Evaluation of changes in the landscape management and its influence on animal migration in the vicinity of the D1 motorway in Central Bohemia

Abstract

The article summarizes changes detected in landscape structures and interrelated changes in landscape management surrounding a model section of the D1 motorway (11th-29th km). Biotopes' gradual development was determined based on historical aerial photographs from 1949, 1974, 1988 and 2007. Issues evaluated include especially direct occupation of biotopes and agricultural lands due to constructing industrial areas in the motorway's vicinity, changes in area dimensions of agricultural and forest land, construction of residential complexes and complementary infrastructure. Also investigated was how these transformations and other negative factors of the linear construction, particularly barriers along the motorway and traffic intensity, influence migration of large ungulates. The aerial photographs show significant decrease in polygons in the Crop fields category between 1949 and 2007. While in 1988 the area of Commercial zones in this territory was only 0.16%, in 2007 these already constituted 8.53% of the entire territory. Forested area increased slightly. Traffic intensity and barriers along the motorway were found to create sections through which large mammals have great difficulty passing.

Keywords

• landscape
• migration
• wildlife
• motorway