**1. Introduction**

256 Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet

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connectivity among fragmented forest patches in the Taita Hills, South-east Kenya.

2011. Relationships between native tree species and soil properties in theindigenous forest fragments of the Eastern Arc Mountains of the Taita Hills, KenyaFor. Stud. The dynamically changing land cover configuration and its impact on biodiversity have aroused interest in the study of deforestation and its consequences. Deforestation is generally considered to be one of the most serious threats to biological diversity. Awareness of how different deforestation patterns influence habitat quality of forest patches is essential for efficient landscape–ecological management.

The overall effect of deforestation on the forest patch depends on its size, shape and location. Zipperer (1993) identified the following types of the deforestation pattern:


Forest fragmentation is one of the most frequently cited causes of species extinction making it a crucial contemporary conservation issue. The classic view of a habitat fragmentation is the breaking up a large intact area of a single vegetation type into smaller landscape units or simply the disruption of continuity (Fahrig, 2003; Lord & Norton, 1990). This process represents a transition from being whole to being broken into two or more distant pieces. The outcome is landscape composed of fragments (e. g. forest) with something else (the nonforest matrix) between the fragments. Fragmentation of biotopes affects several ecological functions of landscape, first of all the spatial distribution of selected plant and animal species and associations (Bruna & Kress; 2002, Kurosawa & Askins, 2003; Parker et al., 2005). Fragments of original biotopes with reduced area and increased isolation are not capable of securing suitable conditions for life and reproduction of some organisms. Consequences of fragmentation include the species biodiversity decline, functional changes in ecological processes, for instance disruption of trophic chains (Valladares et al., 2006), and genetic changes in organisms (Cunningham & Moritz 1998; Gibbs, 2001).

The history of research focused on the fragmentation consequences reaches to the 1960s when the theory of insular biogeography was published (MacArthur & Wilson, 1963, as cited in Faaborg et al., 1993). The basis of this theory is the recognition that the smaller and more dispersed islands, the lower number of species is capable to find suitable conditions for their permanent existence. However, the phenomenon is not limited only to islands in the geographic sense. As Madera and Zimová (2004) report similar problems were also

Destruction of the Forest Habitat in the Tatra National Park, Slovakia 259

a. s. l. The basin is classified as the type of morphostructure of dell grabens and morphotectonic depressions with the relief resting on glacial, glacifluvial and polygenic sediments. The climate of the Tatras is cool to very cool and moist. The mean January temperature in the high-mountain part of the territory is between -7 and -11 degrees of Celsius with the mean annual precipitation totals of 1,200 –2,130 mm. The mean January temperature in the cool subtype oscillates between -6 and -7 ºC and the annual precipitation total is between 1,000 and 1,400 mm. The moraine zone in the foreland of the Tatras is classified as the type of cool mountain climate with the mean January temperatures between -5 and -6.5 ºC and the mean annual precipitation total between 800 and 1,100 mm. Mean annual air temperatures in the area of the upper timber line in the altitude of 1,600 – 1,800 m above sea level are 2-4 ºC; in July it is 10 to 12 ºC with the mean annual precipitation totals from 900 to 1,200 mm. The annual course of the air temperature with the minimum in January and the maximum in July prevails in the territory. The lowest temperature instead of occurring in January often moves to February and the highest temperature occurs in August in the highest positions above 2,000 m. n. m. Inversions are typical for the region. The amount of precipitation in the Tatras increases with the increasing sea level altitude. Monthly totals are minimum in winter and maximum in summer. The amplitude of the yearly course depends

Nature of the Tatras is the unique example of the fully devolved alpine ecosystems on a comparatively small and completely isolated territory lacking any direct links to other alpine mountain ecosystems. It is precisely this feature that makes the Tatras so unique and valuable in terms of natural history not only for Slovakia but also Europe. The great species diversity of fungi, vascular and non-vascular plants in the Tatras is the result of pronounced altitude differences, varied geology but also diverse moist conditions and soils. Endemites of the Tatras, Western Tatras and the Carpathians are the most important representatives of flora. Forest and non-forest plant association linked to five vegetation zones and the

not only on the sea level altitude but also on exposition of the terrain.

Fig. 1. Location of the study area

substrate exist in this territory.

observed in case of "islands" in the sense of fragments of natural biotopes in the "sea" of the agro-industrial landscape.

The most frequently studied fragmentation consequences include assessment of the effects on birds. Betts et al. (2006), who investigated dependence of two bird species on fragmentation of their natural biotopes, confirms the hypothesis that landscape configuration is important for selected species only in case of a too small range area and isolated occurrence of suitable biotopes. Faaborg et al. (1993) pointed to the main fragmentation consequences for the neotropical migrating birds and simultaneously presented his proposals how to minimise the negative effects of fragmentation in landscape management. Parker et al. (2005) studied effects of forest areas and forest edges on distribution of 26 species of singing birds and reports that effects of forest fragmentation is negative for many species while the forest area is more important in terms of bird occurrence than its shape (length of edges). Likewise, Trzcinski et al. (1999) emphasize that the effects of the decline in forest area are more serious than fragmentation alone and that the decline of the forest area cannot be compensated by optimisation of spatial arrangement of the remnant fragments. Kuroshawa and Askins (2003) arrived at a similar conclusion and report that preservation of some species in deciduous forest requires occurrence of sufficiently big forest areas. The same authors also consider the forest acreage a suitable indicator of selected bird species frequency.

Fragmentation not only reduces the area of available habitat but can also isolate populations. As the external matrix is physiognomically and ecologically different from the forest patch, an induced edge is formed. Riitters et al. (2002), leaning on studies of several authors, state that a change in area of forest and an increased fragmentation can affect 80 to 90% of all mammals, birds and amphibians. According to habitat types of matrix, Faaborg et al. (1993) recognize:


Large forest areas are rapidly becoming fragmented not only as a result of human activities, but as a result of natural disasters as well*.* In November 2004, the territory of the Tatra National Park, Slovakia was affected by a calamity whirlwind that destroyed around 12,000 ha of forest at altitudes between 700 m to 1,350 m above sea level and substantially changed the vegetation cover in the whole area. The whirlwind and subsequent logging of damaged timber has radically changed the natural conditions of local fauna and flora.
