The project is focused on two main study
areas, the Šumava and Ore Mountains. These represent montane areas in which significant
landscape disturbance has occurred both in terms of forest cover and stream
modification. The research is conducted at two spatial scales: 1. Experimental catchments
In the central Šumava Mountains,
experimental catchments are located in the headwaters of the Otava River and
its major tributaries (the Blanice, Volyňka, and Vydra Rivers). This area has
been subjected to forest and landscape disturbance caused by the bark beetle,
windstorms, and widespread felling practises. The individual catchments are
comparable in terms of size and basic physiographic parameters, but are
different in terms of patterns of forest vegetation, management practises, and
the intensity and nature of the disturbance. The planned experimental
catchments include, in particular, a basin system that incorporates the streams
of Modravský and Roklanský, and the headwaters of Blanice River. 
In the Ore Mountains, the headwaters of the
Chomutovka River will be used to examine the effects of forest disturbance and
stream modification on fluvial dynamics. The catchments in this region reflect
the forest and landscape disturbance initiated by industrial air pollution
during the 1980s as well as massive river network modification. These catchments
also have an established climate and discharge monitoring network.
2. Complex basins of selected streams At this level,
analyses will be carried out in the Blanice, Volyňka and Chomutovka Basins.
These basins drain the aforementioned experimental catchments. |