Inventory and evaluation of grasslands in Albania

摘要

Grasslands are an important forage resource in Albania but irrational management systems during the recent communist period have led to their present state of degradation. This paper reports an investigation into the relative contribution of abiotic, biotic and management variables to this degradation, after implementing a national inventory using field-based and remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) techniques. A matrix of all these variables was produced in GIS and analysed statistically by applying principal component analysis, cluster analysis and correlation analysis. Grasslands occurred mainly in mountainous areas, mostly above 800 m elevation; 0 center dot 44 were on south-facing slopes and 0 center dot 79 on steep (> 15%) slopes, and predominantly (0 center dot 59) overlying limestone and on shallow soils (0 center dot 51) with loose surface stones (0 center dot 84). Most were grazed during the summer period, predominantly (0 center dot 94) managed in a communal way, and many (0 center dot 23) were overgrazed. Multivariate analysis showed that no single abiotic variable was important for the low vegetative cover. It is concluded that degradation of grasslands in Albania can be attributed to the interaction of unfavourable abiotic conditions and irrational grazing management practices.