**4. Land-cover change in the area, with a particular focus on vegetation**

In the Tatras, natural destructive factors have operated, operate and will always operate, but nature has dealt with them in the course of evolution and they do not pose a critical threat. It can eliminate their consequences very quickly. Man, and his activities have become the biggest negative factor in the course of history. Nature can cope with anthropogenic interventions with much more difficulties and must spend more energy maintaining the equilibrium or regenerating damaged components.

Land cover until the enactment of the national park was most intensively shaped in the studied area by shepherding and later by aromatic plant-based oil industry. Belianske Tatras were liberated from grazing and devastation by the SNC Act No. 11/1948 Coll. on the Tatra National Park [28], when, with effect from 1 January 1949, Belianske and High Tatras were declared our first national park – the Tatra National Park (By order of the SSR Government No. 12/1987 Coll. of 6 February 1987 [70], Western Tatras were also declared a part of TANAP). However, grazing was definitively abolished throughout TANAP only in 1954 [53].

Several studies from the territory claim [71, 72] that the change in land use since the enactment of the national park led to the spontaneous afforestation of land abandoned after the restriction of grazing (in order to protect nature), at the same time tourism was actively developing and local people were changing their orientation from agriculture to tourism.

The studied area falls under three cadastral territories: Tatranská Javorina, Tatranská Lomnica and Ždiar. In the cadastral areas, the spatial structure of the land cover for the period 1955–2010 [73] was analyzed. In all areas, there was a decline in the loss of coniferous forest, along with an increase in damaged forests, especially on the southern slopes in 1955–1986 and 1986–2010. In the area of Tatranská Javorina, a significant change was found in the proportions of alpine meadows and shrubland (*Pinus mugo*), especially on slopes facing south and south-west, by increasing the vegetation of the shrubland in places with higher altitudes, lower degree of slope and less sunlight, and in places with lower altitudes where radiation and the degree of slope are higher. In the area of Ždiar, an increased proportion of shrublands was observed in higher places, on moderate south-western and western slopes. In the period 1955–1968, there was an increase in shrubland (*P. mugo*) and a decrease in alpine meadows in locations with higher altitude and lower degree of slope. In the period 1968–2010, the increase of shrubland in relation to losses in coniferous forests prevailed. As in the area of Javorina, the study attributes the increments of shrubland to higher radiation and slopes at lower altitudes. Also, in the area of Tatranská Lomnica there was an increase in shrubland (*P. mugo*) for the period 1955–1968. There was more shrubland in places with higher altitudes and milder slopes (mainly in the south-west, west, north-west and north); in the period 1968–2010, increments of shrubland (*P. mugo*) were recorded more or less independently of other variables. In general, the increments of shrubland correspond to the declines of alpine meadows, the cover ofshrubland increased at higher altitudes: (1) mostly in sunny and less steep places and slopes and (2) at lower altitudes on sunny and steeper slopes. Decrease of shrubland in lower positions may be evidence of the spread of coniferous forests into higher altitudes, but none of the selected abiotic variables explain this change.

The results of the analysis show a slight upward shift of vegetation from 1956 to 2012. The most pronounced shift concerned shrubland (*P. mugo*). The spread of shrubland confirms the findings of several studies [71, 74, 75], which claim that the visible expansion of shrubland to higher altitudes is due to the abandonment of traditional

land use, but also to better temperature conditions (longer seasonal growth, milder winters and shorter periods of snow cover) with sufficient water. On the other hand, the historical influence of man on vegetation in the Tatras is significantly limited by attempts to identify changes that are caused exclusively by climate change. According to some historical sources [76], the boundary of forest trees was lowered (especially in the Belianske Tatras), by 200 m on average, and by 350–400 m or more in some places. The declaration of the National Park (1949) and the subsequent ban on grazing (1954) were the main driving forces behind these changes in the Tatras.
