The Romanian Grassland Database (RGD): historical                     background, current status and future perspectives

Vassilev, Kiril; Ruprecht, Eszter; Alexiu, Valeriu; Becker, Thomas; Beldean, Monica; Biță‐Nicolae, Claudia; Csergő, Anna Mária; Dzhovanova, Iliana; Filipova, Eva; Frink, József Pál; Gafta, Dan; Georgieva, Mariya; Germany, Markus S.; Goia, Irina; Gumus, Media; Hennekens, S.M.; Janišová, Monika; Knollová, Ilona; Koleva, Viktoriya; Kostadinova, Sofia; Kuzmanović, Nevena; Loos, Jacqueline; Mardari, Constantin; Michl, Thomas; Neblea, Monica; Nicoară, Roxana; Novák, Pavel; Öllerer, Kinga; Onete, Marilena; Palpurina, Salza; Paulini, Inge; Pedashenko, Hristo; Pușcaș, Mihai; Roman, Anamaria; Šibík, Jozef; Sirbu, Culita; Stancu, Daniela Ileana; Sutcliffe, Laura M. E.; Szabó, Anna; Tomescu, Cezar-Valentin; Totev, Evelin; Tsvetanov, Borislav; Turtureanu, Pavel Dan; Vassileva, Plamena; Velev, Nikolay; Dengler, Jürgen

doi:10.1127/phyto/2017/0229

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Most data were obtained from large vegetation-plot databases (e.g. Chytrý & Rafajová 2003, Aćić et al 2012, Dengler & Rusiņa 2012, Jandt & Bruelheide 2012, Jansen et al 2012, Kuzemko 2012, Vassilev et al 2018, accessed via the European Vegetation Archive (EVA; . A smaller amount of data was directly provided by co-authors or computerized from literature (see Electronic Appendix 1 for a complete list of the sources).…”

Section: Data Setmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formalized classification of semi-dry grasslands in central and eastern Europe

Willner¹,

Roleček²,

Korolyuk³

et al. 2019

Preslia

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S. (2019) Formalized classification of semi-dry grasslands in central and eastern Europe.-Preslia 91: 25-49 European semi-dry grasslands are among the most species-rich vegetation types in the northern hemisphere and form an important part of the habitat mosaics in the forest-steppe zone. However, there is no comprehensive evaluation of the variation in their composition and the phytosociological classification of these grasslands. For the syntaxonomic revision, we used a dataset of 34,173 vegetation plot records (relevés) from central and eastern Europe, which were assigned to the class Festuco-Brometea using the diagnostic species listed in the EuroVegChecklist. To determine the diagnostic species of the orders, we used a TWINSPAN classification of the whole dataset. Of the total dataset, 15,449 relevés were assigned to the order Brachypodietalia pinnati, which corresponds to semi-dry grasslands. This subset was again classified using TWINSPAN. Formal definitions of the following alliances were established: Mesobromion erecti, Cirsio-Brachypodion pinnati (incl. Fragario-Trifolion montani, Agrostio-Avenulion schellianae, Scabioso ochroleucae-Poion angustifoliae and Adonido vernalis-Stipion tirsae), Scorzonerion villosae and Chrysopogono-Danthonion. Another alliance, Armerion elongatae (= Koelerio-Phleion phleoidis p.p.), is transitional towards the class Koelerio-Corynephoretea and its status needs further evaluation. We also established formal definitions of all of the associations of Mesobromion and Cirsio-Brachypodion within the area studied. Associations were identified using (i) a TWINSPAN classification of the whole order, (ii) TWINSPAN classifications of regionally restricted data sets (usually all Brachypodietalia plots in one country) and (iii) existing national classification schemes. All formal definitions were written in the expert system language of the JUICE program. To obtain a more complete picture of the floristic similarities and gradients, we performed a DCA ordination of the associations. Our results revealed that meadow steppes in the forest-steppe zone in eastern Europe are very similar to semi-dry grasslands in central Europe.

