Changes in segetal vegetation in the Borská nížina Lowland (Slovakia) over 50 years

Abstract

This article reports changes in the segetal vegetation in the Borská nížina Lowland (Western Slovakia) over 50 years. The study was based on phytosociological relevés obtained by Krippelová in the years 1949-1955, as well as our own recent data from the years [2002][2003][2004][2005][2006]. Using ordination and statistical methods, structural and floristic changes to four associations recorded in the area in both time periods were evaluated: Veronicetum trilobae-triphyllidi, ConsolidoAnthemidetum austriacae, Echinochloo-Setarietum pumilae and Setario viridis-Erigeronetum canadensis. These plant communities are found in arable fields or young fallows. In some of these communities the proportion of invasive species, as well as archaeophytes and native species, has increased. Some agricultural practices (like fertilization and liming) support the spread of nitrophilous and calcareous species. Several ruderal species and herbicide-resistant species have expanded in the fields. In all studied associations the proportion of nutrient-demanding species has increased. Some rare and threatened species have declined or disappeared, but some threatened species that are missing from historical material are now present. However, the changes detected are not as substantial as expected based on data from other countries.

Reviewing change in the arable flora of Europe: a meta‐analysis

“…As effective seed cleaning processes have been implemented, seeds of arable weeds are no longer spread onto fields via crop seed in the same amounts as historically (Van Elsen, ). Agricultural practices have also altered, due to changes in political settings, for example in many countries of Eastern Europe (Bouma et al ., ; Májeková et al ., ), where farmers now have greater flexibility in regard to farm management than they had before due to the changes in the political system. Since the 1930s, field sizes increased together with a general impoverishment of structural elements (e.g.…”

Methods to conduct and analyse weed surveys in arable farming: a review

“…It shows a decreasing abundance and diversity of weeds from the beginning of wide applications of herbicides and levelling of site conditions until the 1980s but often increasing weed abundances during the last two decades due to herbicide reduction programmes, structural changes and a partial reversal of intensification (Andreasen et al 1996;Hyvönen et al 2003;Miloanova et al 2007;Kapeluszny and Haliniarz 2007;Novák et al 2009). However, this increase is rarely related to weed species of conservational value but usually involves higher proportions of problematic perennial and monocotyledonous species (Hyvönen et al 2003;Novák et al 2009;Potts et al 2010;Pinke et al 2011), higher abundances of generalist species that are common in all crops (Fried et al 2010), nitrophilous weeds and weeds adapted to dense vegetation stands (Lososová et al 2008;Šilc et al 2009;Májeková et al 2010).…”

“…In some papers, agronomic purposes are linked with targets of vegetation sciences, pronounced in, e.g. Hidalgo et al (1990), Sutcliffe and Kay (2000), Lososová et al (2004Lososová et al ( , 2006b), Pinke and Pál (2008), Šilc et al (2008) and Májeková et al (2010). Those were filtered for interesting applications of different methods in both conducting and analysing weed surveys.…”

“…The interpretation of ordination results in indirect methods such as CA or DCA (abbreviations see Table 2) can be simplified by a posteriori and passively projecting the effects of explanatory variables onto the ordination diagram which is widely used (e.g. Cimalová and Lososová 2009;Šilc et al 2009;Májeková et al 2010). However, canonical methods go one step further as they include the possibility to compute the respective importance of environmental factors both as gross effect and, by applying partial ordination (e.g.…”

“…Biodiversity is linked to weed diversity and abundances at different spatial (Firbank et al 1998;Fried et al 2008) and temporal scales (Hallgren et al 1999;Lososová et al 2004;Májeková et al 2010).…”