The attitute of European people towards urban greenspaces - Our new paper in Conservation Letters

Greenspaces, such as urban parks are important part of our everyday life. Especially in this spring, when most of us are spending the days in home office, we often miss our favorite urban park and appreciate even more nature that surrounds us in the city.

People's attitude towards urban greenspaces is in the focus of our recent paper, published in Conservation Letters.

The citation of the paper is:

Fischer, L.K., Neuenkamp L., Lampinen, J., Tuomi, M., Alday, J.G., Cancellieri, L., Casado-Arzuaga, I., Čeplová, N., Cerveró, L., Deák, B., Eriksson, O., Fellowes, M.D.E., Fernández De Manuel, B., Filibeck, G., González-Guzmán, A., Hinojosa, M.B., Kowarik, I., Lampei Bucharová, A., Lumbierres, B., Pons, X., Rodríguez-García, E., Schröder, R., Sperandii, M.G., Unterweger, P., Valkó, O., Vázquez, V., Klaus, V.H. (2020): Public attitudes toward biodiversity‐friendly greenspace management in Europe. Conservation Letters e12718. doi: 10.1111/conl.12718. [IF2018: 7.397]

You can access the paper here.

The idea of the main authors, was to perform a European-scale inventory on people's attitude towards urban greenspaces. Special thanks to Leonie Fisher, Lena Neuenkamp and Valentin Klaus for coordinating the whole project, we are very happy that we could take part.

Nature in the city - greenspaces are essential for human well-being.

During the study, we conducted interviews with more than 2000 people in 19 cities across Europe. We used questionnaires with photographic stimuli to assess the attitude of urban residents towards the biodiversity-friendly management of urban greenspaces. The questionnaire was designed to assess the preference of people towards two different types of urban grasslands: tidy short-cut lawns versus biodiverse but ’chaotic’ tallgrass meadows. There were questions about how often and why do the respondents use urban greenspaces, and how should urban grasslands look like in their opinion. We also asked people whether they are aware about the concept of biodiversity, and whether they consider biodiversity conservation as a societal responsibility. Finally we proposed a hypothetical scenario to the respondents: if 50% of the city’s lawns would be converted into biodiversity-friendly tall-grass meadows, would they agree with this procedure?

We found that people who perform a higher number of activities in greenspaces, and those familiar with the term biodiversity and more responsible towards biodiversity conservation showed higher preference for tall-grass meadows. Contrary, people that were concerned about health risks from tall-grass were more positive about tidy greenspaces.

Urban park in Münster, Germany - near the place where Valentin Klaus developed the questionnaire survey. Tall-grass meadow and short-cut lawn. Which one do you prefer?

Abstract

Increasing urbanization worldwide calls for more sustainable urban development. Simultaneously, the global biodiversity crisis accentuates the need of fostering biodiversity within cities. Policies supporting urban nature conservation need to understand people’s acceptance of biodiversity-friendly greenspace management. We surveyed more than 2000 people in 19 European cities about their attitudes towards near-natural urban grassland management in public greenspaces, and related their responses to nine sociocultural parameters. Results reveal that people across Europe can support urban biodiversity, yet within the frames of a generally tidy appearance of public greenery. Younger people and those using greenspaces for a greater variety of activities were more likely to favor biodiversity-friendly greenspace management. Additionally, people who were aware of the meaning of biodiversity and those stating responsibility for biodiversity conservation particularly supported biodiversity-friendly greenspace management. Our results point at explicit measures like environmental education to increase public acceptance of policies that facilitate nature conservation within cities.

NDVI as a proxy for sedimentation and vegetation spread in artificial lakes: New paper in Remote Sensing

Our new paper by Loránd Szabó and Szilárd Szabó (University of Debrecen, Department of Physical Georgraphy and Geoinformation Systems) has recently been accepted in Remote Sensing.

The citation of the paper is:

Szabó, L., Deák, B., Bíró, T., Dyke, G.J., Szabó, Sz. (2020): NDVI as a Proxy for Estimating Sedimentation and Vegetation Spread in Artificial Lakes – Monitoring of Spatial and Temporal Changes by Using Satellite Images Overarching Three Decades. Remote Sensing 12: 1468. [IF2018: 4.740]

The article is freely available at the journal's homepage; please click here to access the paper. 

