VII. Alps-Adria Scientific Workshop Stara Lesna, Slovakia, 2008 359 MAPPING VEGETATION SUCCESSION OF PASTURES ON ROCKY SOILS USING GIS; A CASE-STUDY ON THE ISLAND OF PAG Ivica LJUBICIC 1 – Mihaela BRITVEC 1 – Hrvoje KUTNJAK 2 – Zoran SALOPEK 3 – Sven D. JELASKA 4 1 Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetosimunska 25, 10000 Zagreb, e-mail: iljubicic@agr.hr 2 Department of Crop, Forage and Grassland Production, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb 3 Department of Amelioration, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb 4 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Marulicev trg 20 Abstract: Research area is situated on the island of Pag (Adriatic sea). Calcareous and dolomite mould and rocky karst terrain are the most common soil types on the island’s pastures. Large areas of pastures on these soil types are exposed to vegetation succession with species of genus Juniperus, which lead to macchia domination. Because of inappropriate grazing management and abandonment of traditional sheep farming models, pastures on island are endangered habitats. Research of dynamics of rocky pasture vegetation was carried out by remote sensing technique. Vegetation dynamics research showed that rocky pasture area on the island of Pag in period from 1963 to 2004 has reduced by 25.08 km 2 . Key words: GIS, remote sensing, land use, pastures, rocky soil Introduction Pastures are habitats of extremely high biodiversity, landscape importance and value because they are home for many rare and endangered plant and animal species. Because of inappropriate grazing management and abandonment of traditional sheep farming models, pastures on island are endangered habitats. Calcareous and dolomite mould and rocky karst terrain are the most common soil types in pastures on the island of Pag. Large areas of pastures on these soil types are exposed to vegetation succession with species of genus Juniperus, which lead to macchia domination. This could have impact on change in land use (Szirmai and Czóbel, 2006). Abandonment of agricultural production caused sequential loss of traditional patterns of rocky pastures (Gurevitch et al., 2002). Change in stocking rate leads to succession and loss of agricultural land (Biondi et al., 2005). Process of pasture degradation is the case in other Mediterranean areas (Saïd 2001). According to applicability of GIS technology and remote sensing techniques on the assessments of Earth surface on many levels (Tamás et al., 2007; Yuan, 2008), they are used in research of sheep grazed pastures on the island of Pag. Same techniques are used for optimal natural resource management (Neményi and Milics, 2007; Tóth et al., 2007). Research results contribute to improvement of agricultural production, and conservation of environmental, as well as biological and landscape diversity on the island of Pag. Materials and methods The island of Pag (285 km 2 ) is situated on transition between eu-Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean climate zone (Figure 1). On sub-Mediterranean rocky pastures on the island of Pag, plant alliance Chrysopogoni-Satureion Horvat i Horvatić is the most prevalent, and includes two dominant communities: Asphodelo-Chrysopogonetum