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• 13th International occasional Symposium of the European Grassland Federation

  143-144

  Geza Nagy

  Views:

  55

  2005. augusztus 29. és 31. között rendezte az Európai Gyepgazdálkodási Szövetség (European Grassland Federation) immár 13. szimpóziumát (EGF 13th International Occasional Symposium) az észtországi Tartuban. Az Észt Gyepgazdálkodási Társaság (Estonian Grassland Society) a Szövetség Végrehajtó Bizottságának (EGF Executive Committee) jóváhagyásával a gazdálkodás és a fajdiverzitás harmonizációját választották a rendezvény címének (Integrating Efficient Grassland Farming and Biodiversity). 29 ország 168 regisztrált résztvevője a szimpóziumoknál megszokotthoz képest nagyobb látogatottságot jelez, ami elsősorban a helyszín kiválasztásának volt köszönhető (dominált az észt, litván és lengyel részvétel).
  A tudományos program a szövetség alapszabályában rögzített módon bonyolódott. Hétfőn egész nap, valamint kedden és szerdán délelőtt zajlottak a szekcióülések, kedden délután pedig a szakmai tanulmányút (mid-conference tour) tette kerekké a programot.
  A szimpózium címéhez és a várható érdeklődéshez igazodva a rendezvény tudományos bizottsága 3 szekcióra bontotta a programot.
  1. A gazdálkodás és a természetvédelem kapcsolata
  (Connecting grassland farming with nature conservation)
  2. Az extenzív gyepgazdálkodás és a biodiverzitás
  (Extensive /low-input/ grassland farming and biodiversity)
  3. A hagyományos intenzív (átlagos és magas ráfordítású) gazdálkodás, valamint a biodiverzitás
  (Conventional intensive /medium to high-input/ grassland farming and biodiversity)

• Global challenges and demands for grassland use

  81-93

  Geza Nagy

  Views:

  59

  The purpose of this review is to outline the status quo regarding multifunctional and social demands on grasslands. The products and services that grassland ecosystems can provide society are detailed. Existing agro-policies are reviewed as to how they reflect social demands on grasslands. A farm level analysis considers many factors that may influence the fulfilment of social demands. Conclusions are drawn on the future of grassland use under different socio-economic conditions. Traditional (meat, milk, fibre, medicinal plants, fuel, power) and non-traditional (branded products, biodiversity as gene pool, biomass for energy) products are identified. Services of grasslands are summarized at three different levels viz. globally (regulation of climate, air quality, water resources, soil health, carbon sequestration, maintaining biodiversity), regionally (aesthetic and landscape values) and locally (preservation of cultural heritage, maintenance of the significance of religion for pastoralism). Targeted policies are emerging that assist in sustaining healthy grassland ecosystems and fulfilling multifunctional demands at different social levels. In spite of these policies, the future of the world's grasslands seems to vary by country, according to the level of development. In poor countries, production from grassland will remain of vital importance (in some cases, with the threat of ecosystem degradation), whilst at the same time, ecological and amenity uses of grassland appear to be ignored. Trends in the function of grassland ecosystems in developed countries seem to be just the opposite. The importance of production is declining, while ecological and amenity functions receive increasing attention in response to multifunctional and social demands. Due to the national conditions the future of grassland use in Hungary will differ from these patterns. The production from grassland is going to be negligible. The ecological role (landscape, biodiversity) will remain very important. Remarkable increase is predicted in the amenity role of grasslands following the overall economic development in the country.

• The Role of Grassland in EU Soil Protection Strategy

  3-15

  Gyorgy Varallyay

  Views:

  65

  The three most important life quality criteria are: healthy and good-quality food, clean water and pleasant environment. All three are closely related to the sustainable management of natural resources; conservation of soil and water resources; rational land use and landscape preservation. Soils are conditionally renewable natural resources, consequently, their rational use, conservation, and the maintenance of their multipurpose functionality have particular significance both in the national economy and environment protection. The main soil functions are: integrator (transformer) of other natural resources; most important media for biomass production; storage of heat, water, nutrients, pollutants; buffer of various natural and human-induced stresses; huge natural filter (preventing groundwater pollution); detoxication media of various harmful substances; habitat for soil biota, gene-reservoir, media of biodiversity; conservator of the natural and human heritage.

  The maintenance of these functions is the key-element of sustainable development on all levels of the decision-making process: Globe → continent → region → country → subregion → settlement → farm → field. The EU Strategy for soil protection focuses attention on 8 environmental threats, for their prevention, elimination or moderation:

  – water and wind erosion;

  – decrease in organic matter resources;

  – compaction and structure destruction;

  – soil sealing;

  – the increasing frequency, duration and degree of extreme moisture events: flood, waterlogging – drought;

  – point and non-point (diffuse) soil pollution;

  – salinization/alkalization/sodification;

  – decline in biodiversity (decreasing number and activity of soil organisms, narrowing their species spectra).

