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Question European landscapes have long been influenced by intensifying use by humans. Although habitat restoration can reverse this process, it is often limited in scope by socioeconomic constraints. Here we present a grassland restoration project that is exceptional in spatial scale in Europe. Location A total area of 760 ha of arable land was restored in the Egyek-Pusztakocs unit (50 km2) of Hortobagy National Park, east Hungary, between 2005 and 2008. Methods Restoration targeted alkali steppes and loess grasslands by sowing seeds of either two (alkali) or three (loess) foundation grass species. In 2009, we surveyed the vegetation in restored and target grasslands and quantified the factors influencing restoration success in a space-for-time substitution design. Results We recorded 100 species of flowering plants, of which 37 species were non-weed, ‘target’ species. Annual weeds dominated 1-yr-old fields but had decreased dramatically by the third year due to a developing perennial grass cover. Former alfalfa fields had proportionally fewer weeds than former cereal and sunflower fields. The diversity of common species and the cover of target species increased from 1- to 4-yr-old restored fields. Alkali-restored fields had more heterogeneous vegetation and more species than loess-restored fields. Distance to the target vegetation did not directly affect vegetation variables. There was significant spatial variability in vegetation development, possibly suggesting several local pathways of succession. Conclusions Grassland restoration was generally successful in accelerating secondary succession towards alkali steppes and loess grasslands. However, further management is necessary to counter the homogenizing effects of litter accumulation, to reduce perennial weeds and to enhance the colonization of target species. Our project provides useful practical insights into grassland restoration and in applying restoration at a number of sites within a larger area to conserve biodiversity at the landscape scale.

Terrestrial isopods and millipedes, members of the invertebrate macro-decomposer guild, were collected through pitfall traps in three Swiss cities (Zurich, Lucerne, Lugano). A total of 7,198 individuals of 17 isopod species (7093 ind.), and 10 millipede species (105 ind.) were captured. Besides the Alpine endemic isopod (Trichoniscus alemannicus) and millipede (Cylindroiulus verhoeffi), urban assemblages were mainly composed of widespread, native European and even cosmopolitan species, which are frequent in anthropogenic areas. Overall species richness (isopods and millipedes combined) was similar in Zurich (17 species) and Lucerne (16), while only 13 species were sampled in Lugano. According to the Sørensen index of similarity, species composition of Zurich and Lucerne were more alike, while the one of Lugano was more distinct from the other two cities.This result can be explained by the spatial proximity of Zurich and Lucerne in the north of the Alps compared to Lugano, which is located more distantly and in the south of the Alps. Dominant isopods and millipedes in Zurich and Lucerne were found to be widespread synanthropic species in temperate Europe (Porcellio scaber, Trachelipus rathkii and Ophyiulus pilosus) while the dominant isopod in Lugano (Trachelipus razzautii) is a species with a north-eastern Mediterranean distribution. Our study reveals that the urban millipede and isopod fauna in Swiss cities mainly consists of widespread species, but species of narrower distribution (e.g. T. alemannicus, C. verhoeffi ) may also find suitable habitats in cities. Despite some signs of biotic homogenization, our study also found compositional differences of millipede and isopod assemblages between northern and southern cities that suggest geographical effects of the regional species pool.

We studied ground-dwelling spiders along a rural–suburban–urban forest gradient representing increasing human disturbance using pitfall traps. We tested four known and two novel hypotheses: (1) increasing disturbance hypothesis (species richness is decreasing by disturbance); (2) matrix species hypothesis (the richness of open-habitat species is increasing by disturbance); (3) opportunistic species hypothesis (the richness of generalist species is increasing by disturbance); and (4) habitat specialist hypothesis (the number of the forest specialist species is decreasing by disturbance). As a consequence of urbanization, urban forests become drier and more open; thus, according to the new hypotheses, the number of (5) xerophilous species and (6) light-preferring species are increasing in the urban area. Our result did not support the increasing disturbance hypothesis, as the overall species richness increased from the rural sites to the urban ones. As predicted, the number of both the open-habitat and the generalist species increased towards the urban sites. The number of forest specialist species was higher in the suburban area than in the rural and urban area. Both xerophilous and light-preferring species were the most numerous in the urban area, supporting the xerophilous species and the light-preferring species hypotheses. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that the forest specialist species associated with the rural sites with higher amounts of decaying woods and more herbs or with the suburban sites with higher cover of leaf litter and higher relative humidity. Two generalist species and one open-habitat species were characteristic of urban sites with higher ground surface and air temperature.