Freshwater ecosystems are threatened biodiversity hotspots worldwide. Lakes in Hungary are under threat for several reasons, including the increasing aridity rates due to global climate change, scarce water supply and the infiltration of nutrients and pollutants. Depending on the available nutrient surplus, lake succession and the spread of vegetation can accelerate eutrophication. Several methods are available for monitoring lake sedimentation, such as analyzing sediment cores using radionuclides, heavy metals, or bioindicators. These methods provide valuable information on sedimentation but do not give a complex picture on the spatial dimensions of the sedimentation as generally a limited number of points can be sampled and the results are extrapolated. A direct spatial method involves mapping the bottom of lakes, which can be conducted using probe rods, sonar, or bathymetric LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). The common limitation of these techniques is their uncertainty despite the high level of expenditure involved. Also, for monitoring purposes, the assessment should be repeated regularly. The goal of our study was to develop an optical remote sensing based monitoring system to track sedimentation and eutrophication processes, using the  Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI). The developed methodology can be a useful tool for monitoring sedimentation and eutrophication processes in a cost-effective way.

The water caltrop (Trapa natans) is a protected macrophyte species in Hungary. Interestingly, it is a protected and disappearing species in many parts of Europe, but in the Lake Tisza, it is very abundant and present a potential threat to biodiversity.

The yellow floating-heart (Nymphoides peltata) is a protected, but still abundant species of the study site.

Another protected species, the European white water lily (Nymphaea alba).

Abstract

Observing wetland areas and monitoring changes are crucial to understand hydrological and ecological processes. Sedimentation-induced vegetation spread is a typical process in the succession of lakes endangering these habitats. We aimed to survey the tendencies of vegetation spread of a Hungarian lake using satellite images, and to develop a method to identify the areas of risk. Accordingly, we performed a 33-year long vegetation spread monitoring survey. We used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) to assess vegetation and open water characteristics of the basins. We used these spectral indices to evaluate sedimentation risk of water basins combined with the fact that the most abundant plant species of the basins was the water caltrop (Trapa natans) indicating shallow water. We proposed a 12-scale Level of Sedimentation Risk Index (LoSRI) composed from vegetation cover data derived from satellite images to determine sedimentation risk within any given water basin. We validated our results with average water basin water depth values, which showed an r = 0.6 (p < 0.05) correlation. We also pointed on the most endangered locations of these sedimentation-threatened areas, which can provide crucial information for management planning of water directorates and management organizations.

Post-restoration vegetation and seed bank dynamics: New paper in Restoration Ecology

Our new paper about the effects of post-restoration management on vegetation and seed bank dynamics has recently been accepted in Restoration Ecology.

The citation of the paper is:

Valkó, O., Deák, B., Török, P., Tóth, K., Kiss, R., Kelemen, A., Miglécz, T., Sonkoly, J., Tóthmérész, B. (2020): Dynamics in vegetation and seed bank composition highlight the importance of post-restoration management in sown grasslands. Restoration Ecology doi: 10.1002/rec.13192

The paper is freely available in the journal homepage (please click here to access the paper).

Sowing low-diversity grass seed mixtures is a widely available, and feasible tool for restoring large grassland areas within a relatively short timeframe. After seed sowing, a weed-dominated vegetation is typical in the first years, which is replaced by a dense and species-poor vegetation characterised by the sown grasses from the second or third year after restoration. Even though the aboveground vegetation is usually species poor, the seed bank is quite diverse, as it still holds the legacy of the former degradation in terms of the dense seed bank of weeds (see our former study, Török et al. 2012). This is very important from the conservation point of view as these weed seeds can be easily 'activated' and germinate in case of degradation, improper management or abandonment. In a former study we found that even is succesfully restored grasslands, the cessation of management can lead to severe degradation within a few years (Kelemen et al. 2014).

 

After grassland restoration by seed sowing, a weed-dominated vegetation is typical in the first year.

