Documentation of natural processes in the Gesäuse National Park: Pilot project avalanche lawn

IUCN Category II National Parks are specifically designated to ensure long-term large-scale ecological processes with their characteristic dynamism and species configuration. The present study attempts to establish a systematic nature process in the Gesäuse National Park and illustrate it using an example. The aim is to develop methodological foundations for a national park-wide natural process inventory. Due to extraordinary relief energies, many natural processes in the Gesäuse National Park are characterised by complex disturbance dynamics, which determine life forms, growth forms and species sets. These were examined exemplarily using the example of an avalanche system in the eastern Gesäuse (Kalktal). Building on a theoretical concept developed for this pilot project, a vegetation ecology survey in combination with UAV aerial images and a comprehensive analysis of the data collected attempted to describe the avalanche system. The patterns of vegetation societies occurring in the system can be represented in a spatial and temporal context with the disturbance regime. Abstracted, a stringing regime can be characterised by the parameters intensity and frequency. The intensity is measured by the effects on growth and life forms and, subsequently, on species sets. The relationships between disturbance and plant society can be represented in a spatial and a temporal dynamogram. Similar dynamograms will be developed in the coming years for other nature processes in the National Park in order to provide an overall perspective.世界自然保护联盟（International Union for Conservation of Nature，IUCN）二类国家公园的设立初衷，是为保障长期大规模生态过程及其特有的动态性与物种组成结构。本研究尝试以格塞国家公园（Gesäuse National Park）为研究对象，构建系统化的自然过程研究框架并通过实例加以阐释，旨在为覆盖全园区的自然过程清查工作奠定方法学基础。 由于地形动力条件特殊，格塞国家公园内的诸多自然过程均呈现出复杂的干扰动态特征，这一特征直接决定了区域内的生物生活型、生长型及物种组成。本研究以格塞东部卡尔克塔尔（Kalktal）的雪崩系统为典型案例，对上述过程展开示例性研究。 基于本试点项目构建的理论框架，本研究结合无人机（Unmanned Aerial Vehicle，UAV）航拍影像开展植被生态学调查，并对采集到的多源数据进行综合分析，以此刻画该雪崩系统。系统内分布的植物群落格局，可结合干扰制度在时空维度下进行表征。 概括而言，干扰制度可通过强度与频率两个核心参数进行表征：干扰强度通过其对植物生长型、生活型乃至物种组成的影响进行量化。干扰与植物群落之间的关联关系，可通过时空动态图谱进行可视化呈现。未来数年，研究团队将针对该国家公园内的其他自然过程构建类似的动态图谱，以期形成覆盖全园区的整体研究视角。