scholarly journals Habitat Mosaics of Sand Steppes and Forest-Steppes in the Ipoly Valley in Hungary

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Ildikó Járdi ◽  
Dénes Saláta ◽  
Eszter S.-Falusi ◽  
Ferenc Stilling ◽  
Gergely Pápay ◽  
...  

The present study focuses on the mosaic-like occurrences of patches of steppes and fore-steppes in the Pannonian forest-steppe zone. We present the current vegetation, which is maintained including by human landscape use, i.e., grazing and mowing. The area is complex and for this reason it shows the changes in the landscape and differences in the vegetation more diversely. We wanted to answer the questions: Do sand steppes and forest-steppes occur in the Ipoly Valley and what location? What kind of environmental effects influence the species composition on these areas? Besides classic habitat mapping, are the satellite data from Sentinel-2A useful for distinction of different areas? Comparison of vegetation patches was based on the Hungarian habitat classification system (ÁNÉR). Based on satellite images, quantile data of the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used for comparison. Based on the result, water bodies and urban areas are clearly distinguishable from other natural habitats. In some natural vegetation types, we found visible differences, such as grasslands, i.e., sandy steppe meadows and shrubby, woody vegetation patches. Sandy vegetation mainly grows on calcareous soils, which appear to be mosaic-like in the landscape on raised alluvials on the patches of past islands and reefs. From open to continuous closed grasslands, these vegetation types mainly grow on lithosoils. New occurrences of Pannonian sandy vegetation were discovered. In the sandy areas along the Ipoly Valley, open sandy grasslands were found, which is where the northernmost known occurrences of this vegetation type are. Besides common sandy grassland species, the vegetation also contains herbs that are typical in loess-grasslands and it is maintained by grazing, similarly to the eastern Pannonian area. This type of grazing can be useful when maintaining the mosaic-like appearance and diversity of the vegetation.