New data of millipedes from 92 sites in Northeastern Hungary are presented, based on the examination of more than 1300 individuals. The studied regions were the Zemplén Mountains and its surrounding plains, the Hernád valley and the Bodrogköz area. Altogether 25 millipede species were found, two Carpathian species are new to the fauna of Hungary: Leptoiulus liptauensis (Verhoeff, 1899) and Cylindroiulus burzenlandicus (Verhoeff, 1907). Remarkable and rare species for the Hungarian fauna are Trachysphaera costata (Waga, 1858) and Brachydesmus dadayi Verhoeff, 1895.

A crucial question in ecological restoration is whether target species that are missing from aboveground vegetation are represented in the seed bank. We evaluated the role of persistent seed banks in the restoration of species richness, and the relative value of managed and unmanaged grasslands, by studying closely located and floristically similar mown and abandoned stands of fen and dry-mesophilous meadows. We found that a higher proportion of the target species detected in aboveground vegetation possessed persistent seed banks in fen meadows than in dry-mesophilous ones (44 and 29%, respectively). The proportion of target species found exclusively in the seed bank was much lower (11% for both meadow types). Conversely, common rushes (Juncus conglomeratus and J. effusus), mostly missing from the vegetation, dominated the seed banks in all fen meadow plots (50–94% of total seed densities) and were also detected in seed banks of dry-mesophilous meadows. We found that resumed mowing on previously abandoned meadows has promoted species richness and the flowering success of several species in comparison with unmanaged ones in both meadow types. Vegetation type had a stronger influence on seed bank richness and density than management status and we detected much higher seed bank densities in fen meadows (64,000–94,000 seeds/m2) than in dry-mesophilous ones (4,400–6,300 seeds/m2). Therefore, restoration of former richness could not be based exclusively on the local seed banks in the studied meadow types. Further management, such as hay transfer or seeding of target species, is required to increase species richness.

In this study, atmospheric aerosol concentration levels in two schools (a primary and a secondary grammar) and a kindergarten were investigated. The selected institutions are located close to the center of Debrecen, where the traffic density is rather high. Coarse and fine mass concentrations (PM), elemental composition and mass size distributions were determined in the selected microenvironments. These were different classrooms, school yards, gymnasiums, a computer lab, a chemical lab and a so-called salt room. The elemental composition (for Z ≥ 13) was determined by PIXE. In all cases, the coarse concentrations of PM were found to be higher inside the educational buildings than in the outer air. In every case, the indoor PM10 concentrations exceeded the EU air quality standard. The fine and coarse elemental concentrations did not exhibit marked variability in the selected microenvironments. On the basis of the mass size distribution, we found significant differences between the two rooms of the kindergarten. On the basis of the mass size distribution data, a stochastic lung deposition model was used to calculate the total and regional deposition efficiencies of the different types of particles along the human respiratory system. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Intensification of land use in the last few decades resulted in an increased rate of fragmentation of natural forest habitats. With decreased patch size but increased total borderline length the influence of the surroundings also increased. The extent of influence is especially crucial where the forest stands are adjacent to agricultural lands. We studied the vegetation (cover) and seed bank (soil samples, seedling emergence) along adjacent stands of an abandoned vineyard and edge and interior of an oak forest community (Quercetum petraeae-cerris) widespread in Central-Europe, using five transects (16 m2 plots along each transect). We asked the following questions: (i) How do vegetation and seed bank composition differ between the vineyard and forest interior and (ii) which weeds are able to penetrate into the forest herbaceous understorey vegetation and seed banks from the vineyard? In total, 15 phanaerophytes and 147 herbs were detected. Negatively associated with canopy shading, herb cover proved the lowest in the forest inferior. Few weeds and other ruderals recorded in vineyard penetrated into the forest interior. Mean seed density decreased one order of magnitude from the vineyard to the forest interior (from 20,831 to 2,159 seed/m2). The seed banks of the abandoned vineyard and edge and forest interior were dominated by ruderals, but decreasing proportion of weeds was detected from the vineyard to the forest interior. Characteristic forest herbs possessed at most sparse seed banks. Our results suggest that high canopy cover mitigates the negative impact of surrounding weedy vegetation on the forest herb layer. Therefore, the effect of surroundings is detectable mostly in the seed banks. We can assume that the formation of an increased ruderal herb cover can be foreseen if canopy opens, because the local propagule sources of forest species are missing from vegetation and soil seed banks.

