Gewählte Master / Diploma Thesis:

Anna Rita Hollaus (2012): Evaluation of Methods Estimating Soil Loss after Coarse-Scale Disturbances on a Montane Mixed Forest Site in the Northern Limestone Alps.
Master / Diploma Thesis - Institut für Waldökologie (IFE), BOKU-Universität für Bodenkultur, pp 111. UB BOKU obvsg

Data Source: ZID Abstracts

Abstract:

Forest soils in sloping terrain are prone to erosion after wind throws. Folic Histosols and Rendzic Leptosols on calcareous substrate, with dominating organic layers, are considered as particularly vulnerable as, besides erosion, mineralisation may lead to soil losses. In order to quantify soil loss, two methods have been tested in the Höllengebirge, Austria, in an intact forest stand with two adjacent disturbed areas (wind throws in 2007 and 2009). For the 2007 wind throw site, aerial photo interpretation of 2009 and 2010 flights documented the change of surface coverage. Changes of the soil surface were measured with spatially distributed soil gauges at all three sites. The comparison of the imagery revealed an increase of 4 % of bare rock within one year, although vegetation covered already 21 % more area than in the previous year. A depletion of 0.9 +/- 0.5 cm, 2.6 +/- 0.6 cm and 1.4 cm +/- 0.5 cm, mainly of organic layers, was observed in the field between July 2010 and November 2011 for the undisturbed stand, the 2007 and the 2009 wind throw respectively. Considering the shallow mean soil depth of 15.0 +/- 10.5 cm, soil degradation can be expected. The mean soil loss rates of 0.4 t.ha^-1.a^-1 from the forest, 30.1 t.ha^-1.a^-1 from the recently thrown site, and 9.6 t.ha^-1.a^-1 from the older one underline this trend. We conclude that soil losses from disturbed forest sites in the Northern Limestone Alps are mainly influenced by the presence of vegetation coverage and climatic driven processes. The aerial imagery-based method detected pronounced land cover changes and could be seen as a valuable tool for application in mountainous areas. Whereas the method did not track surface processes such as the decrease of soil depth, the soil gauge measurements fulfilled this task, but without spatial validity. The combination of the two methods was useful to estimate soil degradation by erosion and mineralisation.

Beurteilende(r): Katzensteiner Klaus

1.Mitwirkender: Mansberger Reinfried

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