Spatial structures of geomorphic processes in high-mountain landscape of the Belianske Tatry Mts

This paper is focused on morphodynamic spatial structures (units) and their importance in the landscape-ecological research of the high-mountain areas. This approach is relatively less developed in the landscape ecology and therefore some authors emphasize its necessity (Bailey, 1996; Turner, O'Neil, 2001; Hresko, 1994). Geomorphic processes and their spatial composition create specific dynamic spatial units (areas) in the alpine and sub-alpine zone in which these extreme and dynamic processes operate. Their typical features are the transportation of great volumes of anorganic and organic materials and the significant contribution to the water and nutrient redistribution in these physiologically relatively dry areas. On the basis of long-term empiric research in the Belianske Tatry Mts we introduce the model of the spatial units, in which energy-material transfer is driven by rainfall, snow, or melting snow.