Vegetation remains, specialist species fade: changes in Pannonian sand grasslands

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F25%3A00143022" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/25:00143022 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.23855/preslia.2025.613" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.23855/preslia.2025.613</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.23855/preslia.2025.613" target="_blank" >10.23855/preslia.2025.613</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Vegetation remains, specialist species fade: changes in Pannonian sand grasslands

Original language description

Inland sand grasslands are highly threatened habitats in central Europe and the Pannonian biogeographical region. They harbour several specialized and threatened species adapted to the dry, nutrient-poor conditions of sandy soils. The area of these grasslands decreased dramatically in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many remaining patches have been included in protected areas, and their conversion to other land-use types has been limited in recent decades. However, changes in these plant communities may have occurred due to environmental changes and altered management practices. To assess temporal changes in plant diversity and species composition in sand grasslands in the Vienna Basin (Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria), we resurveyed 86 vegetation plots in 2023-2024 that were first sampled between 1952 and 2010. We compared changes in species composition using principal coordinate analysis and distance-based redundancy analysis. We tested changes in species richness of vascular plants using a linear mixed-effect model, proportions of specialized, ruderal, threatened, alien and woody species using generalized estimating equation models, and ecological indicator values using permutation tests. We compared these changes among three main vegetation types of sand grasslands (pioneer, acidophilous and basiphilous). The results indicate that the main types of sand grasslands in the Vienna Basin have persisted over recent decades and have not been replaced by other vegetation types. However, specialized species of sand and dry grasslands, as well as species adapted to grazing, have declined. In contrast, species with higher nutrient and moisture requirements have increased. This indicates an effect of eutrophication and natural succession following the abandonment of previous management. The decline in sand specialists was most pronounced in the pioneer sand vegetation, where species with higher Ellenberg-type indicator values for temperature also decreased, indicating a transition to more closed sand grasslands. These results indicate that appropriate conservation management and future monitoring are needed to maintain the habitat quality of inland sand vegetation.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10611 - Plant sciences, botany

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

PRESLIA

ISSN

0032-7786

e-ISSN

2570-950X

Volume of the periodical

97

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

23

Pages from-to

613-635

UT code for WoS article

001639755600001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105028427561