Acidification of forest soils in the Hruby Jesenik region

The Hruby Jesenik Natural Forest Region (NFR) in the Czech Republic is a border mountain territory which belongs to the areas most heavily impacted by air pollution in the Czech Republic. This paper compares results for soil properties investigated in non-limed forest stands during the years 1994-2007. Differences between the 2007 and 2000/01 surveys concerning Al, Ca and Mg content and pH in particular soil horizons are depicted using kriged maps. This means of interpreting laboratory analysis results allowed us to highlight the most endangered NFR areas from an acidification standpoint. Our results revealed the presence of an ongoing acidification process. The southern (Praded region) and northwestern areas (Kralicky Sneznik region) may be singled out as the most depleted.