  The EU-conform Soil Conservation Strategy of Hungary was elaborated during the last decades on the basis of long-term soil survey, soil analyses, soil mapping and soil monitoring activities. It comprises three main tasks:

  – the prevention, elimination or moderation of soil degradation processes;

  – the reduction of the unfavourable economic, ecological, environmental and social consequences of extreme moisture regimes;

  – the control of the biogeochemical cycle of elements: optimum nutrient supply of plants; prevention of harmful soil pollution and contamination of the „food chain”.

  Grassland management has to play a significant role in these actions. In addition to fodder production, rational grassland management can considerably contribute to the storage, buffer, filter and gene-reservoir functions of soil, to the improvement of soil moisture regime, to the moderation of extreme moisture conditions, and to the reduction of soil losses caused by water or wind erosion. In spite of these favourable impacts grasslands (covering about 12% of Hungary) have never been in the focus of Hungarian agriculture.

  Grasslands were always restricted to marginal lands (sands, salt affected soils, peatlands, floddplains) with low and risky (highly weather-dependent) biomass production and low animal carrying capacity. Relatively productive grasslands were upturned for corn in large hilly areas (resulting serious erosion losses and landscape deterioration); the huge floodplain grasslands were used for other agricultural crops after flood control and river regulation; peatland grasslands were also considerably reduced by the drainage of these areas and used (not always successfully and efficiently) for arable crops. Huge areas became seriously degraded wastelands or „weedlnds” due to irregular grazing, lack of weed control, plant nutrition, water management. Under improper management not only the biomass production decreased considerably but the soil conservation functions of grassland were also deteriorated, sometimes dramatically. The poor and degraded grassland vegetation were not able to prevent (or at least moderate) water erosion losses in hilly areas, wind erosion losses in the dry sand regions or „over-drained” ameliorated peatlands, and even their gene-reservoir functions are sometimes threatened seriously.

  Rational grassland management is an important element of both the European and Hungarian Soil Conservation Strategy. Its scientific bases are well-known. The details have to be determined by further research and scientific programs. The existing knowledge should be broadcast using all available information channels: teaching and education on various levels; demonstrations; media programs, etc. A proper system of stimulating economy regulations should be developed and formulated in various-level legal documents. But first of all an environment-friendly moral must be developed accepting the concept of sustainable grassland management.

• Multiple uses of grasslands: Papers of the „Challenges and Aspects in Grassland Management” conference held on 22-23 May 2008.

  5-8

  Geza Nagy

  Views:

  92

  In recent decades grassland science has identified all those products and services, which grasslands can provide for society. Among commodity goods traditional (meat, milk, leather, fibre, medicinal plants, animal excreta for heating, animal power to cultivate crops) and new products (labelled food from grasslands, biodiversity as gene pool for plant breeding, grass for energy) have been discussed. Non commodity benefits of grasslands are discussed in global (mitigation of climate change, air quality, water resources, soil health, carbon sequestration, maintenance of gene pools for biodiversity), regional (aesthetic or landscape values, conservation of watersheds, facilitation of tourism and hunting, avoidance of disasters such as avalanches and landslides, buffer zones for power lines, rehabilitation of landscape damages in mining areas) and local (preservation of grassland based cultural heritage) contexts. These products and services are investigated from the points of sustainability and multifunctionality. Existing grasslands and turfs in the county are categorized according to their basic functions. It is concluded that grasslands are the only ecosystem that is able to fulfil so mary tasks and requirements. Future prospects of grassland use in Hungary are outlined from the point of multifunctionality. Production functions of grassland are facing a slight increase due to organic farming. Ecological function will maintain their high importance. Remarkable increase is expected in amenity uses of grasslands. 

• The role of haphazardly executed conservation treatments in the preservation of botanical values on the shore of Lake Balaton

  21-23

  Bence Fulop

  Balint Pacsai

  Judit Bodis

  Views:

  78

  Most semi-natural habitats in Europe have been traditionally maintained by grazing or mowing, which halted successional changes and preserved biodiversity on a higher level. Since the 1950s the large-scale mechanisation of agriculture resulted in expansion of cropland and the abandonment of grasslands became an increasing issue in Europe. Recognizing the negative consequences of abandonment in the diversity of wildlife, habitat reconstruction interventions for mainly nature conservation purposes began in the 1980s to preserve the biodiversity of these semi-natural habitats. 

