Anthropogenic influence on glacier forefields- A study on three glacier forefields of the Austrian Central Alps
Marlon Schwienbacher, University of Vienna (AT)
In the last decade the idea of wilderness and process protection increasingly gained attention in central Europe especially in the active field of conservation biology. Nevertheless, research on wilderness in Europa is still scarce, like Wilderness- or Wild-areas itself.
These areas, where natural processes can operate freely without human influence, are primarily found in the core zones of national parks and single wilderness areas.
Process protection can be seen as an alternative conservation method to careful land management. It is especially important for the conservation of highly endangered species, relying on the full scope of natural processes, like primeval forest relicts. Furthermore, wilderness areas will gain increasingly importance as reference plots for ecological research, assuming an ongoing change of climate (Scherzinger 2012).