Concept of landscape horizontal belts in the Polish Tatra Mountains

The history of changes of geoecological belts in the mountains exerts influence on the structure and functioning of the landscape. In many mountain regions, a convergence of two basic altitudinal lines occurs: the contemporary upper timberline and the cold Pleistocene snow line. The Tatra Mts. are an example of such a situation. These lines constitute the border between the high-mountain landscape and the landscape of mid- and low mountains (according to the Polish classification). However, this convergence also marks out the horizontal border across the profile of the valley, which separates the part with completely established high mountain landform complex (with postglacial cirques)from the remaining part of the valley. The montane belt can be also divided into two parts characterized by different landscape structure, due to existence of the influence of catenal processes from the subsystem of high-mountain belt. On these bases, the author introduces the concept of landscape horizontal belts in the mountain landscape of the Polish Tatra Mts., dividing the latter into three functional belts: the typical high-mountain landscape, the transitional landscape, and the typical landscape of mid- and low mountains.