Author(s):  
А.В. Терешкин ◽  
А.Л. Калмыкова ◽  
Т.А. Андрушко

Вертикальное озеленение с участием различных видов лиан в современных условиях имеет важное эстетическое и санитарно-гигиеническое значение. Особо актуально решение вопросов обогащения флоры городских территорий лианами в степных районах в связи с бедным видовым составом и резким ухудшением экологической ситуации. Объектами исследований являлись 7 видов лиан, различных жизненных форм (однолетние, многолетние), произрастающие в населенных пунктах Саратовской области (Аткарск, Саратов). Цель исследований – изучение эколого-биологических особенностей и мелиоративных свойств лиан и выявление перспектив их использования в вертикальном озеленении селитебных территорий Саратовской области. В ходе исследования видового состава, были выявлены наиболее популярные виды однолетних лиан: ипомея красно-голубая (Ipomea tricolor (L.) Roth) и ипомея пурпурная (Ipomea purpurea (L.) Roth), горошек душистый (Lathyrus edoratus L.), настурция (Tropacolum peregrinum L.) и фасоль огненно-красная (Phaseolus coccineus). Большинство (70%) из них произрастают в местах ограниченного пользования. Изученные виды лиан в исследуемых регионах достигают средних природных показателей (при наличии надлежащего ухода), обладают хорошими показателями жизненного состояния, обильно цветут и плодоносят. При воздействии токсикантами различной концентрации на листовые пластинки лиан установлено их степень устойчивости. Выявлено, что однолетние лианы лучше использовать в декоративных целях, а не в санитарно-гигиенических. Сравнительная оценка однолетних видов с многолетними лианами (девичий виноград пятилисточковый и клематис тангутский) показывает устойчивость многолетних видов (в среднем на 3 балла - 40%). Разработаны варианты декоративных композиций с участием травянистых лиан. По степени декоративности выделены однолетние лианы – Ipomea tricolor, I. purpurea (37 – 41 балл), средней степенью отличаются – Lathyrus edoratus (33 балла), Tropacolum peregrinum (30 баллов) и Phaseolus coccineus (20 – 27 баллов). Преимущество многолетних лиан заключается в их устойчивости к резким изменениям климатических условий (на 40 %) по сравнению с однолетними формами. Поэтому они более предпочтительны для озеленения городской среды. Для усиления декоративного эффекта в сезонном аспекте рекомендуются сочетать расширение видового и формового разнообразия растений (многолетние и однолетние лианы, древесно-кустарниковая, цветочная растительность). Установлено, что природно-климатические условия зоны степи и лесостепи в пределах Саратовской области являются достаточно благоприятными для нормального роста и развития древесно-кустарниковой растительности, в том числе травянистых лиан. Таким образом, обоснованное применение древесных лиан в комплексе с традиционными видами насаждений позволит создать комфортные условия проживания населения, регулировать оптимальный температурный баланс и создавать благоприятные микроклиматические условия. Vertical gardening with different types of vines in modern conditions is important aesthetic and sanitary-hygienic value. It is especially important to address the issues of enrichment of the flora of urban areas with vines in the steppe regions due to poor species composition and a sharp deterioration of the ecological situation. The objects of research were 7 species of lianas, various life forms (annual, perennial), growing in the settlements of the Saratov region (Atkarsk, Saratov). The aim of the research is to study the ecological and biological features and reclamation properties of vines and identify the prospects for their use in vertical gardening residential areas of the Saratov region. In the study, species composition was the most popular species of annual vines: morning glory red-blue (Ipomea tricolor (L.) Roth) and purple morning glory (Ipomea purpurea (L.) Roth), the fragrant pea (Lathyrus edoratus L.), nasturtium (Tropacolum peregrinum L.) and runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus). Most (70%) of them grow in restricted areas. Studied species of vines in the study regions reach average natural performance (with proper care), have good indicators of vital condition, bloom abundantly and bear fruit. When exposed to toxicants of different concentrations on the leaf blades of vines established their degree of stability. It was revealed that the annual vines are better used for decorative purposes, and not in the sanitary-hygienic. A comparative assessment of annual species with perennial vines (maiden grapes and clematis Tangut) shows the stability of perennial species (an average of 3 points-40%). The options and decorative compositions with the participation of herbaceous vines. According to the degree of decoration of the allocated annual vine – Ipomea tricolor, I. purpurea (37 – 41 points), the average degree of differ – Lathyrus edoratus (33 points), Tropacolum peregrinum (30 points) and Phaseolus coccineus (20 to 27 points). The advantage of perennial vines is their resistance to sudden changes in climatic conditions (40 %) compared to annual forms. Therefore, they are more preferable for greening the urban environment. To enhance the decorative effect in the seasonal aspect, it is recommended to combine the expansion of species and form diversity of plants (perennial and annual lianas, tree and shrub, floral vegetation). It is established that the climatic conditions of the steppe and forest-steppe zone within the Saratov region are quite favorable for the normal growth and development of tree and shrub vegetation, including herbaceous lianas. Thus, the reasonable use of wood vines in combination with traditional types of plantings will create comfortable living conditions for the population, regulate the optimal temperature balance and create favorable microclimatic conditions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 864-867 ◽  
pp. 2459-2462
Author(s):  
Zong Han Li ◽  
Hua Yong Zhang ◽  
Fei Li ◽  
Xiang Xu

In this study, fractal dimension index is applied to describe the complexity of 11 vegetation groups and 5 needle-leaf forest vegetation types in China. Basing on the Vegetation Map of China, we calculate the perimeter and area of vegetation patches with the software ArcGis. The relationship between perimeter and area is established for each vegetation group and vegetation type, and the corresponding fractal dimension index is estimated. The results show that, among the 11 vegetation groups, the Alpine vegetation is the most complex vegetation. In the 5 needle-leaf forest types, the subtropical and tropical mountains needle-leaf forest is the most complex vegetation. It seems that the complexity of vegetation is associated with altitude. The topography may be responsible for the complexity at different scales.


