Effect of forest reclamation on the Křivý důl spoil heap (Upper Silesia, Czech Republic)

Abstract

The contribution deals with the issue of social functions of forest woody plants on a reclaimed spoil heap Křivý Důl in the Stonava cadastral area. In the year 2010 the evaluation of real effects of func-tions of forest woody plants and their impact on the degree of coverage and abundances of species in the undergrowth was carried out here. There was verified the suitability of using the method: Quantification and Evalu-ation of Czech Forest Functions for anthropogenic substrates. There were evaluated the social func-tions, i.e. bioproduction, ecological-stabilization, hydric-water management, edaphic-soil-conservation, social-re-creation and sanitary-hygienic functions. On the basis of acquired results, the highest real effect was proved in the case of social hydric-water management function and the lowest one in the case of bioproduction function. Furthermore, the influence of woody plants on the character of the herb layer, the lowest species diversity in which was recorded in stand groups with allochthonous woody plant species, was proved. On the contrary, the highest species diversity was proved in stand groups with autochthonous species. On the basis of our results it can be stated that the used method can be applied al-so to the evaluation of anthropogenic areas (not only for natural soil conditions), but with emphasis put on the character of specific site; an integral part of the evaluation should also be herb layer evaluation.