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The conservation of dry sandy grasslands is a global issue because of the restoration and conservation of endangered ecosystems to provide a sufficient amount of forage under warming and drying climatic conditions. Our aim was to explore the impact of military activity on sandy grasslands in Hungary. The sample areas chosen were the Little Hungarian Plain (I. and II.) and the Great Hungarian Plain (III.), consisting abandoned, restored areas; still-active military exercise fields; and shooting ranges. In each sample area, six to ten coenological surveys were made. Based on our survey, the closed natural sandy grassland was documented only in the Little Hungarian Plain and were found rich in species. The open sandy grassland was described in all studied sites, Festuca vaginata appeared in all of them, while Festuca pseudovaginata was observed only in the Great Hungarian Plain. In the open sandy grassland, the natural vegetation had the highest cover value (78.8%), the sowed grassland area had the least cover value (53.3%), while the III. sample area was also poor in coverage (56.5%) but consisted of a natural species composition favorable for restoration. Our results confirmed the indirect role of military activity in the successful habitat conservation of Pannonian dry sandy grassland ecosystems.

Our study focused on the compositional changes of Pannonian semi-natural dry grasslands. The preservation of these valuable habitats requires regular management. Our mowing experiment aimed to study the suppression of the native dominant Calamagrostis epigejos L. Roth in mid-successional grasslands. Mowing was applied twice a year in eight permanent plots. The vegetation was sampled annually from 2001 to 2021. The impacts of mowing were tested using repeated–measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). After 10 years, the cover of C. epigejos in the mown plots decreased significantly, from an initial average cover of 56.6 to 5.6%. In 20 years, it declined to 1.3%. Surprisingly, in the control plots, it decreased also from 63.7 to 6.9%. Species richness was affected by mowing: significant differences between mown and control plots were detected from the eighth year of our experiment. However, species richness steadily increased in both treatment types from 15 to 36 in the mown plots and 18 to 25 in the control plots, indicating a combined effect of vegetation succession and treatment. Our results suggest that long-term in situ experiments and comprehensive botanical studies are necessary to provide a basis for multi-objective management and reliable utilization of grasslands.