Restoration of alpine ecosystems - Restoration Ecology - page 209

can be clearly reduced, which makes these methods
useful in the medium term, as well as being economical.
The following depictions should offer a brief over-
view of the restoration problems in alpine environ-
ments as well as the possibilities with and necessity
for site-specific restoration measures, and also the
limits of what is possible.

2 Indigenous : the plant varieties used are to be seen
as indigenous when they are found in the geo-
graphical region (e.g. Val d'Aosta, Hohe Tauern), at
least in the same region in which restoration takes
place, and are evident, or have been evident, at
appropriate natural sites.
3 Regional : the seed or plant material used should
originate from the immediate surroundings of the
project area and from the habitats which with
respect to essential site factors are appropriate to
the type of vegetation to be produced. Due to a lack
of availability of regional seed, the regional crite-
rion should be aimed at, but is not obligatory.

15.1.2 Concepts and terms

Appropriate to the climatic changes at specific alti-
tudes, vegetation in the Alps and many other landscape
elements and processes are divided into altitudinal zones
(Veit 2002). The change of these factors, according
to altitude, leads to a vertical sequence in various
climatic areas (Ozenda 1988). The high zones are
separated by borders that are fairly easily recogniz-
able: the montane zone is separated from the subalpine
zone by the forest line, the subalpine zone from the
alpine zone by the tree line, the alpine zone from the
subnival zone by the grassland border.
The following depictions of the restoration of
alpine ecosystems relate to the subalpine and alpine
zones and are thus limited to the zones between alti-
tudes of 1300 and 2400 m (Ellenberg 1996). In lower
zones, overcoming the power of erosion is easier by
degrees. At extreme altitudes, over 2400 m, satisfact-
ory restoration is no longer possible according to the
current state of technical awareness.
In the Richtlinie für standortgerechte Begrünungen
(which translates to Guidelines for Site-Specific
Restoration ; ÖAG 2000) the important terms with
respect to restoration measures are defined exactly:
vegetation is site-specific when after generally exten-
sive agricultural use or non-use it is enduringly self-
stabilizing, and when the manufacturing of agricultural
products is not a prime target for this plant society.
This site-specific vegetation, with the exception of
finishing and development management, or possible
intensive agricultural use, requires no further manage-
ment measures.
Vegetation created by humans is then site-specific
when the following three criteria are fulfilled.

15.2 Consequences of a change in
land use

15.2.1 Change of agricultural use

Comprehensive deforestation measures undertaken in
the high zones of the Alps - especially after the begin-
ning of the Middle Ages - to create grazing areas on
the one hand and to supply the enormous timber needs
for salt mines and mining operations on the other,
have repeatedly caused ecological crises in the Alps,
which were counteracted partly by restrictive forestry
laws (e.g. in Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland). In
the last 150 years, agrarian usage in high zones and
other less-productive areas has clearly receded, which
has led to a corresponding expansion of forested
areas (Cernusca et al. 1996). As a result, the exploita-
tion of alpine meadows intensified or was, on occa-
sion, completely abandoned. In the subalpine zone,
during the transition process from the lavish and
intensively cultivated alpine meadow areas to the
original forest vegetation, a creeping destabilization
of the ecological systems of high alpine-meadow
regions can arise. Summer precipitation flows
increasingly on the surface and erosion that cannot
be restored immediately - as in alpine-meadow
cultivation - leads to extensive landslides and the
formation of shell-shaped erosion scarp (Stahr 1996,
Tasser et al. 2003). Up to the time at which the ori-
ginal vegetation - forests - is re-established there is
a clear increase of natural erosion processes, which
requires repeatedly more restoration and preventative
measures (Gray & Sotir 1996).

1 Site-adapted : the ecological amplitudes (the
demands) of the applied plant species should be
in accord with the characteristics of the site.