Effects of a Short-Term Trampling Experiment on Alpine Vegetation in the Tatras, Slovakia

Over the past decades, outdoor recreation in mountains has become progressively more important and as a result human induced potential damage increased. Alpine communities are particularly susceptible to recreational activities, such tourist trampling. Although there number of studies that explicitly assess effects trampling on alpine communities, they do not reflect terrains with rich topography presence very small areas. In this study, short-term some Tatras, highest Carpathians, were studied experimentally. Vulnerability disturbance was compared among plant terms resistance resilience, which based cover measurements. With proximity intensity, we found significant decrease abundance deciduous shrubs, lichens, mosses. These results demonstrate major negative impacts lichen moss species richness. A experiment required several years community regeneration. Therefore, management plans should discourage hiking activity off paths restrict activities.