in land use based on analysis of the main landscape processes. The cumulative surfaces of selected crops and their products were analyzed using a simple continuous diagram depicting the course of harvesting areas between 1980 and 2010. Crop yields were analyzed by linear regression. The tendency for disappearance of agricultural land use was confirmed in the less agriculturally active areas of Slovakia. This decrease in agricultural land use was at the expense of an increase in urban areas and in the processes of greening, forestation and water body construction.

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The influence of environmental drivers on long-term land cover changes in two mountainous villages in Central Slovakia is assessed in this paper using generalized linear models (GLM ShrnutíVliv environmentálních podmínek na strukturu krajinného pokryvu a její dlouhodobé změny: případová studie obcí Malachov a Podkonice na Slovensku Předkládaná studie hodnotí vliv environmentálních podmínek na dlouhodobé změny krajinného pokryvu ve dvou horských obcích na středním Slovensku, a to s využitím krabicových grafů, jednoduché logistické regrese a generalizovaných lineárních modelů (GLM). S využitím klasifikace CORINE Land Cover je analyzován

Windthrows are the most important type of disturbance occurring in the forests of Central Europe. On 19 November 2004, the strong northeastern katabatic winds caused significant damage and land cover change to more than 126 km2 of spruce forests in the Tatra National Park. The risk of subsequent soil erosion and accelerated runoff has increased in the affected habitats. Similar situations may reoccur this century as a consequence of climate change. A geographical approach and detailed research of the damaged area with more comprehensive statistical analyses of 47 independent variables will help us to obtain a deeper insight into the problem of windthrow disturbances. The results are based on a detailed investigation of the damaged stands, soil, and topography. A comprehensive input dataset enabled the evaluation of abiotic controls on windthrow disturbance through the use of a generalized additive model (GAM). The GAM revealed causal linear and nonlinear relationships between the local dependent quantitative variables (the damage index and the uprooting index) and independent variables (various soil and topography properties). Our model explains 69% of the deviance of the total damage. The distribution of the wind force depended upon the topographical position—mainly on the distance from the slope’s foot lines. The soil properties (mainly the soil skeleton, i.e., rock fragments in stony soils) affect the rate and manner of damage (uprooting), especially on sites with less wind force. Stem breakage with no relation to the soil prevailed in places with high force winds. The largest number of uprooted trees was recorded in localities without a soil skeleton. The spruce’s waterlogged shallow root system is significantly prone to uprooting. The comprehensive research found a significant relationship between the abiotic variables and two different measures of forest damage, and can expand the knowledge on wind impact in Central European forests.