Kurgans in transformed landscapes - Paper in Biological Conservation

Our paper about the role of kurgans in preserving grassland biodiversity outside protected areas has been published in Biological Conservation (link to the online article).

Deák, B., Valkó, O., Nagy D. D., Török, P., Torma, A., Lőrinczi, G., Kelemen, A., Nagy, A., Bede, Á., Mizser, Sz., Csathó, A.I., Tóthmérész, B. Habitat islands outside nature reserves – threatened biodiversity hotspots of grassland specialist plant and arthropod species. Biological Conservation (in press)

In transformed landscapes, many populations of grassland specialist plant and animal species live outside the few protected areas and are often preserved on 'small natural features' (SNFs) such as road verges, field margins and rocky outcrops. In the steppe and forest steppe zones of Eurasia ancient burial mounds (kurgans) are widespread SNFs providing refuge for grassland species. Based on a large-scale botanical and zoological survey of 138 kurgans in Hungary, we compared the management regimes, the presence of threatening factors and the conservation potential of kurgans embedded in non-protected transformed landscapes and in protected areas. We found that kurgans extend the borders of the protected areas by maintaining populations of grassland specialist plants and arthropods (ants, orthopterans, true bugs and rove beetles) even in transformed landscapes. We revealed that the lack of proper management, the presence of anthropogenic disturbances and encroachment of woody species are the most considerable threats to the long-term maintenance of biodiversity on kurgans located outside the protected areas. For their effective conservation a new approach is needed, which can cope with the small area and dispersed localities of the kurgans and can integrate them into the network of other SNFs on a landscape-level. As the ecological importance of kurgans is disproportionate to their size conservation actions focusing on their protection offers a greater rate of return of the efforts than can be expected in case of larger continuous sites.

Map of the surveyed 138 kurgans in Hungary. Notations: blue triangles – kurgans outside the protected areas (n =78), green circles– kurgans inside the protected areas (n = 60). Picture on the top – Két-halom kurgan embedded in intensive agricultural fields; on the bottom – Sáros-ér-halom kurgan surrounded by grasslands.

Call for contributions to the new EDGG-edited Special Feature in Hacquetia

6th EDGG Special Feature in Hacquetia 2021: Fauna, flora, vegetation and conservation of Palaearctic natural and semi-natural grasslands

The submission of manuscripts for the EDGG-edited Special Feature in Hacquetia 2021 is open. We welcome manuscripts about natural and semi-natural grasslands, on all taxa and from any region in the Palaearctic realm (Europe; West, Central and North Asia; North Africa).

Hacquetia is the international journal of the Biological Branch of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences. It appears in two issues per year, both in print and online. Through offering longer articles, open access publication and free reproduction of colour figures, it is a very attractive publication venue. Currently it is indexed in the Scopus and BIOSIS literature databases, and it is likely to be included in the Web of Science in the near future.

This Special Issue will be the 6th EDGG-edited Special Issue in Hacquetia, following the five successful issues in 2014/1, 2015/1, 2016/2, 2018/1 and 2019/2. This Special Issue will appear as the first issue of 2021, to be published approximately in January 2021, with about 150–250 pages reserved for our articles. It will also contain a report on the EDGG activities of the previous year.

Procedure and deadlines: The deadline for full-text submission is 15 January 2020 and manuscripts will undergo the normal peer-review process. If you are interested in contributing a manuscript for this comprehensive Special Issue, then please contact me and submit your manuscript to me.

Author guidelines can be found at the journal homepage.

Guest Editor Team:

Orsolya Valkó (Hungary, Chair of the Guest Editors)
Stephen Venn (Finland)
Sabina Burrascano (Italy)
Salza Palpurina (Bulgaria)
Rocco Labadessa (Italy)
Atushi Ushimaru (Japan)

Contact for questions and submission of manuscripts:

Orsolya Valkó (valkoorsi@gmail.com)

Successful DSc defense

I have successfully defended my Doctor of Science dissertation on 18th September.

The title of the DSc dissertation is  Deák, B. (2019): The role of habitat heterogeneity, landscape configuration and land use in maintaining the habitat patterns and species composition of grassland communities.

The dissertation, the thesis, the reviews and the answers to the reviewers can be downloaded from the following link: http://real-d.mtak.hu/1142/

I would like to say thanks to everybody who contributed to the researches and publications which served as a basis for the dissertation.