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Section: Data Setmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formalized classification of semi-dry grasslands in central and eastern Europe

Willner¹,

Roleček²,

Korolyuk³

et al. 2019

Preslia

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“…The geomorphological and climatic diversity of Romania, the geographical position at the intersection of several floristic provinces, and the extensive traditional land use all contribute to the vegetation diversity [35,36], reflected also in the large variety of grassland habitat types [4,37,38]. Most herbaceous vegetation types (except ruderal) are comprised in 15 N2000 grassland habitat types [39,40].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Deviation from Grazing Optimum in the Grassland Habitats of Romania Within and Outside the Natura 2000 Network

Roman¹,

Ursu²,

Onțel³

et al. 2019

Habitats of the World [Working Title]

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Grassland habitat degradation intensified in the last century worldwide and in Europe. In Romania, substantial areas of biodiverse grassland habitats that persisted due to small-scale farming are now threatened by recent land-use intensification. However, data regarding the deviation from grazing optimum, essential for management plans encompassing both socioeconomic sustainability and environment conservation, are not yet available. To fill this gap, detailed statistics of the stocking rate and its deviation from optimum were generated by spatial modeling techniques. A toolbox was developed to assess such deviations inside or outside the Natura 2000 Network of protected areas. The analysis covered an area of 33529.42 km 2 , corresponding to all the Romanian permanent grasslands within the land parcel identification system. The results indicate that over half of this area is degraded, mostly from overgrazing. Less than 10% is not impacted by inadequate livestock density. Of the national grassland area, 17.34% is included within the Natura 2000 protected sites, indicating the substantial overlapping of agricultural and protection activities. For this category, the degraded area is slightly lower than at the national level (50.34% vs. 52.45%). These results can be applied for environmental conflict anticipation and optimal management of grassland habitats to achieve both socioeconomic and conservation objectives.

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“…The most frequently used method for visual evaluation of vegetation characteristics, both in agronomy and vegetation science, is the vegetation (floristic) relevé, which assesses the cover of plant species by assigning each species an estimated percentage or an abundance-dominance class (Catchpole and Wheeler, 1992;Cristea et al, 2004;Marușca, 2019;Peratoner and Pötsch, 2019). In the last century, as part of describing and mapping vegetation types, phytosociology experts gathered a huge amount of semi-quantitative data, as vegetation relevés, available either in literature or centralized in databases (Vassilev et al, 2018;Bruelheide et al, 2019), that are valuable resources for estimating the potential productivity of a grassland or for grazing planning. However, most of these relevés estimate species cover-abundance using the seven-grade scale of Braun-Blanquet (1964), which has an inter-class variation range of 20% (class 2) respectively 25% (class 3, 4 and 5).…”

Section: Introduction Introduction Introduction Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting trends in the quality and productivity of grasslands by analyzing the historical vegetation relevés: A case study from Southeastern Carpathians, Vlădeasa Mountains (Romania)

Maruşca

Roman

Taulescu

et al. 2021

Not Bot Horti Agrobo

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Grassland ecosystems are essential for biomass production but are prone to degradation if management practices are inappropriate. Thus, it is necessary to optimize grazing management since the grazing practices and grassland status are interconnected. Herbage mass production and forage quality of the plant species are among the most important factors for grazing livestock performance, grassland carrying capacity, and their sustainable management. We employed optimized methods for the analysis of two historical vegetation datasets (from 1970 and 2008), along with the statistical data on livestock numbers and types from three administrative units within the Vlădeasa Mountains area, in the Romanian Carpathians. We looked for trends in grassland quality and productivity and explored their connections to grazing management descriptors and practices. We identified a small but statistically significant decreasing trend between the two periods in both pastoral value (from 63.80 to 61.43) and productivity (from 10.80 t ha-1 to 9.18 t ha-1). The decline in grassland quality and productivity may be associated with the sharp decrease in livestock numbers (from 9,688 LU to 5,085 LU) and the replacement of cattle by sheep as the dominant livestock type. The abandonment of grasslands and traditional practices also increased the deviation from the optimum of the actual stocking rate. This approach can be used as a model for other areas where time-series vegetation data are available from phytosociological literature and/or databases. These insights can be used to design adaptive grazing management plans to optimize grazing management according to the carrying capacity of the grassland ecosystems.

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The Romanian Grassland Database (RGD): historical background, current status and future perspectives

Cited by 16 publications

References 10 publications

Formalized classification of semi-dry grasslands in central and eastern Europe

Formalized classification of semi-dry grasslands in central and eastern Europe

Deviation from Grazing Optimum in the Grassland Habitats of Romania Within and Outside the Natura 2000 Network

Detecting trends in the quality and productivity of grasslands by analyzing the historical vegetation relevés: A case study from Southeastern Carpathians, Vlădeasa Mountains (Romania)

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