Functioning of South Moravian Floodplain Forests (Czech Republic) in Forest Environment Subject to Natural and Anthropogenic Change

South Moravian floodplain forests at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje Rivers, which are related to the floodplain forests of Austria and Slovakia to a considerable degree, have been strongly affected by changes in forest environment caused by natural and anthropogenic impacts. The dominant change factors encompassed changes in the 12–14th centuries resulting in the formation of a flooded alluvium and a significant transition of hardwood floodplain to softwood floodplain. Their further development was affected particularly by forestry activities, and they saw a gradual transformation into hardwood floodplain forests with dominant species of oak, ash, hornbeam, and others. The primary impact in the 20th century was stream regulation and the construction of three water reservoirs, which resulted predominantly in changes in the groundwater table. Response to these changes was registered particularly in the herb layer. The contemporary forest management adjusts to environmental changes and makes efforts to alleviate the negative impacts of previously implemented changes through restoration projects. 1. Introduction The Czech Republic houses approximately 33,000？ha floodplain forests concentrated in four main sites (Figure 1) [1].(1)South Moravia (Morava and Dyje Rivers)—15,800？ha,(2)Litovelské Pomoraví—10,400？ha,(3)the Odra River alluvium—600？ha,(4)the Labe River alluvium—6,300？ha. Figure 1: Distribution of floodplain forests in the Czech Republic [ 1]. Over the course of time, South Moravian floodplain forests, situated in the alluvium of the lower reach of the Morava River and primarily at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje, have been subject to a complex evolution related to changes in landscape development and human impact (site no 1 in Figure 1.) The prevailing vegetation type is “Fraxino pannonical ulmetum” [2]. According to [3], several cold and dry glacial periods have alternated with warm and humid interglacial periods in the Quaternary over the past two million years. This is characterized by alternating gully erosion and accumulation stages and a gradual formation of today’s landscape morphology. During these periods the landscape was gradually covered with vegetation, as the buried humus horizons attest to this. River gravels deposited in the conditions of the so-called rampaging river, under which the riverbed frequently changed its course within the entire floodplain. Later, river sands and sandy gravels were deposited in the streams of meandering rivers. These processes conditioned the resulting heterogeneity of alluvial cover. The