Miglécz et al. (2015) Scientia Horticulturae

Miglécz, T., Valkó, O., Török, P., Deák, B., Kelemen, A., Donkó, Á., Drexler, D., Tóthmérész, B. (2015): Species rich cover crop seed mixtures support organic farming in vineyards. Scientia Horticulturae, doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2015.09.017

Abstract
Developing sustainable farming practices to support ecosystem functions and services are key issues of agro-ecology and conservation biology. In organic wine production, preserving soil fertility and weed control are essentialtasks, because the use of synthetically processed herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers is strongly limited. Thus, itis vitalto propose and test alternative techniques to link issues of weed control, preservation of soil fertility and the improvement and conservation of agro-biodiversity. To fulfil these issues, the use of species-rich cover crops became increasingly integrated into organic wine production. We evaluated the establishment of three vineyard cover crop seed mixtures sown in the vineyards of the Tokaj region, East-Hungary to answer the following questions: (i) which sown species were successfully established during the first year after sowing? (ii) Which sown species established successfully even during the second year? (iii) How effective were the sown cover crop seed mixtures in weed control? We evaluated three types of species-rich seed mixtures: Biocont-ECOWIN, Grass-medical forb and Legume seed mixtures. Percentage cover of vascular plant species was recorded in the inter-rows in five 1 × 1 m permanent plots in late June, 2012 and 2013. All sown species established within the study period. During the first year mostly short-lived species established successfully from the sown seed mixtures. During the second year Lotus corniculatus, Medicago lupulina, Plantago lanceolata, Trifolium repens and Trifolium pratense established the most successfully, and had high cover scores at most sites out of the sown species. A significant weed suppression was detected for all sown mixtures (Biocont-ECOWIN seed mixture: at two sites; Grass-medical forb seed mixture: at every site; Legume seed mixture: at two sites). The magnitude of weed suppression varied with the sown seed mixture. During the first year BiocontECOWIN seed mixture was the most successful in weed suppression. During the second year the cover of weeds was suppressed most effectively by Grass-medical forb and Legume seed mixtures. Our findings suggest that high diversity seed mixtures are suitable to establish permanent cover crops, which enables to use them successfully at sites with different abiotic conditions.


Keywords
Agro-biodiversity, Biodiversity, Ecosystem services, Grapevine, Soil protection, Weed management

Horváth et al. (2014) Bulletin of Insectology

Horváth R, Elek Z, Lövei GL (2014) Compositional changes in spider (Araneae) assemblages along an urbanisation gradient near a Danish town. Bulletin of Insectology 67: 255-262.

Abstract
Spider (Araneae) assemblages were studied over two years by pitfall trapping along an urbanisation gradient of forested habitats (rural forest - suburban forest fragment - urban forest fragment) in a Danish town, using the Globenet protocol. During the two years, we collected 4340 individuals of 90 species, with money spiders (Linyphiidae) and wolf spiders (Lycosidae) being most numerous. One species, Ero aphana, was new to the Danish fauna. In 2004, 45-47 species were captured in the habitats in various stages of urbanisation, while in 2005 (with a smaller collection effort), 28 (urban) - 37 (rural) species were captured. Twenty-five percent of the collected species occurred in all habitats, but about half of them were only collected in one of the urbanisation stages. The number of shared species was the highest between the suburban and urban habitats. The highest similarities between assemblages (characterized by the Renkonen-index) were the within-habitat, between-year comparisons, indicating assemblage stability. Species turnover between years was lowest in the rural forest and highest in the urban forest patch (56.6% vs. 41.5%). Urbanisation did not reduce diversity in terms of species richness but only a minority of the species present in forests was able to remain attached to the reduced-size forest fragments as urbanisation progressed.

Keywords

Globenet, disturbance, biodiversity, arachnids

Török et al. (2014) PLoS ONE

Török P, Valkó O, Deák B, Kelemen A, Tóthmérész B (2014) Traditional Cattle Grazing in a Mosaic Alkali Landscape: Effects on Grassland Biodiversity along a Moisture Gradient. PLoS ONE 9(5): e97095. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097095


Abstract
Extensively managed pastures are of crucial importance in sustaining biodiversity both in local- and landscape-level. Thus, re-introduction of traditional grazing management is a crucial issue in grassland conservation actions worldwide. Traditional grazing with robust cattle breeds in low stocking rates is considered to be especially useful to mimic natural grazing regimes, but well documented case-studies are surprisingly rare on this topic. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Hungarian Grey cattle grazing as a conservation action in a mosaic alkali landscape. We asked the following questions: (i) How does cattle grazing affect species composition and diversity of the grasslands? (ii) What are the effects of grazing on short-lived and perennial noxious species? (iii) Are there distinct effects of grazing in dry-, mesophilous- and wet grassland types? Vegetation of fenced and grazed plots in a 200-ha sized habitat complex (secondary dry grasslands and pristine mesophilous- and wet alkali grasslands) was sampled from 2006–2009 in East-Hungary. We found higher diversity scores in grazed plots compared to fenced ones in mesophilous- and wet grasslands. Higher cover of noxious species was typical in fenced plots compared to their grazed counterparts in the last year in every studied grassland type. We found an increasing effect of grazing from the dry- towards the wet grassland types. The year-to-year differences also followed similar pattern: the site-dependent effects were the lowest in the dry grassland and an increasing effect was detected along the moisture gradient. We found that extensive Hungarian Grey cattle grazing is an effective tool to suppress noxious species and to create a mosaic vegetation structure, which enables to maintain high species richness in the landscape. Hungarian Grey cattle can feed in open habitats along long moisture gradient, thus in highly mosaic landscapes this breed can be the most suitable livestock type.

