The Impact of Climate Change and Regulation of the Water Regime on the Morphological Structure of the Floodplain Forests in Petržalka, Slovakia

Abstract

The main landscape-forming component has always been the forests in the lowlands. The devastation and disturbance of forest areas by anthropogenic activity change the ecological conditions in their environment. Climate and atmospheric changes affect the balance of the mutual relationships between individual components, as well as the existence of direct and feedback relationships in forest ecosystems. The transformation of bioclimatic and ecological conditions have caused the degradation of the Pannonian floodplain forest communities in Slovakia. Urbanization in Bratislava has caused the fragmentation of the surrounding forests. With changes in sunlight and heat conditions, flood-plain communities are forced to become acclimatized to drier conditions, which lead to morphological and structural changes in their composition.

Keywords

• forest morphology
• change of water regime
• climate change
• floodplains