Protection of segetal flora and vegetation in Poland (historical outline)

Abstract

Protection of segetal flora and vegetation in Poland (historical outline) The flora associated with crop land maintained a stable species composition for many centuries until the 1960s when profound and fast changes occured due to human activity. Factors that destructively affect given species, but also whole field communities, are: continuous chemicalization of agriculture (i.e. application of crop protection substances, pesticides, and mainly herbicides, as well as spreading of high doses of mineral fertilizers on crop land), introduction of sewing material that is completely purified from weed seeds, introduction of new races of crop plants, simplification of crop rotation patterns, introduction of new techniques of soil and plant cultivation and draining of cultivated fields. These factors have caused various transformations of the field flora, often abruptly and chaotically, such as the disappearance of numerous weed species. The rate of these transformations varies from country to country, region to region, and even field to field. These facts have made numerous investigators pay much interest to the conservation of the segetal flora, both in cultivated land and in preserved areas, such as national and landscape parks, botanical gardens and open-air museums. The problem of transformations in the segetal flora vegetation is a very important one both from the utilitarian and ‘nature conservation’ point of view.