Search

Aims: The relative importance of species within an ecosystem shows spatio‐temporal variability related to both the terrain features and numerous rapidly changing factors. Accordingly, functional and species patterns may show some level of persistence, or, due to various disturbances, fluctuations. Communities with high species richness were found to maintain a higher degree of stability than species‐poor or perturbed vegetations; however, diversity and its stability may be spatio‐temporally variable. Based on these considerations, our aim was to assess the responses of a sandy pasture, both species‐wise and at the community level, to the relatively invariant habitat, and to the more rapidly changing environmental conditions. Location: Hungary. Methods: We surveyed the vegetation in an area of about 1 ha by means of high‐resolution spatio‐temporal sampling: we recorded the surface aerial cover (%) of the plant species during 15 campaigns covering spring, summer and autumn aspects for seven years (2013–2019) in 80 × 60 m grids. The biological activity of the ecosystem (above‐ground biomass, soil respiration) was also followed up together with the environmental limiting factors. Results: During the study period, which was characterized by significant warming, the grassland showed a balanced physiological performance with year‐to‐year variability. Fluctuating differentiation of the plant species with different environmental optima along with the terrain attributes was assumed to be responsible for this balanced physiological performance. Although community‐level diversity remained stable, some species favoring cooler, wetter positions disappeared. Conclusions: Terrain features of the study area within 1.5 m or less elevation differences created considerably heterogeneous conditions for a high number (114) of plant species with different ecological needs to co‐occur. The stability of the diversity was found to show terrain relatedness, that is spatial as well as temporal patterns compared to the null model of spatio‐temporal independence, and the ecosystem functions followed these patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European temperate forest zone has great importance, in terms of maintaining the habitats of not only forests but also anthropogenous grasslands, which were formed as a result of habitat reconstruction. These habitats have great importance, by means of nature conservation, landscape use, economy, and forest and grassland use. The mosaic-like habitat complexes that consist of these grasslands and forest patches help to increase biodiversity and supply the habitat for forest game. In this survey, changes in the vegetation of the temperate forests (Fagetum) of the Mátra Mountains of Hungary were investigated after reconstruction. In 2012, shrub cutting was carried out in the area of Parádóhuta, and then three different management methods (abandoning, mowing, and grazing) were utilized. Our goals were the following: to perform a vegetation survey of the sample areas (i); surveying the natural regeneration of the grassland and analyzing its biodiversity, nature conservation, and economical value (ii); and analyzing the vegetation in terms of nature conservation and valuing its life form spectrum, economy values, and livestock-feeding ability (iii). According to our results, systematic mowing and a less-intensive grazing had a significantly positive effect on biodiversity and the coverage of species, thus increasing the naturalness of the studied grassland habitats, while wild game were able to act as ecological engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]