Impact of Land Use Changes on the Diversity and Conservation Status of the Vegetation of Mountain Grasslands (Polish Carpathians)

Abstract

In recent decades, in the Polish Carpathians, agriculture has undergone major changes. Our goal was to investigate whether the former management (plowing or mowing and grazing) had an impact on the current species composition, diversity and conservation status of the vegetation of grazing areas. We carried out vegetation studies on 45 grazing sites with traditional methods of grazing (transhumant pastoralism). The survey covered both old (continuous) grasslands and grasslands on former arable land. The most widespread were Cynosurion pastures and mesic Arrhenatherion grasslands. Wet Calthion meadows occurred at more than a half of grazing sites, while nutrient-poor Nardetalia grasslands were only recorded at several grazing sites. For each grazing site, we used soil maps from the 1960s to read land use in the past. We mapped present grassland and arable land area. Compared with the 1960s, there was a significant decrease in the area of arable land and an increase in grasslands. Species diversity was greater in grazing sites where grasslands developed on former arable land. However, this diversity was associated mainly with the occurrence of common grassland species. Cynosurion pastures and wet Calthion meadows had the best conservation status, while nutrient-poor Nardetalia grasslands were the worst preserved. We concluded that the conservation status of mesic grasslands and pastures is dependent on the present diversity of land use within a grazing site, rather than the land use history 60 years ago. This is the first study of the natural, not economic, value of pasture vegetation in the Polish part of the Carpathians.

Isophya modesta Frivaldszky, 1868 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): a new bush-cricket species in Poland

“…The grasslands occupied by I. modesta differed in plant species composition compared to meadows most commonly found in this part of the Carpathians (Barabasz-Krasny & Sołtys-Lelek 2010, Kucharzyk 2010, Zarzycki et al 2022). The overall insular range of I. modesta may have resulted from the fragmentation of a continuous range at the end of the last glaciation, when steppic and forest-steppe habitats were much more common (Pokorný et al 2015).…”

“…The Western Carpathians form a natural border between the forest zone of Northern Europe and the forest-steppe zone of the Pannonian Basin; thus, besides specifically mountainous species, they also harbour some thermophilous species 2020) and may be the first region of Poland reached by southern orthoptera species expanding their ranges (Żurawlew et al 2021). Carpathian grasslands harbour a high diversity of different groups of organisms, from plants (Zarzycki et al 2022) to rare vertebrates (Munteanu et al 2018), which makes their protection an important conservation goal. To enable the successful protection of this unique fauna, it is important to study the species composition of this biogeographical region, especially in terms of endemic Orthoptera species.…”

Analyzing the Evolution of Land-Use Changes Related to Vegetation, in the Galicia Region, Spain: From 1990 to 2018

“…Land-Use depends on numerous factors, including population, economic status, infrastructure, industrial activities, geographic conditions, land development policies, etc. [15,17] and impacts numerous parameters, including flood risk, landslide probability, biodiversity, urban climate, hydrological processes, and pollution [15,[17][18][19][20].…”

Features of Natural Succession of Ex-Arable Forest Steppe Grassland (from Western Romania) under the Influence of Climate

“…Some assumptions claiming that at worldwide level in about the last 40 years already lost about a third from the total arable land, mainly due to soil erosion and pollution [ 1 , 2 ]. Other reasons for the abandonment of the arable land in the northern hemisphere are the location of the fields in hill and mountain areas, fragmentation and transition of the ownership from public to private (e.g., in the former communist countries) [ 3 , 4 , 5 ], population migration from rural to urban areas [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], etc. Thus, the restoration of ex-arable land as successional secondary grassland [ 4 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] is one of the ways of successful recovery of the economical, ecological and even social functions [ 3 , 10 , 13 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] of these land surfaces.…”

“…The great importance of the ex-arable land reclamation by turning it in grassland consists in numerous advantages. The restored ex-arable grassland provides conservation of biodiversity at the landscape level [ 16 , 20 , 21 ], is a cheap forage/biomass resource [ 3 , 17 , 18 , 22 ], provides ecological services [ 6 , 7 , 12 , 16 , 19 , 23 ], enhances carbon sequestration in soil [ 1 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ], is a genetic pool of biodiversity [ 13 , 18 ] and provides habitat and refuge for wild fauna [ 6 , 16 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], etc.…”