Authors: Jirků, Daria; Hais, Martin;Jirků, Miloslav;

Former military training areas (MTA) are long recognized unique regions of high biodiversity and habitat variability in otherwise intensively utilized and homogenized Central European landscapes. Changes of land cover and development of forest and non-forest vegetation were analyzed by GIS methods in MTA Milovice in the context of historical events and nature conservation. Geodatabases with classification of land cover (24 categories including 6 types of woodlands according to canopy closure and species composition, and 5 types of non-forest vegetation according to its architecture) were generated using series of aerial photographs from the period 1950-2019 covering substantial part of the military history of the area and its entire development after abandonment. Over 50 % of the area experienced changes, especially forest closure (15 %), agricultural intensification (15 %), urbanization (11 %), and afforestration (10 %). The area of temperate grassland-savanna decreased by staggering 57 %. Homogenization of grassland-savanna vegetation structure after abandonment and its renewal after introduction of conservation management was revealed. Our results provide historically the very first exact evidence of enormous losses of habitats of high conservation value and impact of different management methods in former MTAs, highlighting a need of immediate systematic conservation actions in these unique areas.