**5. Changes in the floristic composition of the peak vegetation in the territory since 1880**

Plants are also sensitive to an increase in anthropogenic effects on the Earth's climate system [77]. Between 1957 and 1966, the number of species on mountain peaks in Europe increased by an average of 1.1. Since then, this trend has accelerated, so since 2006 and 2007, an average of 5.5 new species have moved to the highest mountain peak locations in a decade [78].

The same trend was observed in our study area, where, despite the general decline in species richness with increasing altitude, there was a clear percentage increase in the number of species between time periods (**Figure 10a, b**).

Ellenberg indicator values for the central-European flora [79] are routinely used to rapidly estimate site conditions from species composition, when measured

#### **Figure 10.**

*a. Species richness in relation to altitude at different times; 10b. Percentages of species gain between the studied time periods (1880, 2014) in relation to altitude. Gain was calculated as: g/Stot where g is the number of species gained and Stot is the total number of unique species in both time periods.*

*Impacts of Human Activities on the High Mountain Landscape of the Tatras… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105601*

values of environmental variables are not available [80, 81]. These indicators are estimates of species ecological optima along several main ecological gradients. Subsequent analyzes of Ellenberg's environmental indicators, using linear mixed modes (to pair design), showed significant differences between time periods in the light (F1,390 = 5.14; p = 0.024), and soil reaction (F1,392 = 6.17; p = 0.013) indicator. Despite its statistical significance, the simple effect sizes (lightmean\_diff = −0.28; soil reactionmean\_diff = −0.65) were not significant enough to lead to more convincing conclusions.

## **6. Current land use and its bearing capacity for given activities**

The current use of the studied area depends on the status of the national park. It can monitor and examine the dynamics of ecosystem development, its accessible part serves for the needs of education, interpretation, communication, tourism, recreation and the necessary infrastructure for the administration and guarding activities of the National Park Directorate.

However, the attractiveness of the Tatras, the smallest mountains in the world, is manifested by high tourist attendance in the long term. In the territory of TANAP there are about 600 km of marked trails that will lead tourists to the most interesting places. Hiking trails through the valleys allow ascents to the Tatra huts, some demanding and less demanding Tatra peaks, as well as passages through the Tatra saddles. The alpine landscape is thus under pressure from tourism and tourism-related activities.

#### **6.1 Territory traffic**

According to European Statistical Office [82], people living in Slovakia visit mountains the most of all European countries. Hiking is deeply rooted in Slovakia, with tourist traffic increasing every year. This trend is also confirmed by the data on the annual number of overnight stays in the High Tatras (**Figure 11a**).

We can see a similar short-term trend on one of the studied tourist routes Šalviový prameň (1213 m MSL) to Veľ ké Biele pleso (1615 m MSL) (**Figure 11b**), where we can see a steep increase, especially during the COVID pandemic restrictions (which also explains the rapid decline in the number of overnight stays in **Figure 11a** in 2020).

We believe that this increasing trend will continue, which may further affect the plant community composition and structure, even more.

#### **6.2 Hiking and its impacts**

A number of human activities in the alpine landscape began and ended over the years. However, one of them lasts almost 150 years and remains the only one to this day-hiking. The vulnerable territory of the studied area is affected not only by the bearable or unbearable number of tourists on the trails, but also by its location and the surface itself, which may constitute barriers for tourists**.**

#### *6.2.1 Trampling impacts on vegetation*

Another serious fact is trampling of the vegetation cover. Trampling is known to drive changes in plant community composition and structure [84–87]. Disturbance by trampling mainly affects vegetation directly by damaging plant tissues [88], and

**Figure 11.** *a. Number of overnight stays in High Tatras area [83]; 11b. Number of visitors on the trail from Šalviový prameň (1213 m MSL) to Veľké Biele pleso (1615 m MSL), source: Správa TANAPu Tatranská Lomnica.*

indirectly by modifications to soil structure [89], water regime [90], and nitrogen mineralization [91]. Other evidence indicates that the effects of trampling on soil compaction remain unclear [92–94], or at least are important only in areas of chronic disturbance (long-term effect) [95]. For single disturbance events, the direct effects of the damage to plant tissues are generally the most important [89]. Plants with similar ecological traits are estimated to respond to trampling in comparable ways [96]. Therefore, we have tried to find how the selected vegetation types resist trampling in three alpine communities: *Juncetum trifidi*, *Junco trifidi-Callunetum vulgaris* and *Seslerietum tatrae* using a standard short-term vegetation tracing protocol from Cole and Bayfiel [84]. However, we adjusted the design of trampled blocks and also changed the number of trampled areas according to the number of visitors to the site.

We based the evaluation of the resistance of species monitored on permanent surfaces on relative coverability. We based the calculation of the relative coverability on the sum of coverages of all types, which we preferred over a simple estimate of the total coverability [84]. **Figure 12** shows that there was a statistically significant interaction between trampling intensities and localities on the sum of the coverages (F1.35, 12.12 = 45.6, p < 0.0001). Therefore, the effect of the trampling intensities was analysed at each locality. P-values were adjusted using the Bonferroni multiple testing correction method. The effect of treatment was significant at all three localities (for Ks = F1.09, 9.79 = 48.5, p < 0.0001; PKs = F1.01, 9.06 = 70.3, p < 0.0001; VKs = F1.1, 9.9 = 44.2, p < 0.0001).

Our study [97] confirms earlier conclusions which stated that more resistant woody chamaephytes have less recovery abilities because of their woody habit. The statement that some communities are initially very prone to trampling due to the

*Impacts of Human Activities on the High Mountain Landscape of the Tatras… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105601*

#### **Figure 12.**

*Differences of sum coverages of all species between different trampling intensities for every locality [80].*

high amount of sensitive herbal species was also confirmed. These plant associations are characterized by low, middle and high resistance to trampling, but hiking trails passing through communities can still be made available to tourists at a given traffic.

#### *6.2.2 Synanthropisation*

Synanthropisation is manifested by ecesia of the habitat-foreign plants [98]. The most common way of spreading such plants is the transport of diasporas from lower-lying habitats to higher altitudes along the routes of hiking trails. The ecological plasticity of these plants is a limiting factor for their maximum altitude of occurrence. Another way of spreading for habitat-foreign plants is their transport from high mountain higher altitudes to lower altitudes. This applies to species native to the Tatras (original). They stick to ecotopes at a more advanced stage of destruction as a result of hiking. They are plants of apophytic or facultative synanthropic species. Facultative synanthropic species also include species spreading by succession from the forest environment to places deprived of vegetation (grassy) cover by trampling. In terms of the impact of synanthropization on changes in species richness depending on the distance from hiking trails, we found significant differences. The results of the analysis of variance showed a gradual increase in species richness with increasing distance from the trails (**Figure 13a**; F2,9 = 11.96; p = 0.003) by an average of 23% between distance categories. We also found differences in species richness between rest areas and their environs (**Figure 13b**; t4 = −5.15; p = 0.007) by 34%. There are 5 synanthropic species in the area (*Plantago major*, *Plantago media*, *Prunella vulgaris*, *Taraxacum* sect. *Ruderalia*, *Tussilago farfara*) and 3 apophytic species (*Aegopodium podagraria*, *Chaerophyllum hirsutum*, *Urtica dioica*), which occur at a distance of up to 50 cm from the trails, while at the distance of up to 20 cm from the trail they reach the highest coverage of up to 5% and for 20–50 cm up to 2%.

#### **Figure 13.**

*a. Species richness differences in distances from hiking trails; 13b. Species richness differences in resting areas and their environs (whiskers represents 95% confidence intervals).*