GfÖ in Münster - The 49th Conference of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland

This year the GfÖ conference was organised by Norbert Hölzel, Christoph Scherber & Julia Tiede in Münster. This was a really interesting and lively event, with 40 thematic sessions and more than 500 oral and poster presentations. The main topic of the conference was the link between the science of ecology and the practice of nature conservation, the motto of the conference was 'Science meets practice'. They organized a practitioners day with a lot of interesting applied topics, and there where also several interesting sessions where we could listen to presentations about new concepts and theories in ecology.

We presented our talks in the thematic session on Conservation and Restoration, the title of our talks were:

Deák, B., Valkó, O., Nagy D. D., Török, P., Torma, A., Lőrinczi, G., Kelemen, A., Nagy, A., Bede, Á., Mizser, Sz., Csathó, A.I., Tóthmérész, B.: Kurgans as refuges for grassland species: large-scale multi-taxon study on Eurasian burial mounds.

Valkó, O., Tóthmérész, B., Miglécz, T., Lukács, K., Kiss, R., Kelemen, A., Godó, L., Deák, B.: Environmental heterogeneity is a major driver of community assembly – Lessons from the restoration of landscape scars.

The Harbour in Münster is a very nice place.

The city of Münster has a large area of urban green spaces. The largest one is the park next to the Aasee lake.

In the park next to the Aasee there are several biodiverse tallgrass meadows. Information tables explain the value of tallgrass meadows in maintaining biodiversity. This is a great initiation to have some nature in the city!

Biodiverse tallgrass meadow and a shortgrass lawn in the park next to the Aasee.

FIRELinks – European cooperation for understanding fire

Fire has been part of the Earth System for the last 400 million years and humans are the sole species that controls and manages fire. We have used fire for over a million years, both, as hunter-gatherers to manage the landscape, and as farmers to maintain land productivity. Fire has undoubtedly been the most influential element in the development of human societies. Nevertheless, fire has always been a natural hazard, with socioeconomic changes and more recently climate change exasperating its frequency and impact.

The accumulated dry biomass can burn easily.

Wildfires are a common occurrence every summer and the risk of devastating fires does not only affect the southern EU countries. Fire also affects Alpine, Temperate, Boreal and Tundra ecosystems, with particularly notable 2010 fires around Moscow, which led to many smoke-related deaths, the 2014 fires in Sweden, their largest in recorded history, and even the unprecedented forest fires currently burning for over a month in the Arctic Circle. In Hungary, large wildfires are scarce, but small-scale fires occur almost every day in the spring and summer fire seasons. Due to expected further intensification and geographical spreading of wildfire regimes under Global Change there is an urgent societal need to connect research initiatives across Europe and boost scientists research, career and innovation in the field of fire.

Burning cork oak forest in Sicily.

In this context, the FIRElinks COST Action will develop the EU-spanning network of scientists and practitioners involved in forest fire research and land management and connect communities from different scientific and geographic backgrounds, allowing the discussion of different experiences and the emergence of new approaches to fire research. The main aim of FIRElinks is to power synergistic collaborations between European research groups and stakeholders with the objective to synthesise the existing knowledge and expertise, and to define a concerted research agenda which promotes an integrated approach to create fire-resilient landscapes, taking into account science, perception and policy constraints and opportunities.

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. COST creates spaces where scientists are in the driving seat (bottom-up) and ideas can grow through a flexible and open approach. By enabling researchers from academia, industry and the public and private sector to work together in open networks that transcend borders, COST helps to advance science, stimulates knowledge sharing and pools resources.

Orsolya Valkó (MTA-DE Lendület Seed Ecology Research Group) and Miklós Kertész (HAS Centre for Ecological Research) participates in the FIRElinks COST Action from Hungary. FIRElinks will have its First General Assembly & 2nd MC meeting in Sofia on the 8th and 9th of October 2019 where Action Chair Artemi Cerdà and Action Vice Chair Stefan Doerr will introduce Action Members to the FIRElinks mission and current research and developments in the field will be discussed. FIRElinks will be implemented for a period of four years and results will contribute to a better understanding of fire occurrence, dynamics and prevention, as well as its effects on the ecosystem and the society.

Resprouting vegetation in a recently burned wetland.