Influence of site conditions on the windstorm impast : a case study of the High Tatras foothills in 2004

The calamity situation in the forests of the Tatra National Park, caused by a windstorm on the 19th of November 2004, had widespread damaging effects. The wind calamity caused slashes and wind throws as well. The aim of our paper is to describe influence of the site conditions (parameters of vegetation, soil and georelief) on the windstorm impact at chosen representative localities in the High Tatras foothills. The results obtained by methods of large-scaled geo-ecological field research, remote sensing, geographical information system environment and statistical analyses are presented in this paper. Geotops of saddles, elevations of moraine and colluvial slopes with planted spruce growths and spruce-bilberry forests have been damaged most. Small damage was recorded on geotops of erosion slopes with spruce-bilberry and fir forests, depressions and slopes of moraines covered with mixed pioneer forests. The most important were herein the characteristics of the rock skeleton (mainly size and weathering), soil texture, georelief orientation or wind exposition. The important role of the altitude probably expresses a regional positional factor (distance from the uphill line).