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The impact of grazing absence in inland saline vegetation – a case study from Slovakia

  • Zuzana Dítětová EMAIL logo , Daniel Dítě , Pavol Eliáš and Dobromil Galvánek
Published/Copyright: September 17, 2016
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Abstract

Inland saline habitats of the Pannonian Lowland are highly threatened by drainage and lack of regular management, especially on their northern distribution limit. We studied the impact of abandonment on the dynamics and survival of saline vegetation through a 4-year field experiment on permanent plots in SW Slovakia (the northern part of the Pannonian Lowland). The examined grassland, alliance of Puccinellion limosae was grazed by sheep. Our results unambiguously confirmed that inland saline vegetation responds to the cessation of such natural disturbance very quickly. Species richness and number of halophytes in the scale of 0.01 m2 decreased by half already two years after the abandonment. The most obliged species to grazing was Hordeum geniculatum. This obligate halophyte dependent on disturbance has markedly disappeared on the non-grazed plots, while Elytrigia repens expanded. Moderate grazing is an important requirement for maintenance of halophytic vegetation.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Silvia Herianová and Scott Burgess for language revision. The study was supported by the grant of the Slovak Ministry of Education VEGA No. 2/0001/16 with additional support of LIFE10 NAT/SK/083 (project partner DAPHNE – Institute of Applied Ecology, Bratislava).

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Received: 2016-4-11
Accepted: 2016-8-18
Published Online: 2016-9-17
Published in Print: 2016-9-1

©2016 Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences

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