Deák Balázs

Institute of Ecology and Botany · Lendület Seed Ecology Research Group

Steppe is among the most endangered biomes of the world, especially in Eastern Europe, where more than 90 % of original steppes have been destroyed due to conversion into croplands, afforestation and other human activities. Currently, steppe vegetation is often restricted to places unsuitable for ploughing, such as ancient burial mounds called kurg...

Background: Burial mounds (kurgans) of Eurasian steppes are man-made habitat islands that have the potential to harbour rich plant diversity due to micro-habitats associated with their topography. Aims: We assessed whether kurgan micro-habitats harboured different species pools and functional groups from those found on the surrounding steppes. In a...

Eurasian steppes have an essential role in conserving biodiversity, but due to the huge habitat loss in the past centuries they are often preserved only in small refuges. Among such refuges are the ancient steppic burial mounds (the so called 'kurgans') which have a high cultural and historical importance and are also essential sites of nature cons...

Small natural features (SNFs), such as road verges, midfield islets, rocky outcrops and ancient burial mounds, provide safe havens for species of natural habitats in human-modified landscapes; therefore, their great ecological importance is in contrast to their small size. SNFs often have a high topographical heterogeneity and abiotic conditions, w...

In intensively used landscapes biodiversity is often restricted to fragmented habitats. Exploring the biodiversity potential of habitat fragments is essential in order to reveal their complementary role in maintaining landscape-scale biodiversity. We investigated the conservation potential of dry grassland fragments in the Great Hungarian Plain, i....

A gyorsan növekvő globális úthálózat komoly nyomást gyakorol a szárazföldi ökoszisztémákra, amely a legtöbb esetben állat-gépjármű ütközésben nyilvánul meg. Az ütközéseket befolyásoló tényezők megértéséhez elengedhetetlen az emberi tényezők feltárása, amelyeket egy online kérdőív segítségével vizsgáltunk. A megkérdezett járművezetők csaknem fele sz...

This study aimed to examine the vertical stratification of the soil seed bank in wet grasslands, with a special emphasis on seeds in deeper soil layers that are generally not considered in seed bank studies. We studied the soil seed bank at four depths: 0–10 cm, 10–30 cm, 30–50 cm, 50–70 cm in five study sites in Central Hungary. The seedling emerg...

Due to their complex life cycles geophytes are often neglected in conservation programs, despite they are important elements of early spring communities. Their life cycle is strongly affected by weather parameters, i.e. temperature, precipitation, and light, but the effects of these parameters are often contradictory and show high intra-annual vari...

Context Predicting how changes in weather patterns and land use jointly impact populations is a pressing task in ecology. Microclimate may play a key role in species’ local persistence by modulating regional weather effects. We lack sufficient empirical evidence to understand the relative effects of landscape structure and habitat conditions on int...

Predicting how changes in weather patterns and land use jointly impact populations is a pressing task in ecology. Microclimate may play a key role in species’ local persistence by modulating regional weather effects. We lack sufficient empirical evidence to understand the relative effects of landscape structure and habitat conditions on intraspecif...

Az ENSZ „ökoszisztémák helyreállításának évtizede” világszerte új lendületet adott az élőhely-restaurációs projekteknek. Bár általános egyetértés van azzal kapcsolatban, hogy szabályozni kell a restaurációs célokra használt honos fajok magjainak transzferjét, sok esetben a magok származásával kapcsolatos vita nehézségeket okoz a gyakorlati megvalós...

Germination characteristics of target species used for grassland restoration are often unknown, despite such information would be essential for designing restoration interventions. Filling this knowledge gap and improving our understanding about germination responses of grassland species to varying cold and warm treatments could be especially impor...

In the Eurasian steppes, ancient burial mounds called ‘kurgans’ are among the most widespread manmade structures. These sacred sites hold cultural values and often provide safe havens for grassland-related plant species. We established links between kurgans' cultural and natural values through a comprehensive multi-layered evaluation of human and l...

Artificial linear landscape elements, including roads, pipelines, and drainage channels, are main sources of global habitat fragmentation. Restoration of natural habitats on unused linear landscape elements can increase habitat quality and connectivity without interfering with agricultural or industrial development. Despite that topsoil removal and...

In the face of the global biodiversity decline, ecological restoration measures to actively enhance urban biodiversity and options for biodiversity-friendly greenspace management are high on the agenda of many governments and city administrations. This review aims to summarize and advance the current knowledge on urban grassland restoration by synt...

Earth harbours an extraordinary plant phenotypic diversity¹ that is at risk from ongoing global changes2,3. However, it remains unknown how increasing aridity and livestock grazing pressure—two major drivers of global change4–6—shape the trait covariation that underlies plant phenotypic diversity1,7. Here we assessed how covariation among 20 chemic...

Mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) constitutes a major fraction of global soil carbon and is assumed less sensitive to climate than particulate organic carbon (POC) due to protection by minerals. Despite its importance for long-term carbon storage, the response of MAOC to changing climates in drylands, which cover more than 40% of the global...

Due to their complex life-cycles geophytes are often neglected or mistreated during monitoring and conservation activities, despite they are important elements of early-spring communities. Their life-cycle is often strongly affected by weather parameters, i.e. temperature, precipitation, and light, but the main and combined effects of these paramet...

Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in dryla...

Empirical invasion ecology is laden with high context dependency. If general mechanisms underlying invasion success exist, they should be detectable in species that share biological and ecological characteristics. We carried out a growth experiment with Agropyron cristatum , Bromus inermis and Poa pratensis (subsp. angustifolia ), to better underst...

We aimed to investigate the reproduction-related traits of Vicia biennis L., an endangered and poorly known wetland species in its western marginal populations (in Hungary), and discuss the conservational and ecological implications. We measured the mass, viability, and physical dormancy of half-year-old seeds in five in-situ collected seed lots,...

In the Eurasian steppes, ancient burial mounds called ‘kurgans’ are among the most widespread manmade structures. These sacred sites hold cultural values and often provide safe havens for grassland-related plant species. We aimed to establish links between the cultural and natural values of kurgans through a comprehensive multi-layered evaluation o...

The existing plant trait databases’ applicability is limited for studies dealing with the flora and vegetation of the eastern and central part of Europe and for large-scale comparisons across regions, mostly because their geographical data coverage is limited and they incorporate records from several different sources, often from regions with marke...

Civilizations, including ancient ones, have shaped global ecosystems in many ways through coevolution of landscapes and humans. However, the cultural legacies of ancient and lost civilizations are rarely considered in the conservation of the Eurasian steppe biome. We used a data set containing more than 1000 records on localities, land cover, prote...

A kiadvány elsődleges célja mezőgazdasági művelés alatt álló területeken lévő ex lege védett kunhalmok gyepi növényzetének szakszerű fenntartását, állapotjavítását, helyreállítását és kialakítását szolgáló beavatkozásokra − tervezésükre, előkészítésükre és megvalósításukra − vonatkozó, gyakorlatorientált ismeretek összegyűjtése és közzététele. A le...

The objective of this long-term demographic study (LTDS) is to examine the effects of landscape structure and local habitat conditions on the persistence of plant populations in remnant dry grassland fragments. Land use changes such as the shift to intensive agriculture have dramatically reduced the amount and connectivity of dry grasslands. In the...

Place names are an important but vanishing part of cultural diversity, and their relevance for environmental sciences is increasingly acknowledged. Still little is known about whether the diversity of toponyms affects human–nature relationships and the decisions of humans on how to use certain parts of the landscape. To investigate this question, w...

Introduction Land use changes have seriously fragmented grasslands leading to extensive biodiversity loss worldwide. Habitat fragmentation affects grasslands at both local and landscape scales, adversely affecting the probability of species colonisation and extinction. In our study, we addressed the effects of fragment size and landscape-scale habi...

The rapidly growing global road networks put serious pressures on terrestrial ecosystems and increase the number and severity of human-wildlife conflicts, which in most cases manifest in animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs). AVCs pose serious problems both for biodiversity conservation and traffic safety: each year, millions of vertebrates are roadkill...

A kunhalmok ex lege védett természeti területekként jelentős biodiverzitás őrzői, mivel még az intenzíven használt mezőgazdasági tájakban is számos löszgyepi növényfaj előfordulása kötődik ezekhez a kis élőhelyszigetekhez. Természeti és kulturális jelentőségük ellenére az elmúlt évszázadokban számos halmot beszántottak. A közelmúltban azonban a hal...

Local biodiversity hotspots are often located within regions where extreme and variable environmental - e.g., climatic and soil - conditions occur. These areas are conservation priorities. Although environmental heterogeneity is recognised as an important determinant of biodiversity, studies focusing on the effects of multiple environmental heterog...

Background Burrowing mammals are important ecosystem engineers, especially in open ecosystems where they create patches that differ from the surrounding matrix in their structure or ecosystem functions. Methods We evaluated the fine-scale effects of a subterranean ecosystem engineer, the Lesser blind mole rat on the vegetation composition of sandy...

Sowing is widely used for the restoration of species-rich grasslands but still there are knowledge gaps regarding the most suitable application of different seed mixtures. We tested the effect of seed mixtures application timing on the establishment of sown forbs and weed control. 36 experimental plots with nine sowing treatments were established i...

We present PADAPT 1.0, the Pannonian Database of Plant Traits which relies on regional data sources and integrates existing data and new measurements on a wide range of traits and attributes of the plant species of the Pannonian Biogeographical Region and makes it freely accessible at www.padapt.eu. The current version covers the species of the reg...

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that in...

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that in...