• Kaszálás felhagyás hatása helyreállított szikes és löszgyepek vegetációjára

  21-29

  Views:

  70

  Grasslands recovered by sowing of low diversity seed mixtures are frequently managed by mowing. However only a few studies focused on the direct effects of post-restoration mowing on recovered grassland vegetation. In this study we followed vegetation changes in 13 recovered grasslands, in 5×5-m-sized exclosures with continuous and ceased mowing in Hortobágy, East-Hungary. We asked the following study questions:

  (i) What are the effects of cessation of mowing on the vegetation structure of recovered grasslands?

  (ii) What are the effects of cessation of mowing on the abundance of sown grasses, target and weed species?

  (iii) Is yearly mowing an appropriate management for the maintenance of recovered grasslands?

  Our results showed that the cessation of mowing caused litter accumulation, decrease in total cover and decrease in the cover of sown grasses compared to the continuously mown exclosures. The cover of perennial weeds was significantly higher in unmown exclosures compared to the mown ones. The species composition in mown exclosures remained more similar to reference grasslands than to the unmown ones. Our results suggest that without a regular post-restoration mowing the favourable stage of recovered grasslands can be rapidly vanished caused by litter accumulation and/or by the expansion of undesirable weedy species. We also stress that yearly mowing is solely enough to maintain grasslands recovered by low-diversity seed sowing, but cannot be considered to be enough to recover target vegetation composition. 

• The effect of mowing and pasturing on grassland vegetation in Mátra Mauntains (Parádóhuta)

  19-23.

  Views:

  92

  We carried out our surveys on grasslands near Parádóhuta. The sample area was a mountain grassland (Festucetum rubrae-Cynosuretum Tx. 1940, Soó 1957), which was mowed until 2013, then foraged with borzderes and racka cattle within the framework of nature conservation management for two years, and after that it became mowed again. We analysed the effects of foraging and mowing between 2013 and 2019.

  Our goals were the following: to disclose the vegetation of the sample areas (i), surveying the natural regeneration of the grassland and analysing, valuing the effect of mowing and foraging on grasslands (ii); analysing the vegetation in terms of nature conservation and valuing its life form spectrum (iii).

  The analysed grassland was very diverse in 2013, we noticed well differentiated Nardus stricta patches. In 2015 the vegetation became more mosaic-like because of heavy pasturing: animals have grazed arboreals and Nardus in lesser amount, but species diversity declined and coverage of shrub remained the same. In the last years of the survey foraging stopped, and mowing began, which increased the coverage of herbaceous plants, which approximated the values of the first years. According to our results, on these habitats systematic mowing has a much more positive effect on biodiversity and coverage of species marking naturalness.

   

• Long-term mowing on biomass composition in Pannonian dry grasslands in the Western-Cserhát

  35-38

  Judit Hazi

  Views:

  60

  This study is focusing on the vegetation of seminatural dry grasslands. Those loess grasslands are valuable with large biodiversity; however their long-term preservation requires regular conservation management. The report demonstrates the results of mowing experiment, designed to suppress the spread of unpalatable grass species, Calamagrostis epigeios. The study site is located in mid-successional loss grasslands, in the Western-Cserhát, near Rád, northern Hungary.

  The study aims to the investigate the followings: Can the unpalatable Calamagrostis epigejos be suppressed by mowing? Are there possibilities to increase the diversity of sward by this? The study aims, to measure potential value-increasing effect of mowing, and to determine the carrying capacity in the aspect of grassland management.

  In 2001, Camagrostis epigeios was the species with the highest coverage rate according to the both treatment types, with an average cover value of 63%. However, as a result of mowing, a significant difference was detected in the amount of litter and legumes species as well. The number of species showed a slight increase in both types of treatment, from 15 to 37 in the mowed plots, but also from 18 to 27 in the control plots. We concluded that mowing twice a year was beneficial to modify botanical composition of a grassland. In a way it was suited well for agricultural usage, in particular grazing which can replace the expensive and time-consuming scythe. It is also a suitable management measure for controlling the native invader species as a Calamagrostis epigeios, and can significantly increase the proportion of species with higher forage values.

  Mowing has significantly increased the density of Calamagrostis epigeios, the species richness, and the diversity in the course of secondary succession. Therefore, mowing twice a year proved to be a successful management measure for controlling Calamagrostis epigeios, and for obtaining a sward composition. The treatment was effective in restoring grassland composition, although the achievement and maintenance of favourable conservation status for the grassland habitat require long-term management planning and regular treatment. According to the objectives, mowing not only promotes the control of the invasive species, but also the economic utilization of the area.

