Abstract
The study aims at integral evaluation of biodiversity change in the Czech Republic in the period of transition (years 1990-2006). The analysis is composed of several steps.
Using CORINE Land Cover data and the concept of Mean Species Abundance index, we link the assessment of land cover changes to predicted biodiversity levels. Further, the development of regionally differentiated MSA indicator is analysed using the index decomposition analysis method, distinguishing three driving factors of biodiversity change - MSA intensity, composition effect and scale effect.
The results show that the most important factor of the MSA increase in the analysed period 1990-2006 is the scale effect; on the other hand, the composition of the regional economies does not play a crucial role for the biodiversity. The last part of the article estimates how the MSA changes in the analysed period are related to welfare of society that is associated with provisioning, regulating and cultural services of the ecosystems.
We find that key aspect contributing to the total social welfare associated with the land cover changes in the Czech Republic in the analysed period are the regulating services of the ecosystems.