Changes of the forest spatial pattern in the northern Carpathians in the 20th century

In the northern Carpathians, as in many European mountains, forest area has been increasing throughout the 20th century, especially after the World War II. Main causes of the forest expansion in the northern Carpathians were post-war re-settlement actions or social and economical changes affecting rural areas in the region, like industrialization programme in the communist countries, slow decline of the importance of agriculture and the decrease of population active in agriculture (Kozak et al., 2007). Changes in forest cover impact and modify forest spatial pattern, in particular forest fragmentation. The latter has several effects on biodiversity (Kupfer, 2006): sample effects (habitat loss), area effects (reduction of forest area and number of patches), isolation effects (distance and connectivity of forest patches) and edge effects (creation of forest edges). The aim of this study was to quantify changes of forest spatial pattern between 1930s and the end of the 20th century in the northern Carpathians at a fine scale (28.5 m spatial resolution). Possible implications for biodiversity in the region were discussed. The study was carried out in seven case study areas, approximately 1000 km2 each, sampled alon