## 3 Results
### Soil Organic Carbon and Stock in the Studied Soils  
As expected, there was clear stratification of organic carbon content (g kg\({}^{-1}\)) with respect to the horizons (Figure 3). Analyses of the first horizon show an average carbon content of 178.2 \(\pm\) 125.5 g kg\({}^{-1}\), which differs from that in the other horizons. There was a decrease in organic carbon content in the second and third horizons, which had values of 59.1 \(\pm\) 89.1 g kg\({}^{-1}\) and 26.3 \(\pm\) 73.1 g kg\({}^{-1}\), respectively. A significantly higher SOC content (g kg\({}^{-1}\)) was noted in the surface horizon (Figure 3). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l} \hline \hline
**Variable** & **Mean** & **SD** & **Minimum** & **Maximum** \\ \hline sand & 44 & 16.7 & 11 & 82 \\ silt & 41 & 11.5 & 12 & 65 \\ clay & 15 & 8.9 & 1 & 77 \\ pH H2O & 5 & 0.9 & 3.1 & 8.1 \\ pH KCl & 3.98 & 0.81 & 2.5 & 7 \\ SOC & 99.0 & 118.0 & 4.0 & 422.0 \\ N & 5.0 & 6.0 & 1.0 & 29.0 \\ C/N & 17.1 & 5 & 7.6 & 38.9 \\ Na & 1.3 & 2.1 & 0.2 & 18.8 \\ Ca & 136.5 & 261.3 & 0.5 & 1771.6 \\ Mg & 13.9 & 20.6 & 0.2 & 130.6 \\ K & 12 & 11.2 & 1.1 & 58.6 \\ BD & 1.1 & 0.4 & 0.1 & 1.4 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Bulk density (BD) is expressed in g cm\({}^{-3}\); Na, Ca, Mg, and K contents are expressed in mg 100 g; Sand, silt, and clay content are expressed as %; soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) content are expressed in g kg\({}^{-1}\). Standard deviation (SD)  
\end{table} 
Table 1: The basic properties of the studied soils (\(n\) = 59). Figure 2: Stratification of stoniness content (%) in the soil profile layers (\(n\) = 59). Different letters indicate a significant difference (\(p\) \(<\) 0.05) between sections of the soil profile according to the Kruskal–Wallis test. Significant differences in total organic carbon stock in the soils of different forest stands were found (Figure 4). The highest total organic carbon stock was in the soils of alder and spruce forests (282.07 \(\pm\) 237.62 t ha\({}^{-1}\) and 171 \(\pm\) 163.74 t ha\({}^{-1}\)). The transition to lower T-SOCstock was in soils of mixed forest (112.84 \(\pm\) 45.75 t ha\({}^{-1}\)), and the lowest T-SOCstock was in soils of beech forest (97.26 \(\pm\) 20.06 t ha\({}^{-1}\)) (Figure 4). The studied soils were divided into seven groups. Significantly higher T-SOCstock was found in histosols (556.23 \(\pm\) 238.69 t ha\({}^{-1}\)) compared with the other soil types. Significantly lower T-SOCstock was in fluxisols and eutric cambisols (73.81 \(\pm\) 20.65 and 99.92 \(\pm\) 30.08 t ha\({}^{-1}\), respectively) (Figure 5). Among different types of parent material, peat sediments (VI) had significantly higher T-SOCstock (546.3 \(\pm\) 255.04 t ha\({}^{-1}\)). The average T-SOCstock in the soils formed on the remaining parent material was 78% lower (115.65 \(\pm\) 42.32 t ha\({}^{-1}\)) (Figure 6). Figure 4: Total organic carbon stock in the soils of different forest stands (t ha\({}^{-1}\)) (Alder \(n\) = 8; Spruce \(n\) = 31; Mixed \(n\) = 6; Beech \(n\) = 14). Different letters indicate a significant difference (\(p\) \(<\) 0.05) between the types of forest stands according to the Kruskal–Wallis test. Figure 3: Stratification of soil organic carbon (SOC) content (g kg\({}^{-1}\)) in soil profiles (\(n\) = 59). Different letters indicate a significant difference (\(p\) \(<\) 0.05) between sections of the soil profile according to the Kruskal–Wallis test. The total organic carbon stock in soils was not significantly different between the three altitude groups (\(>\)1100, 900-1100, and \(<\)900 m) (Figure 7). Figure 8 maps the values of the total organic carbon stock (t ha\({}^{-1}\)) in soils with the Topography Position Index (TPI). The highest T-SOCstock (50.10-905.20 t ha\({}^{-1}\)) was in the valley and on flat mountain areas. Low and intermediate slopes were characterized by a lower T-SOCstock (Figure 8).