The sown grasses can successfully replace the weeds aboveground: two or three year after restoration, a perennial-dominated dense sward is typical.

 

Unfortunately the weeds do not disappear completely: they are the dominant species in the soil seed bank.

In the current study we tested the effects of post-restoration management (mowing vs. abandonment) on the vegetation and seed bank of alkaline and loess grasslands, which were restored during one of the largest grassland restoration projects in Europe, where seeds of native grasses were sown (LIFE 04 NAT HU 119, ‘Grassland restoration and marsh protection in Egyek-Pusztakócs’ LIFE project). This study system offered a unique opportunity for testing the effects of post-restoration management on the vegetation and seed bank of two different types of restored grasslands. We found that the seed bank of the restored grasslands were still dominated by weeds, even eight years after restoration. Abandonment had a larger effect on the seed bank, than on the vegetation: the seed density of sown grasses and target species decreased, while that of weeds increased due to abandonment.

Our results suggest that seed sowing of grass mixtures is a feasible tool for restoring grasslands at large scales. However, the resulting vegetation usually has low biodiversity, and a high density of weed seeds is accumulating in the soil seed bank even several years after the restoration. Therefore, post-restoration management is necessary for suppressing weeds both above- and belowground.  We recommend designing the long-term management of grassland restoration sites already when planning the restoration projects to ensure the management plan is ecologically and economically feasible.  We also suggest that complementing the monitoring of vegetation development with the analysis of soil seed banks is important for evaluating long-term restoration success.

Abstract

Sowing grasses supports the rapid development of a closed perennial vegetation, which makes the method universally suitable for fast and effective landscape-scale restoration of grasslands. However, to increase their diversity and to create a natural-like species-rich grassland is a challenging task. Understanding the role of seed bank compositional changes and vegetation dynamics can help to design management regimes that support the establishment of target species and suppress unwanted weeds. Our aim was to reveal the effect of post-restoration management on the vegetation and seed bank dynamics in grasslands restored in one of the largest European landscape-scale restoration project. Eight years after restoration, we sampled the vegetation and the seed bank in 96 quadrats located in 12 restored grasslands in the Great Hungarian Plain. In each grassland stand, we studied and compared a mown (mown from Year 1 to Year 8) and an abandoned plot (mown from Year 1 to Year 3 then abandoned from Year 4 to Year 8). Mown and abandoned plots showed divergent vegetation and seed bank development. Abandonment led to the decline of sown grasses and higher cover of weeds, especially in the alkaline grasslands. Our study underlined that the developing seed bank had a limited contribution to the maintenance of biodiversity in both grassland types. We found that five years of abandonment had a larger effect on the seed bank than on the vegetation. We stress that long-term management is crucial for controlling the emergence of the weeds from their dense seed bank in restored grasslands.

Kurgans in the Sacred Natural Sites Newsletter

What is the common point in sacred groves in the tropics, churchyards in the temperate zone and ancient burial mounds of the steppe region? Sacred natural sites are places that are valued for both their biodiversity and cultural, historical or spiritual importance. In fact, their sacred or spiritual values maintained their respected and relatively undisturbed status which made possible that these sites harbour important habitats, plant and animal species. There are several representatives of these sites, such as sacred groves, old cemeteries, churchyards and ancient burial mounds.

Spirituality and nature: Dambulla, Sri Lanka.

Kurgans are important sacred natural sites in Eurasia. They are ancient earthen burial mounds built by nomadic steppic tribes several millennia or centuries ago. There are approximately half million kurgans, from Central Europe to Mongolia in the steppe and forest steppe zones. Many of them often hold a high biodiversity and preserve the last remnants of the steppe vegetation. In this semester, the lead article of the Sacred Sites Research Newsletter was written about kurgans by Balázs Deák.

The Sacred Sites Research Newsletter (SSiReN) is issued twice a year, past issues can be browsed in the library of the Sacred Natural Sites Initiative's website. SSiReN focuses on research, on-the-ground conservation, and experiences from custodians and policy advocacy in relation to sacred natural sites. It is aimed at those who support of the conservation and revitalization of sacred natural sites and territories such as custodians, scholars, practitioners, traditional knowledge holders, and policy makers. You can find many interesting facts about sacred sites in the SSiReN webpage, and there it is also possible to subscribe to the newsletter.

