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Evidence‐based conservation can benefit substantially from multiple knowledge sources and different knowledge systems. While traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and collaborative research are increasingly acknowledged, detailed cross‐knowledge system reviews are scarce and their methodology underdeveloped. We have two objectives: to prepare such a review and to discuss the benefits and challenges of such reviews.We review pig keeping in forests and marshes, a historically widespread but nowadays almost extinct practice in Europe, but one with high potential for organic farming, conservation and restoration. We focus on what, when and how free‐ranging pigs forage in the wild. We review five knowledge sources: living and archived TEK, pig and wild boar scientific literature, and the authors' observations of foraging.Unexpectedly, given the amount of available information, archived TEK differed considerably from living TEK of svinjars (Serbian: traditional pig keepers), and scientific knowledge on pig and boar foraging from TEK. Svinjars deeply understood the consumption and avoidance behaviour of pigs towards 98 and 56 plant taxa, and 42 and 17 animal taxa, respectively. Our review showed that pigs are gourmet omnivores, optimizing and switching between foraging on earthworms, acorns, grasses and corn. Discrepancies between knowledge sources were rare, for example on the consumption of woody roots, earthworms, mushrooms and snakes/lizards. Sources were also complementary, filling each other's knowledge gaps.Topics where the cross‐knowledge system review was most fruitful were acorn foraging, browsing, earthworm and mushroom consumption. Differences in the contributions of the knowledge sources to the enriched picture resulted from the diverging interests and methodologies of the knowledge generators.We identified and discussed both the benefits (different approaches of knowledge generation; expanded time scales; complementarity; novel cause–effect explanations; identification of knowledge gaps; and biases) and the challenges (how to identify relevant publications and knowledgeable TEK holders; how to collate knowledge and verify its reliability; and how to conduct a culturally respectful synthesis) of cross‐knowledge system reviewing.Synthesis and applications. Cross‐knowledge system reviews help overcome limitations in ecological understanding and may provide a shared understanding among collaborating partners, build trust and foster acceptance of each other's knowledge as legitimate. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper includes 2 hawthorn species (C. lindmanii, C. rosaeformis subsp. curvisepala) and 9 hawthorn hybrid taxa (C. x kyrtostyla, C. x media, C. x plagiosepala nothosubsp. dunensis, C. x subsphaerica nothosubsp. fallacina, nothosubsp. jacquinii, nothosubsp. subsphaerica, C. x walokochiana, C. monogyna x C. laevigata x C. rosaeformis s. str.), including a mosaic hybrid individual (C. monogyna x C. laevigata x C. rosaeformis s. str.), from Hungary, giving the exact location data and site conditions of the new discoveries. A detailed survey of the core area of 3 forest reserves provided a good opportunity to observe the distribution patterns within the forest stand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: By analysing cattle‐ and sheep‐grazed sand grasslands, we tested the following hypotheses: (i) livestock type has a stronger effect on the vegetation characteristics than grazing intensity; (ii) sheep grazing results in lower biomass and species and functional diversity than cattle grazing, regardless of intensity; and (iii) increased grazing intensity causes a shift of the trait composition in grasslands. Location: Sand grasslands in the Nyírség region, East Hungary. Methods: We selected 26 sand grassland sites grazed by cattle or sheep and classified them into four intensity levels. Vegetation composition was surveyed in 2 m × 2 m plots. We harvested the above‐ground biomass from 20 cm × 20 cm plots; then dried and sorted it to live biomass, litter, moss, and lichen. We compared Rao dissimilarity index, species richness, Shannon diversity, evenness, and the community‐weighted means of nine vegetative and generative traits along a grazing intensity gradient. We calculated functional richness, evenness, and divergence for comparison. Results: We found that some diversity metrics and community‐weighted means of most studied traits were significantly affected by grazing intensity. Several characteristics were also affected by the interaction of grazing intensity and livestock type, but none of the studied characteristics was affected by livestock type in itself. Increasing Rao dissimilarity index peaking at the fourth grazing intensity level was detected, but for other multitrait indices, no such changes were proven, except for functional divergence, which was the lowest at the first intensity level. Graminoid, forb, and litter biomass were significantly affected by intensity, but none of the biomass fractions was affected by livestock type. Conclusions: We suggest that for the management of sand grasslands, grazing intensity should be carefully adjusted, considering not only livestock units per hectare. For practical recommendations, well‐defined, long‐term experiments studying different livestock and habitat types along an intensity gradient would be essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free-range domestic pig keeping in forests is a millennia-old practice in Eurasia, and remains common in many silvopastoral systems worldwide. Despite the long history of its potential impact on forests, the influence of this practice on the structure, composition and species richness of the understorey is hardly known. We studied the impact of free-ranging domestic pigs on the herb and shrub layers, and the consequences of abandoning pig keeping in a hardwood floodplain forest in Serbia, SE Europe. We recorded the cover and composition of the herb layer (incl. woody species) using 30 subsamples at each of the 56 sampling plots (1680 subsamples) in seven disturbance intensity and abandonment categories. We measured the browsing, rooting and rubbing impact on the shrub layer by sampling more than 3100 woody specimens. The cover of the herb layer decreased as disturbance intensity increased. We observed only a small compositional shift from currently used, slightly to highly disturbed plots in the herb layer, while the most severely disturbed currently used resting places and the abandoned sites were markedly different. The number and cover of hardwood forest species were the highest at abandoned sites, but only their cover showed a decreasing trend along the disturbance intensity gradient, while the cover of forest generalist species showed an increasing trend in currently used plots. The number and cover of forest ruderals were the highest in resting places in both abandonment categories, while the cover of non-forest ruderal and neophyte species was significantly higher only in currently used resting places. Unexpectedly, neither disturbance intensity nor abandonment had a substantial effect on the composition of the shrub layer. The cover of both the upper and lower shrub layers was the highest in plots abandoned 40 years ago, decreasing slightly as disturbance intensity increased in currently used plots. The impact of rooting and rubbing by pigs on shrub morphology (increase of resprouting specimens and specimens with distorted stems) was significant, while that of browsing was negligible. Our study shows that this previously widespread, but now almost completely disappeared land-use practice may have had a marked impact on the understorey vegetation of Eurasian temperate oak forests. [Display omitted] • The effect of free-range domestic pig keeping was studied in temperate oak forests. • Herbaceous layer cover decreased as disturbance intensity increased. • High disturbance intensity and abandonment markedly effected herb layer composition. • Disturbance by pigs slightly effected shrub morphology and shrub layer composition. • Landscape-historical interpretation needed for cautious land management application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]