2011 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Burgin ◽  
Danny Wotherspoon ◽  
Dennis John Hitchen ◽  
Peter Ridgeway

AbstractOver time native vegetation remnants in urban areas are typically eroded in size and number due to pressures from urban expansion and consolidation. Such remnants, frequently neglected and invaded by weeds, may constitute the last remaining habitat for some species' populations in urban areas. In the restoration of remnants for biodiversity, weed removal is often a high priority but there is a dearth of information on the role that exotic vegetation plays as habitat for fauna such as small reptiles. We investigated the vegetation type preference of urban remnants at the edge of a Sydney golf course by Amphibolurus muricatus, the native jacky lizard. The three vegetation types present were Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub (an Endangered Ecological Community) with sparse groundcover, dense stands of the introduced Eragrostis curvula African love grass, and open fairways of lawn: three structurally different habitats. Captured jacky lizards were spooled and their movements traced by following the thread left as they moved through their home range. Jacky lizards preferred areas that afford them most cover. While they foraged throughout the stands of love grass, they tended to avoid the edge of native vegetation remnants. They also basked on the lawn close to the vegetation where they had recently foraged, or traversed it to enter natural vegetation or grass. We concluded that introduced love grass offered additional habitat because of the relatively dense vegetation cover, and that areas should not be managed with the assumption that invasive weeds are detrimental to native species without appropriate assessment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2SUPL) ◽  
pp. S36-S52
Author(s):  
Luis Sandoval ◽  
Carlos-O. Morales ◽  
José-D. Ramírez-Fernández ◽  
Paul Hanson ◽  
Luis-Ricardo Murillo-Hiller ◽  
...  

Conservation efforts in  terrestrial environments have focused on preserving patches of natural habitats and restoring disturbed habitats, with the main goal of transforming them into forests or habitats that resemble the original conditions. This approach tends to overlook the importance of conserving early successional vegetation (e.g., riverside vegetation, natural regeneration, young secondary forests), which often includes a large number of species (e.g., plants and animals) associated with or restricted to these habitats. In this paper we want to bring to attention the importance of preserving early successional vegetation, and to encourage scientists to investigate, e.g., the diversity, distribution, and species interactions occurring in these habitats. To address these goals, we focus on two main objectives: (1) to identify the common types of early successional vegetation in the Costa Rican Central Valley; and (2) to use some case studies to draw attention to the importance that such areas have as reservoirs of a large portion of the diversity unique to early successional stages. We first include an example to show the diversity of plants in small forest patches immersed in a large urbanized area. We provide general information on the insects that occur in early successional vegetation in urban areas, and in further detail examples of butterflies. Additionally, we provide examples of birds and mammals that are restricted to early successional vegetation, and how the reduction of this vegetation type affects species conservation. Finally, we encourage scientists to investigate these early successional habitats, particularly those species exclusive to early successional stages. Special attention should be paid to endemic species and those with a restricted distribution. Information of this type will make conservation of the diversity contained in these habitats possible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-52
Author(s):  
S. Yu. Popovych

Over the last half century, the relevance of phytososological research has not diminished. Therefore, at the taxonomic and phytocoenotic levels, the current state of conservation of rare dendrodiversity of the genus Spiraea L. was analyzed. The quantitative and qualitative composition of the autochthonous and introduced, as well as phytocenotaxonomic species diversity, which is protected by world, national and regional red and green lists, has been established. Dendroexot Spiraea cana Waldst. & Kit. listed in The IUCN Red List, and Spiraea media subsp polonica (Blocki) Dostal (= Spiraea polonica Blocki) – in the Red Book of Ukraine, the remaining five plant species are listed in the regional red lists of 15 administrative regions of Ukraine. Of the five rare species and one subspecies of dendroautochthonous, only two species in Ukraine are being grown outside their natural habitats. All studied plant taxa are represented in different ways in the nature reserve fund of Ukraine in situ and ex situ. Analysis of the regional representativeness of their distribution showed uneven conservation of taxa in physical – geographical plains and mountainous countries. The network of territories and objects of conservation covers 15 protected areas in the Steppe zone, 13 in the Forest-steppe zone, 14 in the zone of deciduous forests, 13 in the zone of mixed forests. In the Crimean mountains and the Ukrainian Carpathians, the studied plant taxa are not protected. Phytocenotic diversity (three species) was identified, which is listed in the Bern Convention and the Green Book of Ukraine. Spiraea hypericifolia L. forms and participates in the creation of 10 associations and therefore has the widest phytocenotic amplitude. Spiraea litvinovii Dobrocz. creates a separate formation of shrub steppes, which includes six associations. At the co-dominant level, Spiraea media Franz Schmidt is a part of only one forest association. These dendroassociations are protected in five nature reserves, two national nature parks, one regional landscape park, six nature reserves and one natural monument. In the future, the development of systematic research on the conservation regimes of populations and phytocenoses of rare dendrodiversity is seen.


2021 ◽  
Vol 918 (1) ◽  
pp. 012011
Author(s):  
H S Aprilianti ◽  
R A Ari ◽  
A Ranti ◽  
M F Aslam

Abstract Understanding the threshold value classification from various vegetation types may help distinguish spectral reflectance differences in detailed land use studies. However, conducting all of the processes requires relatively large resources regarding manual computation, which could be surpassed by cloud computing. Unfortunately, in Bogor Regency, there is still a lack of research that studies the threshold value of various vegetation types related to forestry and plantation sectors. Land use categories were classified, and threshold values were determined, especially for selected vegetation types including teak, oil palm, rubber, pine, bamboo, and tea based on several vegetation indices in Bogor Regency using the Cloud-Computing platform. The data source was retrieved from 10-meters Sentinel-2 Satellite median imagery of January 2019 - June 2021. Land use maps were generated using Random Forest Algorithm from composite images. Meanwhile, the threshold value of each vegetation type was calculated from the average and standard deviation of NDVI, SAVI, EVI, ARVI, SLAVI, and GNDVI index. The result of the study showed forest and plantation area covers about 158,168.13 ha or 48.92 % of the study area. NDVI was found suitable to identify teak, SLAVI for rubber and pine, EVI for bamboo and tea, and GNDVI for oil palm vegetation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-106
Author(s):  
O. S. Shiryaeva ◽  
M. A. Palamarchuk

Thirty six species of agaricoid fungi are reported for the first time for the Urals including 15 species new for the Komi Republic and 19 species new for the Sverdlovsk Region. They were found mostly in natural habitats: mountain tundra (3 species), mountain forest-tundra (3), the northern boreal forests of the mountains and their foothill (12), the middle boreal forests of the mountains (1), the southern boreal forests of the foothill of the Urals (2), the hemiboreal broadleaf-conifer forests (4), the hemiboreal pine and birch forests of the foothill of the Urals (1), the forest-steppe (1), and the northern and southern boreal forests (1). New records of Cantharellopsis prescotii and Hydropus subalpinus extend data on their distribution eastward to the Urals, while the others fill the gaps between localities in Europe and Asia. Ten species were recorded in anthropogenic habitats of the urban areas only.