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Agricultural intensification threatens grasslands worldwide and the restoration of grasslands from arable lands can at least partially counter this threat. We studied grassland restoration by following early successional changes of arthropod assemblages (spiders, Araneae; true bugs, Heteroptera; orthopterans, Orthoptera; and ground beetles, Carabidae) on 1- and 2-year-old restorations using arable lands and native grasslands as two ends of the succession timescale. To examine the changes in species composition among the habitat types, we used habitat affinity indices based on fidelity and/or specificity of the species. We found that the number of species did not differ between habitat types, while species composition changed markedly with time. Species richness was thus not adequate to detect favorable changes after grassland restoration. Habitat affinity indices, on the other hand, were useful to detect compositional changes caused by the increasing numbers of species characteristic of target grasslands as early as the second year after restoration. Habitat affinity indices are easy-to-use, easy-to-interpret measures of restoration success; therefore, we recommend their use as measures complementary to species richness and simple similarity. Our results show that sowing low-diversity seed mixture followed by mowing and grazing can be particularly successful in grassland restoration in time periods as short as 2 years.

Phosphatase enzymes are capable of releasing phosphate through cleavage of phosphoester bonds. The seasonal importance of this process was examined by using a model substrate paranitrophenylphosphate and the Michaelis-Menten equation to estimate the release rate of PO 4 -P from phosphomonoesters. The seasonal occurrence of phosphomonoesters and acid phosphatase activity was used to estimate the velocity of phosphate release from these compounds. Filter fractionation of phosphatase activity demonstrated that most activity (60%) was in size fractions less than 0.45 microm. The release rates were highest in May and June (15 to 25 nmol L -1 min -1 ) during the Gonyostomum semen (Raphidophyta) bloom and decreased to less than 2 nmol L -1 min -1 in two weeks and remained low throughout the summer and the fall. Fractionation of 32 P-H 3 PO 4 labelled dissolved organic phosphorus showed this fraction to vary considerably through the year. Potential phosphate release declined through the summer and into the fall. Significance of the co-occurrence of phosphomonoesters and acid phosphatase activity maxima and Gonyostomum semen (Raphidophyta) bloom is discussed.

Past and present pressures on forest resources have led to a drastic decrease in the surface area of unmanaged forests in Europe. Changes in forest structure, composition, and dynamics inevitably lead to changes in the biodiversity of forest-dwelling species. The possible biodiversity gains and losses due to forest management (i.e., anthropogenic pressures related to direct forest resource use), however, have never been assessed at a pan-European scale. We used meta-analysis to review 49 published papers containing 120 individual comparisons of species richness between unmanaged and managed forests throughout Europe. We explored the response of different taxonomic groups and the variability of their response with respect to time since abandonment and intensity of forest management. Species richness was slightly higher in unmanaged than in managed forests. Species dependent on forest cover continuity, deadwood, and large trees (bryophytes, lichens, fungi, saproxylic beetles) and carabids were negatively affected by forest management. In contrast, vascular plant species were favored. The response for birds was heterogeneous and probably depended more on factors such as landscape patterns. The global difference in species richness between unmanaged and managed forests increased with time since abandonment and indicated a gradual recovery of biodiversity. Clearcut forests in which the composition of tree species changed had the strongest effect on species richness, but the effects of different types of management on taxa could not be assessed in a robust way because of low numbers of replications in the management-intensity classes. Our results show that some taxa are more affected by forestry than others, but there is a need for research into poorly studied species groups in Europe and in particular locations. Our meta-analysis supports the need for a coordinated European research network to study and monitor the biodiversity of different taxa in managed and unmanaged forests.

