The Influence of Site Conditions on the Impact of Winstorms on Forests: the Case of the High Tatras Foothills (slovakia) in 2004

The windstorm on 19th November 2004 caused a great deal of damage to forests of the Tatras National Park. It has changed the environment of the impacted areas in the High Tatras foothills for a long time. The impact of the wind calamity on various types of sites is presented in this article, on the basis of large-scale geo-ecological field research. For the first time, a generalized additive model is applied to model this event. Its results signal possible influence of site conditions on local disturbances of spruce woods and mixed pioneer woods. The results are important for the needs of integrated assessments of the research area and for forest management.