Keywords

Biodiversity, Cattle, Conservation science, Ecosystems, Grasslands, Grazing, Shannon index, Species diversity

Kelemen et al. (2014) Biodiversity and Conservation

András Kelemen, Péter Török, Orsolya Valkó, Balázs Deák, Tamás Miglécz, Katalin Tóth, Tamás Ölvedi & Béla Tóthmérész (2014): Sustaining recovered grasslands is not likely without proper management: vegetation changes after cessation of mowing. Biodiversity and Conservation, in press. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-014-0631-8


Abstract
Grasslands recovered by sowing low diversity seed mixtures of local provenance are usually managed by mowing. Besides restoration success only a few studies have focused on the direct effects of post-restoration mowing on recovered grassland vegetation. In this study we followed vegetation changes in 13 successfully recovered grasslands in 5 × 5-m-sized sites with continuous and ceased mowing at Hortobágy National Park, East-Hungary. We asked the following questions: (i) What are the effects of cessation of mowing on the vegetation structure and diversity of recovered grasslands? (ii) What are the effects of cessation of mowing on the abundance of sown grasses, target and undesirable species? (iii) Is yearly mowing an appropriate management tool for the maintenance of recovered grasslands? Our results showed that the cessation of mowing caused litter accumulation, while diversity, total vegetation cover and the cover of sown grasses decreased compared to the mown sites. The cover of undesirable perennial species was significantly higher in unmown sites than in mown ones. The species composition of mown sites remained more similar to near-natural grasslands than the unmown ones. Our results suggest that without regular post-restoration mowing the favourable status of recovered grasslands can rapidly decline due to litter accumulation and by the expansion of undesirable species, even in the short-run. We also stress that while yearly mowing is enough to maintain grasslands recovered by low-diversity seed sowing, it cannot be considered to be enough to recover target vegetation composition.


Keywords
Grassland restoration, Seed sowing, Abandonment, Post-restoration management, Biodiversity, Cirsium arvense

Gimesi et al. (2012) Applied Ecology and Environmental Research

Gimesi, L., Homoródi,R., Hirka, A., Szabóki, Cs., Hufnagel, L. (2012): The effect of climatechange on the phenology of moth abundance and diversity. Applied Ecology andEnvironmental Research 10(3): 349-363.

 

 

Abstract
When examining the ecological effects of climate change those databases which contain monitoring results of long-term time series have a key role. We used the daily Lepidoptera data of the Hungarian Plant Protection and Forestry Light Trap Network between 1962 and 2006 to analyse the influence of the change of temperature on the ecological dynamics of Lepidoptera. Using the quantile regression analyses we concluded that in the examined period, for the total number of individuals, seasonal phenomena shifted forward, however the days with higher diversity occurred over a shorter period. The analysis of the heat sums shows that the spring warming started earlier, although, at the same time the low quantiles of the captured Lepidoptera occurred at lower and lower heat sums over the years, while the heat sums at which the high quantiles of the number of Lepidoptera occurred showed a steady increase, meaning that the active period of the Lepidoptera community has expanded. A strong correlation was observed between diversity and temperature.

 

 

Keywords

biodiversity, quantile regression, climate change, Lepidoptera, light trap

Miglécz et al. (2013) Plant Ecology

Tamás Miglécz, Béla Tóthmérész, Orsolya Valkó, András Kelemen, Péter Török (2012) Effects of litter on seedling establishment: an indoor experiment with short-lived Brassicaceae species. Plant Ecology, DOI: 10.1007/s11258-012-0158-6

Abstract

Recruitment by seeds is essential both in vegetation dynamics and in supporting biodiversity in grasslands. The recruitment by seeds is feasible in suitable vegetation gaps from the seed rain and/or by establishment from persistent soil seed banks. Cessation of grassland management results in litter accumulation, which leads to the decline of species diversity by the decreased availability of open patches. Low amounts of litter is often beneficial, while high amounts of litter is detrimental for seed germination and seedling establishment of short-lived species. In a designed indoor experiment, we explored the effect of litter on seedling establishment by germinating six short-lived Brassicaceae species with both increasing seed mass and litter cover. We found that both seed mass and litter had significant effect on germination and establishment of the sown species. Small-seeded species were significantly negatively affected by the 300 and/or 600 g/m² litter layers. No negative litter effect was detected for species with high seed masses (Lepidium spp.). No overall significant positive litter effect was found, although for most of the species cumulative seedling numbers were not the highest at the bare soil pots. Our results suggest that the negative effects of litter are less feasible on the large-seeded short-lived species than on that of small-seeded ones.

Keywords

Biodiversity, Cruciferae, Litter, Seed size, Germination, Weed control

Csősz et al. (2012) Journal of Insect Science

Csősz S, Lapeva-Gjonova A, Markó B. (2012): New data on the geographical distribution and host utilization of the entomopathogenic fungus Myrmicinosporidium durum. Journal of Insect Science 12:129.

Abstract
Entomopathogenic Myrmicinosporidium durum Hölldobler, 1933, a fungus known to exploit several ant species, is reported for the first time in five countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey. The discovery of the fungus in Anatolia significantly widens its known distribution. In addition, this fungal parasite was found to utilize two hitherto unknown host species: Tetramorium sp. D (sensu Schlick-Steiner et al. 2006) and Tetramorium sp. E (sensu Schlick-Steiner et al. 2006). According to the new data, M. durumseems to be more common in Europe than previously thought, while its host range is considerably larger. In the present paper, data on its currently known distribution and host preference are discussed.


Keywords
biodiversity, disease, fungal, host ant, parasitism, pathogen