Změny struktury krajiny v oblasti soutoku Moravy a Dyje

Abstract

The area at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje Rivers is one of the biologically most diverse landscapes of Czechia. This paper focuses on its land use/land cover changes, obtained from aerial photographs from 1938, 1953, 1976 and 2009, analyzed by a use of landscape metrics. The most important landscape changes in this period were as follows: (i) an all but complete disappearance of open and structured woodlands; (ii) a transformation of the mosaic of very small agricultural fields into large-scale fields of mostly arable land; (iii) a significant decrease in grasslands; (iv) regulations of water courses; (v) an outstanding increase in logging intensity during the last twenty years. The preservation of the area’s biodiversity demands a start of active conservation management, focused on opening of woodlands, a decrease in forest logging and a suitable selection of logging localities.