Documentation of natural processes in the Gesäuse National Park Part 2: Water dynamics at Johnsbach

IUCN Category II National Parks are specifically designated to ensure long-term large-scale ecological processes with their characteristic dynamism and species configuration. The foundation stone for the inventory of natural processes in the Gesäuse National Park was laid with the establishment of permanent observation areas at dynamic sites in the forest-free area of KLIPP & SUEN 2011. This was followed by further surveys in the forest area. In the summer of 2014, E.C.O. finally developed the methodological foundations for a national park-wide natural process inventory in a pilot study. 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. This study represents the continuation of the project, which was launched last year as a pilot project Lawinarrasen. The subject of this year’s investigations was the flow dynamics at Johnsbach, a right-wing Enns feeder in the Gesäuse. Building on a theoretical concept developed in the pilot project, a vegetation ecology survey in combination with UAV aerial images and a comprehensive analysis of the collected data were used to describe the Johnsbach river 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 fault 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. In the coming years, the inventory of natural processes in the Gesäuse National Park is to be continued and optimised for the respective process type in order to provide an overall perspective. For the sake of the completeness of the final project report of the previous year (Jungmeier et al. 2014) is taken over.