Effects of urbanization on ground-dwelling spiders (Araneae) were studied using pitfall traps along an urban-suburban–rural forest gradient in Debrecen (Hungary). We found that overall spider species richness was significantly higher in the urban sites compared to the suburban and rural ones. The increased diversity was due to the significantly more open-habitat species in the assemblages at the urban sites. This suggests that species from the surrounding matrix (grasslands and arable lands) penetrated the disturbed urban sites. The ratio of forest species was significantly higher in the rural sites than in the suburban and urban ones, suggesting that forest species are indeed sensitive to the disturbance caused by urbanization. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that the species composition changed remarkably along the urbanization gradient. Open-habitat spiders were associated with the urban sites of higher ground and air temperature. Forest spiders were characteristic of the rural sites with higher amount of decaying woods. Our findings suggest that the overall diversity was not the most appropriate indicator of disturbance; species with different habitat affinity should be analyzed separately to get an ecologically relevant picture of the effect of urbanization.

We studied the early vegetation dynamics in former croplands (sunflower and cereal fields) sown with a low-diversity seed mixture (composed of 2 native grass species) in Egyek-Pusztakocs, Hortobagy National Park, East-Hungary. The percentage cover of vascular plants was recorded in 4 permanent plots per field on 7 restored fields between 2006 and 2009. Ten aboveground biomass samples per field were also collected in June in each year. We addressed two questions: (i) How do seed sowing and annual mowing affect the species richness, biomass and cover of weeds? (ii) How fast does the cover of sown grasses develop after seed sowing? Weedy species were characteristic in the first year after sowing. In the second and third year their cover and species richness decreased. From the second year onwards the cover of perennial grasses increased. Spontaneously immigrating species characteristic to the reference grasslands were also detected with low cover scores. Short-lived weeds were suppressed as their cover and biomass significantly decreased during the study. The amount of litter and sown grass biomass increased progressively. However, perennial weed cover, especially the cover of Cirsium arvense increased substantially. Our results suggest that grassland vegetation can be recovered by sowing low diversity mixtures followed up by yearly mowing. Suppression of perennial weed cover needs more frequent mowing (multiple times a year) or grazing.

Fine (aerodynamic diameter Further investigation of samples characterized with high Cl content were done on the ATOMKI Scanning Nuclear Microprobe Facility in order to determine the possible chemical composition of these particles and thus the potential sources. Morphology, size and elemental composition for Z ⩾ 6 of around 1000 coarse mode particles were determined by using STIM (Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy), light-element PIXE and PIXE analytical methods. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on the obtained dataset in order to group the particles; correlations between different elements were also calculated. Five possible sources of Cl were identified, from which four were anthropogenic: winter salting of streets, agriculture through fertilizers, buildings and industry; the natural group was sea-salt.

