Land use/land cover changes after the decline of mountain chalet farming in the Krkonoše and Hrubý Jeseník Mountains, Czechia, since the mid-20^th century

Chalet farming, as a specific type of agricultural landscape management, has been established in many European mountain ranges, including the Krkonoše Mountains and the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains in Czechia. During the operation of such farming from 16/17^th century till 1945, many changes in land use/land cover and landscape at all occurred, which are generally evaluated positively. Turbulent events including political, economic and social changes and the displacement of the German-speaking population associated with them in the mid-20^th century rapidly ended this development, causing significant landscape changes, such as the abandonment of agricultural land and succession, afforestation, expansion of the alpine tree line, reduction of diversity. The aim of our study is to evaluate changes of land cover (forests, dwarf pine, grasslands, other areas) from 1936/1946 till 2021, secondary succession and driving forces of change for selected meadow enclaves in the Krkonoše Mountains and the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains after the decline of mountain chalet farming since the middle of 20^th century. We used remote sensing methods (aerial imagery) and field research (dendrochronology and comparative photography) to detect the land use/land cover changes in the selected study areas in the Krkonoše Mountains and the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains. We documented the process of the succession, which occurred almost immediately after the end of farming, peaking about 10–20 years later, with an earlier start in the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains. The succession led to the significant change of land use/land cover and these processes were similar in both mountain ranges. The largest changes were a decrease in grasslands by 62%–64% and an increase in forest area by 33%–40% for both study areas. The abandonment of land is the main consequence of a crucial political driving forces (displacement of German-speaking population) in the Krkonoše Mountains and the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains.