New research project on grassland fragments

We have just launched a new research project that has recently been funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary. The funding scheme supports research groups with internationally outstanding results and gives recognition to those, who published a highly cited paper in the recent years. 

The list of the funded projects can be found here.

This new project is a great opportunity for the continuation of our researches about grassland fragments on ancient burial mounds. Please find below the short summary of the project, and come back to our site for updates about the results.

Project title: The role of habitat and landscape factors in grassland community assembly

Principal investigator: Balázs Deák

Summary

In the intensively used landscapes of Europe remnants of the natural vegetation often persist in small habitat islands which have an outstanding conservational importance. Grassland habitat islands of transformed landscapes are proper objects for exploring mechanisms that drive species composition and functional diversity of isolated grassland communities. In our former papers we studied the effects of landscape and habitat level drivers on the populations and metapopulations of grassland specialist and generalist plant species. In our present study, based on the findings of our former researches, we aim at revealing the drivers of functional diversity of plant and animal communities living in isolated grasslands. For the research we use isolated grasslands located on ancient burial mounds called ‘kurgans’. In our first study we reveal the effects of landscape and habitat level drivers on the functional diversity of plant and animal communities of habitat islands for which we use a geographically widely distributed multisite dataset and several taxa. We also study the role of dispersal syndromes in the maintenance of metapopulations dynamics of grassland species. In our second study we reveal the effects of historical land use changes, and changes in the composition and structure of the landscape on the functional diversity of plant and animal communities of habitat islands. We study the effects of recent land use changes (abandonment) on the habitat properties of habitat islands and test how do changes in habitat properties affect the regeneration of grassland communities.

Species-rich dry grassland fragment on an ancient burial mound in Hungary.

Memories of the IAVS Symposium in Montana

Yellow columbine (Aquilegia flavescens).

The annual symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS) was held in Bozeman, Montana this year. It was a great pleasure for us and our colleagues to participate in this interesting conference. Our photos and memories have been published in the IAVS Bulletin (here).

The itinerary of the excursions was full with programs through Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, so we shared only some of the most memorable moments. The pre-symposium excursion ‘A’ headed to the Glacier National Park and the Continental Divide. We visited a wide range of habitats, such as western larch and ponderosa pine forests, ancient western red cedar groves, sub-alpine grasslands and prairies. We encountered such scenic landscapes as the Glacier National Park, the Avalanche lake, the Ross Cedar Creek and the Kootenai Waterfalls.

Ross Cedar Creek is a scenic forest of western red cedar (Thuja plicata). Several giant trees are estimated to be older than 1000 years.

Besides the lectures, there were a lot of opportunities for botanising and visiting interesting locations in and near Bozeman during the conference. Definitely, the Museum of the Rockies was one of our favourite. There were ten options for mid-symposium excursions, so it was very difficult to choose from the so many interesting routes. Finally we went to the northern range, just outside the Yellowstone National Park. The tour was very interesting and focused on grasslands on various altitudes with different grazing regimes. We were impressed both by the similarities and differences between the North American and Eurasian dry grasslands regarding their species composition and their role in the whole ecosystem. We also realised that nature conservation problems are quite the same in the grassland habitats of the World. Encroachment of invasive species is an important issue for American nature conservation, however it was really strange to see our common European species (such as Bromus inermis and Poa angustifolia) as problem species in America.

Scenic view in the northern range of the Yellowstone National Park (mid-symposium excursion).

The post-symposium excursion headed to the Beartooth and Yellowstone National Parks. We got a comprehensive overview on the vegetation types of the region, and the role of disturbance in landscape-scale vegetation dynamics. It was very impressive to see the huge, endless forests, where still nowadays fire and grazing are important drivers of vegetation dynamics. We also visited some of the most iconic landmarks of the region, such as the glaciers, hot springs and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

 

Open herb layer in a lodgepole pine stand which burnt two years ago.