Changes in plant species richness at various spatial scales were investigated by manipulative experiment in mountain grasslands. The aim of the research was to compare changes in species richness in newly abandoned sites and sites where restoration measures were applied after 20 years of abandonment. The plots were located in two vegetation types with diVerent moisture regime. Species richness decreased signiWcantly after abandonment, mainly at the Wnest spatial scale of 10 £ 10 cm. There was signiWcant increase of species richness on restored sites, but it was apparent mainly at a larger scale. However, even 4 years of regular mowing were not suYcient to restore species richness to the level typical for traditionally managed grasslands in the region. No signiWcant diVerence was found in the performance of the 2 contrasting vegetation types (wet and dry) in relation to management measures. A signiWcant diVerence in scale-dependent species richness was only observed. The dry type had a steeper species-area curve, with a lower number of species at the Wnest spatial scale. According to the results of the experiment, mountain grasslands are very vulnerable habitats, losing their conservation value quickly after abandonment. Restoration is possible due to an extensive species pool in the region, but return to the original species richness at all spatial scales is quite a long process.

Question: How does species composition change in traditionally managed meadows after mowing has ceased, and in abandoned meadows after re-introduction of mowing? Are there differences in the dynamics of dry and moderately wet meadows?Location: Za´zriva´-Plesˇiva´(19111 0 N, 49116 0 E), north-western Slovakia, western Carpathians.Methods: Pairs of experimental plots (mown and unmown) were established to replicate each combination of dry/wet and traditionally managed/abandoned meadows. Changes in species composition were studied over 5 years. The data on changes in species composition was analysed by constrained and unconstrained ordinations, and visualized using Principal Response Curves.Results: Species composition of newly abandoned wet grasslands was changing towards the corresponding long-abandoned plots even in the first year of abandonment. Similarly, newly established restoration mowing in abandoned dry grasslands rapidly shifted the stand species composition towards that of traditionally managed ones. Nevertheless, 4 year after reintroduction of mowing, the species composition of the restored plots was still far from the target composition. The effect of mowing in abandoned wet grasslands and abandonment in dry grasslands was much less pronounced and slower.Conclusions: Moisture regime is a very important factor determining the management needs of various grassland types. Wet grasslands are much more sensitive to abandonment, with a rapid degradation rate and limited possibilities for restoration, which can be extremely slow. Even in the dry grasslands, that quickly responded to restoration mowing, restoration is a long-term process.

The management regime may have a significant impact on the productivity and dynamics of grasslands, but the causal relationships influencing grassland conservation value are still not completely understood. Changes of selected community characteristics, such as standing crop, proportion of forbs in the standing crop, litter amount, litter decomposition and seedling recruitment, were investigated in a 4 year manipulative experiment in a mountain grassland in Slovakia. The aim of the research was to compare changes in newly abandoned sites and sites where restoration measures were applied after 20 years of abandonment. The sites were located in areas containing two vegetation types of the Arrhenatherion alliance (wet Poo-Trisetetum and dry AnthoxanthoAgrostietum) with different moisture regimes. The expected increase of the standing crop after abandonment was rather slow, and more pronounced towards the end of the experiment, and in the wet meadow type (*30% increase). The restoration mowing promoted forb proportions in the biomass, but it did not decrease the standing biomass in the restored grasslands. Strong litter accumulation after abandonment was observed in subsequent years after abandonment, when the amount of litter increased about 100% in abandoned plots. Decrease in litter was also significant after the start of restoration mowing (a decrease from 258 to 159 g m -2 in wet type and from 287 to 147 g m -2 in dry type was noted). Accumulated litter was negatively correlated to seedling recruitment (r = -0.63 at the end of the experiment). The litterbag experiment showed that the wet type has a higher rate of decomposition, with 20% more biomass decomposed during the litter-bag experiment. The experiment confirmed a negative role of litter accumulation on seedling recruitment, with the number of seedlings per m 2 decreasing from 413 to 321 individuals in the abandoned wet-type site. This may lead to a decrease in species richness. Mowing along with raking of mowed biomass may be a useful tool to restore degraded mountain grasslands and to remove accumulated litter from the stands.

A strong windstorm in November 2004 resulted in a huge blown-down spruce forest area in the southern part of the Tatra National Park in the Western Carpathians in Slovakia, Central Europe. The aim of this work is to study the vegetation composition of spruce forest at differently managed sites four years after this disturbance. Four study areas were selected for this purpose: (i) an area where the fallen trees were extracted and new seedlings were planted; (ii) an area, which was hit by a forest fire after the extraction; (iii) an area where no active management was applied; (iv) a reference forest unaffected by such disturbance. A total of 100 plots were selected, 25 of each area type. The result of DCA and CCA analyses consistently indicated that after this short period the non-extracted and extracted areas are currently most similar to the reference forest area, while the fire affected area differed. A one-way ANOVA comparing species cover for the different plot sizes indicated some significant differences between the extracted and non-extracted plots. The abundance of certain species commonly occurring in spruce forests, such as Dyopteris carthusiana agg., Vaccinium myrtillus and Avenella flexuosa, correlated weli with the non-extracted plots, compared to the extracted plots. Coverage of these species was lowest on burned plots. The lowest Shannon-Wiener’s diversity values were recorded in burned plots. This was most likely a consequence of mono-dominant competitive species spread, (mainly Chamerion angustifolium) which profited from the altered ecological conditions following the fire. Although some differences were also registered in the Shannon-Wiener diversity index between the remaining research plots, however these were not statistically significant. The most important results of our investigations include the extensive influence of fire disturbance on vegetation. Study revealed that the wind-disturbed area is able to regenerate sufficiently without human intervention

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Orchids are one of the most species-rich families in the world, and many species are under threat in numerous countries. Biodiversity research focusing on the relationship between the richness of orchid species and ecological factors was performed across the Cerová vrchovina Mts (Western Carpathians) testing impact of 26 explanatory variables. We aimed to determine the main ecological predictors controlling species richness and to predict potential species richness patterns. Altogether, 19 orchid species were found in the studied area, with Cephalanthera damasonium and Epipactis microphylla being the most common. Four environmental predictors (minimal longitude, carbonate-containing sediments, maximal yearly solar irradiation, and agricultural land) had statistically significant effects on orchid richness following regression analysis. Predictive models for the nine most frequent species using MaxEnt software showed (i) that land cover and geological substrate had the highest contribution to the explained variance in the models and (ii) strong potential for occurrence of given orchids in several poorly mapped parts of the studied area.

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