Diversity of wet and mesic grasslands along a climatic gradient on the southern margin of the Pannonian Basin

Abstract

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Study of Forage Quality of Grasslands on the Southern Margin of the Pannonian Basin

“…The following types of wet to mesic semi-natural grasslands can be found in the region [2]: montane meadows (Triseto-Polygonion bistortae), semi-dry meadows (Salvio nemorosae-Arrhenatherion), mesic meadows (Arrhenatherion), mesic pastures (Cynosurion), mesic to wet meadows in the western part of the area (Alopecurion), wet oligotrophic meadows (Molinion), wet eutrophic meadows (Calthion), intermittent wet meadows (Deschampsion), mesic to wet meadows in the eastern part of the area (Tri-…”

“…The following types of wet to mesic semi-natural grasslands can be found in the region [2]: montane meadows (Triseto-Polygonion bistortae), semi-dry meadows (Salvio nemorosae-Arrhenatherion), mesic meadows (Arrhenatherion), mesic pastures (Cynosurion), mesic to wet meadows in the western part of the area (Alopecurion), wet oligotrophic meadows (Molinion), wet eutrophic meadows (Calthion), intermittent wet meadows (Deschampsion), mesic to wet meadows in the eastern part of the area (Trifolion pallidi), salt grasslands (Trifolion-Ranunculion pedati), wet fringe pastures (Mentho longifoliae-Junicion inflexi), wet fringe meadows (Filipendulio-Petasition), and wet pastures (Potentillon anserinae); we eliminated a rather aberrant and scarcely sampled group presenting as the vegetation of forest roads (Alchemillo-Ranunulion repentis). We extracted all of these vegetation types from the publicly available database, the European Vegetation Archive [10].…”

“…The majority of the plots date from the second half of the previous century. Grazing and mowing are practiced over the entire region [2]. The plots were sampled during May and at the beginning of June, when plants are in flower, allowing an easy estimation of their cover.…”

“…The elimination did not influence the results significantly [20]. We classified the plots into grassland types as suggested by Škvorc et al [2] and calculated the constant species in each type. In Table A1, we present the species that occurred in at least 60% of the vegetation plots of at least one type.…”

“…The category of anthropogenic managed pastures, meadows, and tall-herb meadow fringes on fertile deep soils at low and mid-altitudes of Europe (further on in the text, the term grasslands will be used for all of these vegetation types) includes wet and mesic meadows, managed pastures, and tall-herb meadow/pasture fringes in deeper or shallower soils. This vegetation type is widespread in the study area and is classified according to the Central European method in the class Molinio-Arrhenatheretea [1,2]. These habitats are among the most endangered, and their existence depends on human activities, such as hay production, grazing, or conservation efforts [3,4].…”