Spatial-temporal changes in trees outside forests: Case study from the Czech Republic 1953-2014

- The study evaluates the spatial-temporal dynamics of different subcategories of trees outside forest.
- Despite increased area of trees outside forest, lost and recent elements exceed persistent ones.
- Most of lost elements were replaced by forest, recent elements were created at the expanse of arable land or grasslands.
- Riparian vegetation was found to be the most stable category of trees outside forest.
- The dynamics of trees outside forest are linked to changes in the fine-grained microstructure of historical landscapes.

Trees outside forests act as ecologically valuable elements in the rural landscapes of Europe. This study proposes a new classification system for trees outside forest elements based on the shape and size of the patches and their location in fields. Using this system, the study evaluates the spatial-temporal dynamics of different subcategories of trees outside forests in context with land cover changes of the Czech Republic. The analysis is based on the re-evaluation of change trajectories of individual landscape elements. Historical black and white aerial photographs from 1953 and colour orthophoto maps from 2014 were used as data sources. Although the results show an increased area of trees outside forests, lost and recent elements exceed persistent elements in all subcategories. Regardless of subcategory, most of the lost elements were replaced by forest and the majority of recent elements were created at the expanse of arable land or grasslands. Most of the patches of persistent elements got larger due to spontaneous succession during the study period. Riparian vegetation was found to be the most stable category of trees outside forest. Reasons underlaying the documented changes are discussed based on the existing literature. In general, the dynamics of trees outside forests are linked to changes in the fine-grained microstructure of historical landscapes. The applied method enables us to analyse spatio-temporal changes on the level of individual elements, which allows for monitoring of changes in landscape processes.