Highlights 23 extensive grazing by cattle, sheep and pigs has decreased since the 1940s 24 the number of habitat types used by cattle and pigs decreased significantly 25 use of non-pasture grassland habitats decreased, especially the use of stubbles 26 agricultural and conservation policies should cover all grazeable habitat types 27 sustainable extensive grazing need cooperation between various knowledge systems 28 *Manuscript Click here to view linked References Abstract 29Many habitats in Europe have been managed by grazing for thousands of years. However, 30 extensive grazing systems are becoming increasingly rare in the region, and there is a lack of 31 understanding of the functioning of these systems. 32We carried out 147 structured interviews in 38 landscapes throughout the Carpathian Basin, with 3-33 5 informants/landscape. The number of actively grazing cattle, sheep and pigs, their year-round habitat 34 use and the proportion of herds actively tended were documented for four characteristic historical 35 periods (before, during and after socialist co-operatives and after EU Accession). We conclude that agricultural policies should take into account the full spectrum of habitat types 49 necessary for the effective operation of extensive grazing systems. We argue that conservation-50 oriented extensive grazing should use the traditional wisdom of herders but adapted to the present 51 situations. 52 53
Broader understanding of stakeholders' perceptions of landscape changes is needed to cope with global environmental challenges locally. In this study, farmers' and conservationists'-researchers' perceptions of landscape changes were compared by analyzing interviews conducted in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve region of Hungary through a combined quantitative and qualitative approach. Perceptions concerning the trends of changes (increasing or decreasing), as well as evaluations (positive and negative) of 40 different landscape elements were analyzed. The quantitative analysis consisted of landscape elements of different native and alien plant and animal species, natural habitats, and types of land use. For a qualitative analysis, one landscape element, the tussock sedge beds, a type of wetland habitat, was chosen. According to the quantitative analysis, the two groups held similar views on trends. However, their evaluations differed substantially. The most significant differences appeared between the two groups in cases where land use and biodiversity goals were in competition, e.g., abandonment and non-native plantations. Changes causing both decline of biodiversity and the fading of the cultural landscapes were seen similarly negatively by the two groups, e.g., disappearance of lakes, spread of invasive plants, expansion of wild boar. However, quantitative analysis also showed that conservationists-researchers had higher consensus, while farmers were much more diverse in their evaluations. Qualitative analysis explored the reasons for these differences. Although conservationists-researchers shared eco-centric values, farmers evaluated landscape changes heterogeneously based on individual constellations of economic interest, cultural values, and their sense of responsibility for nature. Our study, with the combined application of quantitative and qualitative analyses, provides new understandings of both between-group and within-group differences and similarities of farmers' and conservationists'-researchers' landscape change perceptions.
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a key soil quality property, indicative of the organic matter stored in the soil, which may also be a function of temporal variation. This study examines whether DOM is a robust property of the soil, controlling fertility, or if it may change with time. Altogether eight sets of soil samples were collected in 2018 and 2019 from the cultivated topsoil (0–10 cm) of cropland and from a nearby grassland near Martonvásár, Hungary. The study sites were characterized by Chernozem soil and were part of a long-term experimental project comparing the effects of manure application and fertilization to the control under maize and wheat monocultures. DOM was extracted from the samples with distilled water. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total dissolved nitrogen (DN), biological index (BIX), fluorescence index (FI), humification index (HIX), carbon nitrogen (C/N) ratio and specific ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (SUVA254) index were studied in the arable soils, and the results showed that all the DOM samples were humified, suggesting relevant microbiological contributions to the decomposition of OM and its conversion into more complex molecules (FI = 1.2–1.5, BIX = ~0.5, and HIX = ~0.9). Temporal variations were detected only for the permanent grassland where higher DOM concentration was found in spring. This increased DOM content mainly originated from humified, solid phase associated, recalcitrant OM. In contrast, there were no differences among fertilization treatments and sampling dates under cropfield conditions. Moreover, climatic conditions were not proven as a general ruler of DOM properties. Therefore, momentary DOM alone is not necessarily the direct property of soil organic matter under cropfield conditions. The application of this measure needs further details of sampling conditions to achieve adequate comparability.
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