TITLE:
Ecosystem Services in Differently Used Agroecosystems along a Climatic Gradient in Slovakia
AUTHORS:
Jarmila Makovníková, Boris Pálka, Miloš Širáň, Beáta Houšková, Radoslava Kanianska, Miriam Kizeková
KEYWORDS:
Agroecosystem Services, Climatic Zone, Mapping, Trade-Offs, Synergies
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ecology,
Vol.8 No.12,
December
17,
2018
ABSTRACT: For analysis and evaluation of potential
of agroecosystem (arable land and grassland) services (provisioning, regulating
and cultural) in Slovakia we have created a mapping unit combining these input layers: slope
topography, soil texture and landuse in four climatic regions. Evaluated potential
of agroecosystem services was categorised into five categories
(very low, low, medium, high and very high). Our results show that climate
has the most significant impact on agroecosystem services. Warm, dry lowland region
has a higher potential of provisioning services, regulation of water regime, filtration of pollutants and control of soil erosion
in comparison to moderately warm and cold regions. In moderate cold region,
more than 90% of the total area of arable land has low potential of water regime
regulation and cleaning potential (immobilization of risk elements). In the moderate
warm climatic region, there is a high share of categories of low and moderate potential of provisioning services and low and moderate potential
of water regime regulation. Majority of the total area of
warm climatic region belongs to the categories of moderate to high potential of
provisioning services and high potential of regulation of water regime. In this climatic zone low potential categories
of risk elements immobilization are present in more than 65% of the arable land
total area. On the other hand, in very warm climatic zone, more than 89% of the
total area of arable land belongs to the category with a very high cleaning (buffering)
potential. Potential of natural conditions for recreation is higher only in moderate
cold and moderate warm climatic zones with a higher proportion of area of grassland
agroecosystems and protected areas NATURA 2000. Moreover, the methodology developed
in this paper is replicable and could be applied by planners in the case that they are proficient in geographical information systems.