Monitoring

Since a development of nature should take place in a national park that is as uninfluenced as possible by humans, but there is very much an interest in observing these dynamics, this project aims at the permanent observation of the natural environment and its changes. The two most important goals can be defined as follows:

1. Comprehensive survey of the current state in the area on the basis of measurable parameters (basis for planning, delimitation and management tasks).
   
   
2. Comprehensive documentation of the dynamics of natural development and observation of changes through periodic repetition of surveys (most important aspects: effects of a cessation of economic use and efficiency of management measures).

The individual grab samples are grid grab samples with a dot spacing of 300 meters. This results in around 1800 sample points for the entire national park area. With the exception of 2002, annual sample surveys have been carried out since 1996. As of 2001, around 1250 points were recorded. Repeated recordings of these points are to be carried out over an eight-year cycle.
(monitoring).

Around 200 measurands are collected for each test point. For the interpretation of these data, the reference to the environment (measures in the environment) and a systematic linking of the primary data are essential. The evaluations are carried out for the entire area and for eight sub-areas demarcated by natural space.

Results:

The trees in the Kalkalpen National Park are significantly older and larger than the average for Austria. The analysis of the individual data showed an average age of the forest stands of about 120 years. Both Austria as a whole and Upper Austria have an average population age of about 60 years. The proportion of pure spruce stands is significantly lower than that of Austria as a whole. The proportion of deadwood and also rockfall damage are above average.

The investigation of the extent to which the Zöbelboden sample area
is representative of the National Park as a whole, resulted in good representativeness for parts of the National Park, but not for the entire park area.

Rendzines represent the dominant soil form group in the National Park, while the humus forms are dominated by gauge. A type scheme for the 34 occurring site types is available.

Decreasing bite levels combined with increasing ungulate density indicate a well-functioning wildlife management, but care must be taken to ensure that the number of ungulates does not increase too high in the near future. So far, 916 different plant species have been detected on the sample plots. Of these, 139 species are listed in the Red List of Endangered Ferns and Flowering Plants of Upper Austria (Grims et al. 1997) and 73 are partially or completely protected under the Upper Austrian Nature Conservation Act.

Of the 41 current vegetation types found, snow rose-spruce-fir-beech forests and beech-spruce forests are the most common. Potentially natural, 33 vegetation types were distinguished, with beech forests dominating here as well.

The analysis of closeness to nature (hemerobia) reveals clear differences between individual study areas. The study areas differ most significantly from each other in the criterion "closeness to nature of the tree species combination". Artificial and heavily modified tree species combinations are present in almost 20% of the sample plots.