• Recovery of grasslands in former croplands using the combination of seed sowing and hay transfer

  5-11

  Tamas Miglecz

  Views:

  58

  In accordance with general trends in agricultural and natureőconservation practice in Europe, grassland restoration and traditional grassland management has gained increased importance in Hungary. In grassland restoration using of low rates of seed (less than 30kg/ha) and hay cover is suggested. In the present paper the effect of hay cover combined with low rate of seed (25 kg/ha) is studied in early grassland recovery. We aimed at to answer the question whether or not the speed of grassland recovery can be increased with a combined use of seed sowing and hay cover. The establishment of Festuca species was favoured by hay cover combined whit seed sowing. The emergence of shortlived weeds was significantly lower on most of the fields treated with hay cover and seed sowing. The species richness and diversity of early weeds did not differ significantly in fields sown only and fields treated both with seed sowing and hay cover. Our results suggest that the combination of seed sowing and hay cover is successful in fields, where high rate of weed invasion is possible, thus intensive post-restoration management is necessary.

• Vegetation investigation of cattle pastures in the Ipoly Valley, Dejtár

  53-54

  Ildiko Turcsanyi-Jardi

  Karoly Penksza

  Eszter Salata-Falusi

  Views:

  111

  The most natural and appropriate way to preserve the biodiversity of grasslands is the utilization, which is confirmed by current research. Conservation management requires intensive cooperation between nature conservation and intensive grassland utilization. Therefore, we investigated the effect of extensive grassland utilization on the outskirts of Dejtár.

• Az avar rövid életű keresztesvirágú (Brassicaceae) gyomfajok csírázásra gyakorolt hatása

  3-8

  Views:

  42

  Recruitment by seeds is essential both in vegetation dynamics and in supporting grassland biodiversity. Recruitment by seeds is feasible in suitable microsites from the seed rain and/or by establishment from persistent soil seed banks. Cessation of grassland management by grazing or mowing results in litter accumulation, which leads to the decrease of species richness by the decreased availability of open patches. Low amounts of litter are often beneficial, while high amounts of litter are detrimental for seed germination and seedling establishment of short-lived species. However, the magnitude of these effects on germination and seedling establishment in relation to litter and seed attributes are scarcely studied. This motivated us to design an indoor experiment to explore the effects of litter on seedling establishment. We germinated six short-lived Brassicaceae species (Arabidopsis thaliana, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Descurainia sophia, Erophila verna, Lepidium campestre, and Lepidium perfoliatum) with different seed mass under increasing 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 g/m2 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; total seedling numbers was not the highest at the “bare soil” pots. Our results suggest that the effects of litter accumulation on the germination and establishment of short-lived species are less feasible in case of large-seeded species than on small-seeded ones.

• Biomassza-fajgazdagság kapcsolatok vizsgálata szikes gyepekben és vizes élőhelyeken

  57-61

  Views:

  43

  For an effective conservation and management in grasslands and wetlands it is essential to understand mechanisms sustaining biodiversity. Understanding biomass-species richness relationships is in the focus of recent scientific interest both from the agricultural and nature conservation point of view. We provided a detailed analysis of the relationship between major biomass components (total aboveground biomass and litter), and species richness along a long productivity gradient in grasslands and wetlands. We studied eight types of alkali and loess grasslands and five types of alkali wetlands in Hortobágy National Park, East-Hungary. We found that the relationship between total biomass and species richness can be described by humped-back curves both in grasslands and wetlands. was valid for the relation of total biomass and species richness. We detected the maximum of species richness at total biomass scores of 750 g/m2 in grasslands and at 2000 g/m2 in wetlands. Our results suggest that litter is one of the major factors controlling species richness in highly productive grasslands and wetlands. 

• 14th International occasional Symposium of the European Grassland Federation

  49-50

  Geza Nagy

  Views:

  59

  2007. szeptember 3-6. között rendezte az Európai Gyepgazdálkodási Szövetség (European Grassland Federation) 14. szimpóziumát (14th Symposium of the EGF) a belgiumi Gentben. A szimpózium témájául a rendező szervezetek (a Belga Gyep- és szálastakarmány Társaság – Belgian Society for Grassland and Forage Crops; a Ghenti Egyetem; a Mezőgazdasági és Halászati Kutató Intézet – Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research) a Szövetség Végrehajtó Bizottságának (EGF Executive Committee) jóváhagyásával az „Állandó és időszakos gyepek – növény, környezet és ökonómia” (Permanent and temporary Grassland – Plant, Environment and Economy) témát választották.
  A tudományos program a szövetség alapszabályában rögzített módon bonyolódott. Hétfőn egész nap, valamint kedden és szerdán délelőtt zajlottak a szekcióülések, kedden délután pedig a szakmai tanulmányút (mid-conference tour) tette kerekké a programot.
  A szimpózium címéhez és a várható érdeklődéshez igazodva a rendezvény tudományos bizottsága 3 szekcióra bontotta a programot.
  1. A gyep termése és annak minősége
  (Production and quality)
  2. A gyepgazdálkodási mód hatása a környezetre
  (Impact of grassland management systems on environment)
  3. A gyepgazdálkodás társadalmi-gazdasági következményei
  (Socio-economical consequences)