Without robust and unbiased systems for monitoring, changes in natural systems will remain enigmatic for policy makers, leaving them without a clear idea of the consequences of any environmental policies they might adopt. Generally, biodiversity-monitoring activities are not integrated or evaluated across any large geographic region. The EuMon project conducted the first large-scale evaluation of monitoring practices in Europe through an on-line questionnaire and is reporting on the results of this survey. In September 2007 the EuMon project had documented 395 monitoring schemes for species, which represents a total annual cost of about 4 million euro, involving more than 46,000 persons devoting over 148,000 person-days/year to biodiversity-monitoring activities. Here we focused on the analysis of variations of monitoring practices across a set of taxonomic groups (birds, amphibians and reptiles, mammals, butterflies, plants, and other insects) and across 5 European countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland). Our results suggest that the overall sampling effort of a scheme is linked with the proportion of volunteers involved in that scheme. Because precision is a function of the number of monitored sites and the number of sites is maximized by volunteer involvement, our results do not support the common belief that volunteer-based schemes are too noisy to be informative. Just the opposite, we believe volunteer-based schemes provide relatively reliable data, with state-of-the-art survey designs or data-analysis methods, and consequently can yield unbiased results. Quality of data collected by volunteers is more likely determined by survey design, analytical methodology, and communication skills within the schemes rather than by volunteer involvement per se.

The effects of size, isolation and grazing intensity on spider assemblages were studied in the fragments of sandy grasslands (East Hungary, Nyirseg). Spiders were sampled by sweep-netting at eight different-sized grassland fragments between 2001 and 2003 from April to October fortnightly. The following hypotheses were tested: (i) the rules of classical island biogeography are assessed for grassland fragments: the number of species increases with the size and decreases with the isolation of the fragment. (ii) Species richness of spiders decreases by the intensity of grazing. (iii) Grazing may have a negative influence on the large, web-builder spiders and on the diurnal hunters associated to the vegetation. During the 3-year study period, 3842 spider specimens belonging to 90 species were collected from the eight sandy grassland fragments. We found no significant relationship for the size and isolation of grassland fragments neither with the number of species nor the number of vegetation-dwelling species, species associated with sandy soils, and with the vegetation-dwelling species specific to sandy area. Our result suggests that even the small fragments had a relatively large species pool. There was a positive correlation of the average height of vegetation as a measure of grazing intensity with the total number of spider species, as well as with the number of vegetation-dwelling species, species associated with sandy soils, and also with the number of vegetation-dwelling species specific to sandy area. By indicator species analysis (IndVal) we found that the grazing had a negative influence on the large, web-builder spiders and also those diurnal hunters, which were associated to the vegetation.

A high-resolution paleolimnological record from Lake Brazi (TDB-1; 45°23’47″N, 22°54’06″E, 1740 m a.s.l.), a small, glacial lake in the Retezat (South Carpathian Mountains, Romania) provides a sensitive record of the impacts of late glacial climatic change on siliceous algal assemblages. The sequence, ranging from 15,700 cal yr BP to 9500 cal yr BP, suggests that the most significant changes in diatom assemblages took place at 12,800 and 10,400 cal yr BP, when alkaliphilous fragilarioid taxa were replaced by acidophilous diatoms. Altogether eight zones were distinguished with sharp and rapid changes of diatom assemblages. The paper discusses the application of siliceous algae in multi-proxy paleolimnological analyses, demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of this proxy and presents the story of floristic discovery of unique diatom assemblages, the closest recent analogs of which are found in the arctic region.

Background: The extraordinary diversification of angiosperm plants in the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods has produced an estimated 250,000–300,000 living angiosperm species and has fundamentally altered terrestrial ecosystems. Interactions with animals as pollinators or seed dispersers have long been suspected as drivers of angiosperm diversification, yet empirical examples remain sparse or inconclusive. Seed dispersal by ants (myrmecochory) may drive diversification as it can reduce extinction by providing selective advantages to plants and can increase speciation by enhancing geographical isolation by extremely limited dispersal distances. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using the most comprehensive sister-group comparison to date, we tested the hypothesis that myrmecochory leads to higher diversification rates in angiosperm plants. As predicted, diversification rates were substantially higher in ant-dispersed plants than in their non-myrmecochorous relatives. Data from 101 angiosperm lineages in 241 genera from all continents except Antarctica revealed that ant-dispersed lineages contained on average more than twice as many species as did their non-myrmecochorous sister groups. Contrasts in species diversity between sister groups demonstrated that diversification rates did not depend on seed dispersal mode in the sister group and were higher in myrmecochorous lineages in most biogeographic regions. Conclusions/Significance: Myrmecochory, which has evolved independently at least 100 times in angiosperms and is estimated to be present in at least 77 families and 11 000 species, is a key evolutionary innovation and a globally important driver of plant diversity. Myrmecochory provides the best example to date for a consistent effect of any mutualism on largescale diversification.

