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Soil microbial characteristics at the monitoring plots on windthrow areas of the Tatra National Park (Slovakia): their assessment as environmental indicators

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Abstract

This study focused on the responses of soil microorganisms to different management regimes on disturbed windthrow areas. Microbial parameters potentially serving as indicators of environmental changes within a long-term monitoring of forest development after large-scale disturbance events were assessed. Basal and substrate-induced respiration, N mineralisation, catalase activity, microbial biomass as well as functional diversity based on Biolog assay were determined in soil samples from three disturbed plots and an undisturbed reference plot in the Tatra National Park (Slovakia) since 2006. A relative congruence of inter-annual trends of microbial activity indicators at all plots results from a common response of microbiota to changes of climate at the landscape level after forest stands were destroyed. While catalase activity and functional diversity proved to be useful indicators of temporal trends, microbial biomass seems to reflect different management regimes at the disturbed plots.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, TG Masaryka 24, 960 53, Zvolen, Slovakia

    Erika Gömöryová, Katarína Střelcová & Dušan Gömöry

  2. Research Station and Museum of the Tatra National Park, 059 60, Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia

    Peter Fleischer

Authors
  1. Erika Gömöryová
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  2. Katarína Střelcová
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  3. Peter Fleischer
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  4. Dušan Gömöry
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Correspondence to Erika Gömöryová.

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Gömöryová, E., Střelcová, K., Fleischer, P. et al. Soil microbial characteristics at the monitoring plots on windthrow areas of the Tatra National Park (Slovakia): their assessment as environmental indicators. Environ Monit Assess 174, 31–45 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1755-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1755-2

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