You can read about our kurgan researches also in our former posts about the Eurasian Kurgan Database (here and here), flora and fauna of kurgans within and outside protected areas (here), kurgans in Bulgaria (here),  factors threatening the biodiversity of kurgans (here), and the conservation and cultural importance of kurgans (here).

Here there are a few pictures illustrating how interesting and diverse are the kurgans.

The largest kurgans can be higher than 10 meters. It took around 500 days of hard work of a lot of people to build these monumental earthen mounds. These large mounds are situated in the Maritsa river valley, South Bulgaria.

Large and smaller hills: kurgans in the Maritsa river valley, with the Rodope mountains in the background.

Kurgans are the most widespread on the lowlands, but they are also present in hilly and mountain regions. These nice kurgans are situated in the famous vine region near Brestovica, South-Bulgaria.

Diverse steppe vegetation on the steep slope of a Bulgarian kurgan. In the surroundings, there are no grasslands remained, only croplands.

This small habitat island in the ocean of the croplands provide the last refugia for the steppe vegetation.

Species-rich loess grassland on the slope of Csípő-halom kurgan in East-Hungary.

EGU 2020 online - European Geosciences Union General Assembly, addressing hot topics

The European Geosciences Union General Assembly is a large international conference which is held in Vienna every spring. This year the event will be held online between 4th and 8th May. The EGU conferences are large international and interdisciplinary conferences with more than ten thousand participants and hundreds of parallel sessions. This is the major event for European geoscientists, but there are several topics in the program that can be interesting and relevant for biologists and ecologists as well. It is worth to check the detailed program at the conference webpage, especially because all those who are interested can attend the sessions free of charge.

Besides the regular sessions, there are five featured topics that are discussed during the Union Symposia. These discuss overarching and interdisciplinary topics of EGU-wide interest, such as scientific integrity, UN Sustainable Development goals, fire in the Earth system, climate change and earth and planetary observation from space. I will give a talk in the 'fire session', entitled The role and impact of fire in the Earth system across spatial and temporal scales. I am very happy to take part in this interesting session and thankful for Elisabeth Dietze, the Session Convener, and the Co-Conveners Alysha Inez Coppola, Gitta Lasslop, Cathelijne Stoof and Sander Veraverbeke for the invitation.

The program of the Union Symposium on 6th May is the following:

10:45–10:50 Introduction
10:50–11:05 David Bowman: Adaptive thinking and the global fire crisis 
11:05–11:20 Fay Johnston: Landscape fires and public health 
11:20–11:35 Guido van der Werf: Fire - climate interactions in a warming world 
11:35–11:50 Cristina Santin: After the fire: biogeochemical effects of charcoal & ash on fire-affected landscapes
11:50–12:05 Orsolya Valkó: The contradictory role of fire from the nature conservation perspective
12:05–12:30 Discussion 

You can register for this program here.

Abstract of the Symposium

Recent record-breaking wildfires in the Arctic, boreal forests, the Mediterranean and, at the same time, human-driven decreases in burned area in savanna ecosystems show the need of an increased understanding of the drivers and impacts of fire regime changes under ongoing and future land management and climate changes. Fire is part of the Earth system since the evolution of terrestrial biomass 420 million years ago. Despite being a risk to many human societies today, fire has played an important role in human evolution and as a tool and target in land management for millennia. However, its role in biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem dynamics across various spatiotemporal scales is still poorly constrained, partly due to its complex feedbacks with climate and vegetation. The influence of fire on the atmosphere, vegetation, soil properties, hydrological and biogeochemical cycles and the impact on society require inter- to transdisciplinary research approaches. This symposium aims to provide state-of-the-art perspectives on the feedbacks and impacts of fires from the different fields. Leading experts in fire observations and modelling as well as post-fire impacts on local to global and across temporal scales will provide insights on key processes, drivers and important links of fire in the natural and human-shaped environments.