Relations between selected geomorphology features and tree species diversity of forest ecosystems and interpolation on a regional level

The presented paper analyses the relations between four features of geomorphology, i.e. aspect, slope, elevation and type of terrain, and tree layer diversity of forest ecosystems. The forest stand diversity is quantified by nine species diversity indices (N0, R1, R2, H', N1, N2, E1, E3, E5). The data used in this study come from the regional forest inventory of the Forest School Enterprise, Technical University Zvolen, Slovakia. Within this inventory, 26 permanent tracts were established in the systematic grid of 2×2 km, whereby a total of 120 sample plots were created on which 1,728 trees were measured. Analyses showed that species diversity is closely related only to elevation. However, the relationships of the individual species diversity indices to elevation are loose since the correlation coefficients do not exceed values of 0.30-0.40. The second part of this work presents spatial interpolation of species diversity degrees on a regional level using geostatistical methods. For this regionalisation, we used an indicator kriging. The final kriging map was found to be a suitable tool for the interpretation of tree species diversity over the investigated area.