1,3,3,- 1Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia (katarina.merganicova@forim.sk)
- 2Department of Hydrobiology, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
- 3Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
- 4Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Cartography, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
- 5Croatian Forest Research Institute, Jastrebarsko, Croatia
- 6Department of Meteorology, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
- 7Department of Forest Resource Planning and Informatics, Faculty of Forestry, Technical University Zvolen
Understanding how changes in vegetation cover affect nutrient dynamics is essential for predicting future ecosystem responses to environmental change. In this study, we integrated ground-based observations, remote sensing data, and dynamic process-based modelling to investigate vegetation dynamics under changing environmental conditions and disturbances driven by both natural processes and human activities. Our primary objective was to assess how land-use change, disturbances, and management practices influence nutrient cycling in plant ecosystems.
To address this objective, we compiled detailed land-use and land-cover data for 270 currently forested sites across five European countries (Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Poland). Data sources spanned from the second half of the 18th century to the present and included historical military maps, aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and forest management plans. The analysis revealed that 84% of sites experienced a vegetation change, while one third of them underwent multiple types of change. Management interventions were the most common driver occurring on more than a half of sites, followed by shifts in tree species composition at over one third of sites and deforestation observed at one quarter of sites. Natural disturbances were identified only at one fifth of sites.
Subsequently, we simulated vegetation dynamics using the process-based model Biome-BGCMuSo. Each site was modelled under two simulation set-ups: one considering only the current ecosystem state, and another incorporating the documented vegetation changes over the past 200 years. This design enabled us to isolate the effects of historical vegetation dynamics on ecosystem stocks and fluxes. In total, 40 variables related to carbon, nitrogen, and water cycling were analysed. The magnitudes of differences between the two set-ups varied among ecosystem components, sites, and species, and were strongly linked to the type and frequency of vegetation changes. The most pronounced negative effects, reaching up to 50% difference, were observed in soil, litter, and coarse woody debris carbon and nitrogen stocks, as well as in net ecosystem exchange and heterotrophic respiration following deforestation.
Our results highlight the critical importance of accounting for historical vegetation changes in ecosystem modelling. By demonstrating how legacy effects shape present-day nutrient dynamics, this study underscores that ecosystem functioning reflects not only current conditions but also the cumulative influence of past land use, management, and disturbance history.
The study was funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia under the project No. 09I03-03-V04- 00130.
How to cite: Merganičová, K., Lieskovský, J., Ortmann-Ajkai, A., Kaim, D., Ostafin, K., Stych, P., Marjanovic, H., Hidy, D., Barcza, Z., and Merganič, J.: How changes in vegetation cover affect nutrient dynamics of forest ecosystems, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-16286, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-16286, 2026.