As a consequence of agricultural intensification and habitat fragmentation since the mid-20th century, biological diversity has declined considerably throughout the world, particularly in Europe. We assessed how habitat and landscape-scale heterogeneity, such as variation in fragment size (small vs. large) and landscape configuration (measured as c...

Civilisations including ancient ones, have shaped the global ecosystems in many ways through a co-evolution of landscapes and humans. However, the cultural legacies of ancient and lost civilisations are seldom considered in conservation. Here using a continental-scale dataset containing over 1,000 data records on the localities, land cover, protect...

The most widespread nature-based solution for mitigating climate change is tree planting. When realized as forest restoration in historically forested biomes, it can efficiently contribute to the sequestration of atmospheric carbon and can also entail significant biodiversity and ecosystem service benefits. Conversely, tree planting in naturally op...

A Barcé-halom Dévaványa külterületén, a településtől nyugatra található. 1970-ben régészeti feltárás igazolta a kurgán késő rézkori–kora bronzkori eredetét, a dokumentált temetkezés a Jamnaja-kultúrához köthető. A római korban környékét a szarmaták lakták. A halomfelszínt a 18. század vége óta szántóföldként hasznosították. Az 1930-as években a kur...

A Mogyorós-halom Öcsöd és Békésszentandrás határán fekszik, a 18. században már határpont volt. A népvándorlás korában temetőt, a középkorban falvat létesítettek itt különböző népcsoportok. A 18. század végén már tanyásodott agrárkörnyezetben ábrázolják, az 1970-es évekig jellemzően szántották a területet. A kurgánt az évszázadok során számos bolyg...

Seed sowing is widely used for the restoration of species-rich grasslands but still there are knowledge gaps regarding the most suitable application of different seed mixtures. We tested the effect of seed mixtures application timing on the establishment of sown forbs and weed control. 36 experimental plots with nine sowing treatments were establis...

By using kurgans as a model system, our results highlight that an integrative social-ecological approach in conservation could enhance the synergistic positive effects of conservational, landscape and cultural values.

As we enter the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, there is an increasing need for finding nature-based solutions for the restoration of grasslands across the globe. Besides seed sowing, alternative restoration methods that build on locally available propagule sources, such as hay transfer, should also be considered and given high prio...

Background: Soil seed banks play a central role in vegetation dynamics and may be an important source of ecological restoration. However, the vast majority of seed bank studies examined only the uppermost soil layers (0-10 cm); hence, our knowledge on the depth distribution of seed bank and the ecological significance of deeply buried seeds is limi...

Large bird species, such as cranes are involved in human‐wildlife conflicts as they often forage in croplands. The Eurasian crane (Grus grus) is a large iconic bird species, protected across Europe, which, thanks to conservation programs and its ability to utilize croplands for foraging, shows a strongly increasing population trend. This exaggerate...

Large bird species, such as cranes are involved in human-wildlife conflicts as they often forage in croplands. The Eurasian crane (Grus grus) is a large iconic bird species, protected across Europe, which, thanks to conservation programs and its ability to utilize croplands for foraging, shows a strongly increasing population trend. This exaggerate...

A decrease in habitat amount and connectivity causes immediate or delayed species extinctions in transformed landscapes due to reduced functional connections among populations and altered environmental conditions. We assessed the effects of present and historical grassland amount and connectivity as well as local habitat factors typical of the pres...

Zoochory is an ecologically and evolutionarily important seed dispersal type. The decline and extinction of seed-dispersing large herbivores severely threatens dispersal-driven ecosystem processes in many regions. Hence the relative importance of small rodents and lagomorphs (Glires, Mammalia) as dispersal vectors might increase due to their ubiqui...

The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG; http://www.edgg.org) is a network of re-searchers and conservationists interested in the biodiversity, ecology, conservation and resto-ration of Palaearctic natural and semi-natural grasslands (DENGLER et al. 2021). The main aims of the EDGG are to facilitate research and scientific discussions on any aspect...

Fragmented natural habitats within human-transformed landscapes play a key role in preserving biodiversity. Ants as keystone species are essential elements of terrestrial ecosystems; thus, it is important to understand the factors influencing their presence. In a large-scale multi-site study, we surveyed ant assemblages using sweep netting and D-va...

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas. Bold global targets have been set for dryland restoration to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. These targets have been questioned as overly ambitious, but wit...

A full list of affiliations appears at the end of the paper. R estoration ecology is rapidly advancing in response to the ever-expanding global decline in ecosystem integrity and its associated socioeconomic repercussions 1-4. Nowhere are these dynamics more evident than in drylands, which help sustain 39% of the world's human population 5 but rema...

Aims Understanding fine-grain diversity patterns across large spatial extents is fundamental for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation. Using the GrassPlot database, we provide benchmarks of fine-grain richness values of Palaearctic open habitats for vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and complete vegetation (i.e., the sum of the...