|
Due to floristic richness, plant communities diversity and good condition of wetland ecosystem in 2008 Rzecin Peatland (PLH3 00019) have been joined into Natura 2000 network of protected sites. In previous investigations several glacial relicts have been detected within the site and what is mo re nearly half of identified plant communities has been defined as perdochoric. That can suggest that human impact on the wetland ecosystem was quite small and its present state is quasi - natural. However, according to palaeoecological research conducted at this wetland, much of the wetland was formed during last couple of centuries , and because of that is much younger than previously thought . Moreover, these results suggests that both the beginnings of the peatland and its development could be under strong influence of human, who was affecting the ecosystem mainly by melioration works. The main aim of this paper is to determine those parts of the peatland which are the most and least affected by human activity by analyzing airborne imagery. Moreover changes in anthropopressure degree during last 50 years are analyzed. The comparison of multi temporal images allowed also to distinguish areas with intensive drainage system, those used for agriculture, and those on which human influence was quite weak, and because of that fact, which are the most suitable for most of palaeoecological researches. The greatest number of artificial object s has been noticed in the pictures from 1964. However it seems that many of them are artifacts from previous periods. In subsequent years this number significantly decrease. 106 artificial linear objects (ditches, field boundar ies, etc.) with a total length of more than 6.6 km have been identified in the pictures from that year, when in the last picture (from 2011) only 40 objects with the total length of 3.5 km. Also, the decline in percentage of human - transformed areas can be observed; in 1964 they covered 6.3 % of the peatland, while in 2011 - only 0.1 %. Objects interpreted as anthropogenic appear the most often in the north - west, south - central and east - central part of the mire. In the first and second mentioned pl aces their genesis is probably connected with agricultural use of peatland; in the last one - with drainage system. Multitemporal analysis of aerial photographs allowed also to suppose that the least transformed part of Rzecin Peatland is its central area located to the west of the lake.
|