International audience; Halting the loss of biodiversity comes along with the need to quantify biodiversity composition and dynamics at large spatial and temporal scales. Highly standardized, international monitoring networks would be ideal, but they do not exist yet. If we are to assess changes in biodiversity now, combining output available from ongoing monitoring initiatives is the only option. However, integration of biodiversity information across schemes is still very poorly developed. In this paper, we outline practical issues to be considered when planning to combine existing monitoring information. First, we provide an overview of avenues for integration along the four dimensions that characterize a monitoring design: sample size, biological coverage, spatial coverage and temporal coverage. We also emphasize that complementarity in monitoring targets across schemes enables to describe complex processes of biodiversity dynamics, e.g. through relating species traits to the impacts of environmental changes. Second, we review some methods to overcome differences in designs among monitoring schemes, such as site selection, post-stratification and measurement error. Finally, we point out some commonly used statistical methods that are at hand for combining data or parameter estimates. We especially emphasize the possible levels of data integration (raw data, parameter estimates, or effect size estimates), and the largely under-exploited potential of meta-analysis methods and weighted analyses. This contribution aims to bolster the practice and use of integration of ongoing monitoring initiatives for biodiversity assessment.

The activity–density pattern of frequent carabid species was studied using pitfall traps in forest patches along an urbanisation gradient defined in terms of the ratio of the built-up area to the natural habitat. We predicted that the activity–density of the forest specialist carabid species should decrease from rural sites to the more altered urban ones. We also predicted, that there is no unique pattern for the generalist species, because the activity–density pattern is controlled by their autecological characteristics in a complex interaction with the environmental variables, and urbanisation/disturbance level. Moreover, we identified the environmental factors responsible for the observed variation in carabid activity–density. As predicted, the activity–density of two forest specialist species (Carabus convexus, Pterostichus oblongopunctatus) decreased significantly from rural sites to urban ones. The activity–density of the generalist species, Amara convexior, was higher in the heavily disturbed urban sites. The generalist species, Ophonus nitidulus, was significantly more abundant in the rural sites. The other five frequent generalist species (Notiophilus rufipes, Pterostichus melanarius, Harpalus luteicornis, Pterostichus niger, Stomis pumicatus) showed no significant changes in activity–density along the gradient. The two open-habitat species (Anisodactylus nemorivagus, Bembidion lampros) also showed no significant changes in activity–density along the gradient. Canonical correspondence analysis highlighted that the variation in the activity–density of the studied species was related to the following environmental factors: ground temperature, air temperature, relative humidity, leaf-litter cover, cover of decaying wood material, herbs, shrubs, and to the amount of prey items. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The abundance of terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscidea) was evaluated along an urban-suburban-rural gradient. We tested two hypotheses regarding the response of species: (i) habitat specialist hypothesis, according to which the abundance of the forest specialists would increase, while the abundance of the urban environment specialist isopods would decrease along the urban-rural gradient, and (ii) opportunistic species hypothesis (abundance of the generalist species would increase by increasing level of urbanization). The abundance of the forest specialist isopod Trachelipus ratzeburgii increased significantly along the studied gradient. An opposite tendency was observed for the abundance of the urban environment specialist isopod Porcellio scaber, as it was significantly higher in the urban area than in the suburban and rural sites. One generalist species (Trachelipus rathkii) gained dominance in the urban area, while other two generalists (Armadillidium vulgare and Porcellium collicola) showed no significant changes in abundance along the gradient.