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The landscapes and, implicitly, the surfaces of secondary grasslands in the mountain areas have been intensively modified and transformed by humans. In this context, this paper analyses the spatial and temporal changes of grassland surfaces following the impact of human population reduction. Thus, the study proposes the implementation of the Grassland Anthropic Impact Index (GAII) as a "measurement tool" to functionally link the two components, grassland surface and human population. The spatiotemporal analyses are based on Corine Land Cover data and demographic data, processed via Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods and the Land Change Modeler (LCM) tool. The research shows that over a period of 28 years, the population, which was continuously decreasing, caused a series of transformations to the grasslands over an area of 33343 ha. The influence of the reduction in the number of inhabitants was also demonstrated by the direction of the changes produced in the grassland surfaces: in the better populated areas, the grasslands expanded over lands with other uses, and in the sparsely populated areas, they were abandoned. GAII values generally increase with the decrease of the population in the target area, meaning that for an inhabitant (potential user) a greater grassland surface is reported, resulting in a greater responsibility for the management of this resource on a space and time scale. Following the evaluation of the trend of the last 28 years, it was observed that the depopulation of mountain areas can be seen as a threat to grassland ecosystems, either through the transition to other categories of use, or through abandonment. The implications of these phenomena are much broader: they produce chain reactions and affect other components of the regional geosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to assess the impact of using specific teaching tools to students regarding the role and functions of the grassland ecosystem so that they understand the functioning of this ecosystem without anthropogenic intervention. It is important for students to know the role, structure and functioning of this ecosystem because it is one of the richest resources of semi-natural grassland still existing in Europe. These are classified as grasslands with high natural value and high biodiversity. In the sciences of life or biology, we can say that phenomena are understood by students when they can operate with the knowledge acquired in contexts other than those presented in the lesson. Also, in biology lessons we must also focus on what is useful for the further development and activity of the individual. In order to illustrate and explain the grassland ecosystem so that the students can understand and retain it, a division of methods was used, with an informational-operational, but especially participatory-nonparticipatory weight. As a case study, the present paper tried to approach the educational process, life, practical activity. The training through the case mediates a confrontation with a real life situation, authentic, taken as a typical representative example for a general state of affairs. The direct results obtained were analyzed by the increased interest of the students in the lesson about the grassland ecosystem due to the multiple attraction systems generated by its functions as landscape, habitat for rare species of animals and plants, present near houses in the form of lawn, etc. We can appreciate that in the future the presentation of lesson topics in attractive interactive forms will both as a teaching method and as content will contribute to increasing the interest of the students towards the school but you have chosen the life sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research was carried out in the Banat plain area, characterized by the uneven distribution of rainfall during the vegetation period. The experimental device applied included three types of simple mixtures (Lolium perenne 50% + Festuca pratensis 50%, Lolium perenne 50% + Trifolium repens 50%, Lolium perenne 50% + Lotus corniculatus 50%) and a complex mixture (Lolium perenne 30% + Festuca pratensis 30% + Trifolium repens 20% + Lotus corniculatus 20%) used both by mowing and grazing directly with sheep. The fertilization was carried out uniformly, at all experimental variants (200 kg/ha of complex fertilizers was applied at the establishment, and during the vegetation a dose of N150 was applied in fractions, before the vegetation started and after each mowing or grazing cycle). The grazing variants was carried out with young males sheep of Ţurcana breed. The floral composition of temporary grassland reacts differently to the valorification methods (mowing and grazing) because the morphological and ecophysical peculiarities of the grass and legume species are different. In case of simple mixtures, Lolium perenne is very competitive in blends with Festuca pratensis with a share of 52% in mowed variants, and 73% in grazing variants. Perennial grasses and legumes used for the simple and complex mixtures were: Timis 81 (Lolium perenne), Tampa (Festuca pratensis), Danitim (Trifolium repens), Dragotim (Lotus corniculatus). In the two years of production, the complex blend recorded the highest production of dry matter, in both uses, under conditions of balanced floral ratio between the component species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Dynamic of Hill Grassland Floristic Composition in Spring on the Effects of Fertilizers," by Alexandru Moisuc and colleagues is presented.