2021 ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
Inna Torianyk

Ukraine's enzootic in accordance with natural focal diseases including babesiosis, makes the research undertaken relevant. Aim of the study: to determine the stages in organising the collection of biological materials in the study of the natural prototype of babesiosis. Materials and methods of research. Objects were murine rodents of Muridae family of genera Myodes, Microtus, Apodemus, Sylvaemus of natural habitats of forest-steppe zone of Ukraine, their ectoparasites-carriers of babesiosis - ticks of family Ixodidae. Collection, accumulation and registration of biological materials was carried out in the conditions of scientific expeditions. Regional geography of them concerned Volyn, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv regions of Ukraine. Results. A total of 63 wild rodents were captured and used in the study. They were adult mice of both sexes, weighing 45-90 g, belonging to the Muridae family, genera Myodes, Microtus, Apodemus, Sylvaemus. Each group of animals gravitated to a specific geographical area of existence with appropriate attributes of flora and fauna. Collection and recording of those on rodent-feeding animals showed that Ixods differ according to phases of development, blood feeding, sex attributes and species affiliation. Conclusions. Nosological profile of babesiosis as a natural focal obligate-transmissible protozoan blood parasitosis determined methodology of epizootic assessment of area, natural prototype of disease, collection of biological material samples (BMS). BMS collection activities for babesiosis are seasonally dependent. Conducted researches should be focused on 3 links of epizootic or epidemic chain of babesiosis. Invasion by babesia ticks in optimal natural-climatic conditions of development, annual contact with animals led to formation of a latent focus of babesiosis


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-252
Author(s):  
E.A. Terekhin

The paper presents results of the analysis of long-term changes in the vegetation cover of abandoned agricultural lands in the forest-steppe zone of the Central Chernozem Region using time series of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which are measured using MOD13Q1 data. The vegetation index dynamics linked with the proportion of forest communities formed on the abandoned agricultural lands is investigated. The index values for the period of mid-August are the most informative for analyzing the share of forest communities growing on the abandoned agricultural land. Abandoned agricultural lands with coniferous forests have a higher correlation with NDVI than fallows with deciduous species. In the period 2000-2018, for all types of abandoned arable lands, the presence of a positive statistically significant trend component of the vegetation index long-term series is established. Using a slope angle coefficient of the NDVI trend line, a spatio-temporal analysis of the rate of formation of forest stands in the forest-steppe fallows at the beginning of the XXI century was carried out. Features of this process are studied.


2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate A. Hammill ◽  
Ross A. Bradstock

Fire intensity affects ecological and geophysical processes in fire-prone landscapes. We examined the potential for satellite imagery (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre [SPOT2] and Landsat7) to detect and map fire severity patterns in a rugged landscape with variable vegetation near Sydney, Australia. A post-fire, vegetation-based indicator of fire intensity (burnt shrub branch tip diameters, representing the size of fuel consumed) was also used to explore whether fire severity patterns can be used to retrospectively infer patterns of fire intensity. Six severity classes (ranging from unburnt to complete crown consumption) were defined using aerial photograph interpretation and a field assessment across five vegetation types of varying height and complexity (sedge-swamp, heath, woodland, open forest, and tall forest). Using established Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) differencing methodology, SPOT2 and Landsat7 imagery yielded similar broad-scale severity patterns across the study area. This was despite differences in image resolution (10 m and 30 m, respectively) and capture dates (2 months and 9 months apart, respectively). However, differences in the total areas mapped for some severity classes were found. In particular, there was reduced differentiation between unburnt and low-severity areas and between crown-scorched and crown-consumed areas when using the Landsat7 data. These differences were caused by fine-scale classification anomalies and were most likely associated with seasonal differences in vegetation condition (associated with time of image capture), post-fire movement of ash, resprouting of vegetation, and low sun elevation. Relationships between field severity class and NDVIdifference values revealed that vegetation type does influence the detection of fire severity using these types of satellite data: regression slopes were greater for woodland, forest, and tall forest data than for sedge-swamp and heath data. The effect of vegetation type on areas mapped in each fire severity class was examined but found to be minimal in the present study due to the uneven distribution of vegetation types in the study area (woodland and open forest cover 86% of the landscape). Field observations of burnt shrub branch tips, which were used as a surrogate for fire intensity, revealed that relationships between fire severity and fire intensity are confounded by vegetation type (mainly height). A method for inferring fire intensity from remotely sensed patterns of fire severity was proposed in which patterns of fire severity and vegetation type are combined.


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