Impact of Land Use Changes on the Diversity and Conservation Status of the Vegetation of Mountain Grasslands (Polish Carpathians)

Jan Zarzycki,Joanna Korzeniak,Joanna Perzanowska

doi:10.3390/land11020252

Jan Zarzycki, Joanna Korzeniak + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/land11020252

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Abstract

In recent decades, in the Polish Carpathians, agriculture has undergone major changes. Our goal was to investigate whether the former management (plowing or mowing and grazing) had an impact on the current species composition, diversity and conservation status of the vegetation of grazing areas. We carried out vegetation studies on 45 grazing sites with traditional methods of grazing (transhumant pastoralism). The survey covered both old (continuous) grasslands and grasslands on former arable land. The most widespread were Cynosurion pastures and mesic Arrhenatherion grasslands. Wet Calthion meadows occurred at more than a half of grazing sites, while nutrient-poor Nardetalia grasslands were only recorded at several grazing sites. For each grazing site, we used soil maps from the 1960s to read land use in the past. We mapped present grassland and arable land area. Compared with the 1960s, there was a significant decrease in the area of arable land and an increase in grasslands. Species diversity was greater in grazing sites where grasslands developed on former arable land. However, this diversity was associated mainly with the occurrence of common grassland species. Cynosurion pastures and wet Calthion meadows had the best conservation status, while nutrient-poor Nardetalia grasslands were the worst preserved. We concluded that the conservation status of mesic grasslands and pastures is dependent on the present diversity of land use within a grazing site, rather than the land use history 60 years ago. This is the first study of the natural, not economic, value of pasture vegetation in the Polish part of the Carpathians.

Highlights

Grasslands provide a variety of ecosystem services, such as cultural landscape and environmental values [1]
The aim of this work was to characterize the sites used for traditional pastoralism, treated as a kind of functional unit, in terms of a) the species composition and diversity of plant communities occurring in these areas, b) the evaluation conservation status of these communities, and c) the impact of land use in the past and historical and present grassland area to arable land area ratio, on the species diversity and conservation status of grassland
In the 1960s, arable fields dominated in the areas of analyzed grazing sites, and only 3 sites were entirely without them (Figure 3)

Summary

Introduction

Grasslands provide a variety of ecosystem services, such as cultural landscape and environmental values [1] They are significant reservoirs of biodiversity and belong to the most species‐rich plant communities in Europe [2]. In marginal areas less suitable for agriculture, land use is abandoned, which promotes secondary forest succession and the disappearance of grassland communities [10,11,12]. It is disadvantageous because grassland communities in infertile habitats are characterized by the highest natural value and diversity [9,13]. Similar processes were observed in other montane regions, e.g., in the Caucasus [16], in Slovakia [17]

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