Records of past land use are best stored in soil properties

Four models from selected trait groups (plant functional traits, plant chorotypes, Ellenberg bioindicator values and soil properties) were developed, and their predictive power for the time since land use was abandoned in Southeastern (SE) Slovenia was compared. The analysis highlights an approach that determines the age of forest using ecological, chorological and pedological attributes. The aim of the study was to develop a tool, a combination of functional response traits, chorotypes, ecological characteristics and soil properties, which allows calculation of the time since land use abandonment (TLA) for a particular secondary succession stage. Using old cadastral maps and orthophotos and employing an overlapping technique, the actual TLA for the sample plots was determined, which served as a dependent variable in modelling, as well as a control for modelling accuracy. The predictive power of four different ecological models was compared. The study shows that information about the process of abandonment of traditional land use is stored within the changes of plant functional response traits, chorotypes and Ellenberg bioindicator values of the study area, but is best reflected in soil properties. Soil properties provide the most reliable basis for the elaboration of a prediction model for TLA.