Martin Harásek’s research while affiliated with Masaryk University and other places

Aims Shallow soils on acidic bedrock in dry areas of Central Europe support dry grasslands and heathlands that were formerly used as extensive pastures. These habitats are of high conservation value, but their abandonment in the 20th century triggered slow natural succession that poses a threat to specialized plant species. We asked how this vegetation and its plant diversity have changed over the past three decades and whether protected areas have positively affected habitat quality. Location Southwestern and central Moravia, Czech Republic. Methods In 2018–2019, we resurveyed 94 vegetation plots first sampled in 1986–1991 at 47 acidic dry grassland and heathland sites. We compared the number of all vascular plant species, Red List species and alien species per plot using parametric and non-parametric tests, life-form spectra using the chi-square test, species composition using detrended correspondence analysis, and indicator values using a permutation test. We also compared these changes between sites within and outside protected areas. Results Vegetation changes over the past three decades have been relatively small. However, we detected a decrease in total species richness, the number of Red List species and the number of characteristic species of dry grasslands. Neophytes were infrequent, while archaeophytes increased slightly. The competitive tall grass Arrhenatherum elatius, annual species and young woody plants increased in abundance or newly established at many sites. Indicator values did not change except for a slight increase in nutrient values. These negative trends occurred both within and outside protected areas but were more pronounced outside. Conclusions Formerly grazed acidic dry grasslands and heathlands in Moravia are slowly losing habitat specialists, including threatened plant species, and are increasingly dominated by Arrhenatherum elatius. Conservation management, especially cutting in protected areas, slows down the negative trends of decline in plant diversity and habitat quality but is insufficient to halt these processes completely.

Halophytic habitats are distinctive components of the landscape in southern Moravia, Czech Republic, and the Pulkau valley in northern Lower Austria. We provide a historical overview of their flora and vegetation since the early 19th century and describe the current state assessed in the field at all remaining sites in 2020. We summarized the historical and current distribution of 17 species with the strongest affinity for saline habitats in the study area: Bupleurum tenuissimum, Cirsium brachycephalum, Crypsis aculeata, C. schoenoides, Galatella cana, Glaux maritima, Juncus gerardii, Plantago maritima, Salicornia perennans, Samolus valerandi, Scorzonera parviflora, Spergularia marina, S. media, Suaeda prostrata, Taraxacum bessarabicum, Triglochin maritima and Tripolium pannonicum. Of these, Galatella cana, Salicornia perennans, Suaeda prostrata and Triglochin maritima are regionally extinct. We also characterized the bryoflora typical of saline habitats. We classified historical and newly recorded relevés and identified 14 halophytic associations belonging to the alliances Chenopodion rubri, Meliloto dentati-Bolboschoenion maritimi, Cypero-Spergularion salinae, Salicornion prostratae, Puccinellion limosae, Juncion gerardii and Festucion pseudovinae. The vegetation of the alliance Salicornion prostratae had disappeared in the study area by the 1970s. The alliance Festucion pseudovinae, with the association Centaureo pannonicae-Festucetum pseudovinae, was recognized as a new vegetation type for the Czech Republic. Using soil pH and electrical conductivity measurements, we evaluated the relationships of individual species and vegetation types to soil salinity. This synthetic study shows that the once well-developed halophytic flora and vegetation in the study area steadily declined from the early 19th century to the 1980s, initially mainly due to drainage and after the mid-20th century due to the combination of drainage and cessation of grazing. The introduction of conservation management in the 1990s and ecological restoration contributed to stabilizing plant diversity at the last saline sites. The future of halophytic flora and vegetation depends on the continuation of conservation management.

An Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-021-09391-x

The Caucasus harbours unique forest vegetation so far only little studied using the Braun-Blanquet approach. This study is mostly based on a dataset (N = 110) of original phytosociological relevés of oak-hornbeam and ravine forests in the Eastern Greater Caucasus, Georgia. Their unsupervised classification produced seven communities. Five belong to oak-hornbeam forests (order Lathyro-Carpinetalia caucasicae). Of the zonal Caucasian alliance Crataego-Carpinion, the association Corno australis-Carpinetum inhabits valleys of the Greater Caucasus, and Clinopodio umbrosi-Carpinetum is confined to the warm Eastern Greater Caucasus promontories. The association Astrantio maximae-Carpinetum of the alliance Astrantio-Carpinion represents distinctive Caucasian montaneoak-hornbeam forests. The other two communities, documented by a few relevés, were described at the community level only. Within ravine forests (order Aceretalia pseudoplatani), we introduce a new Caucasian alliance Pachyphragmo macrophyllae-Tilion begoniifoliae with two associations. Valeriano tiliifoliae-Ulmetum glabrae comprises Caucasian montane ravine forests whereas Hedero pastuchovii-Aceretum velutini inhabits the foothills of the Eastern Greater Caucasian. To provide a broader context of the recognized communities, an expanded dataset (N = 231) of original relevés and previously published relevés of Georgian deciduous forests was analysed. It indicated a major turnover in species composition following biogeographical patterns presumably driven by macroclimate and vegetation history.

This is the twelfth of a series of miscellaneous contributions, by various authors, where hitherto unpublished data relevant to both the Med-Checklist and the Euro+Med (or Sisyphus) projects are presented. This instalment deals with the families Asparagaceae (incl. Hyacinthaceae), Boraginaceae, Cactaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Compositae, Crassulaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gramineae, Haloragaceae, Iridaceae, Labiatae, Leguminosae, Malvaceae, Orchidaceae, Orobanchaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Polygonaceae, Rosaceae, Scrophulariaceae (incl. Buddlejaceae), Solanaceae and Umbelliferae. It includes new country and area records and taxonomic and distributional considerations for taxa in Abutilon, Aegilops, Amelanchier, Andryala, Aruncus, Asparagus, Bellevalia, Brugmansia, Buglossoides, Bupleurum, Cortaderia, Crassula, Datura, Dysphania, Euphorbia, Fallopia, Iris, Lycianthes, Myriophyllum, Nicodemia, Onobrychis, Ophrys, Opuntia, Orobanche, Phelipanche, Plumbago, Salvia, Silene, Stellaria and Wisteria, and new combinations in Amelanchier and Phelipanche.