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A Felső-kiskunsági szikes tavakat látogatók körében 2015–2016-ban végeztünk kérdőíves felmérést a területen zajló LIFE Nature projekt szocio-ökonómiai vizsgálatának keretében. Célunk a felméréssel az volt, hogy feltárjuk a területre érkezők látogatási szokásait és ismereteit a szikes tavakról és azok élővilágáról, felmérjük hozzáállásukat a lehetséges korlátozásokhoz, és megismerjük ökoturisztikai fejlesztési igényeiket is. Vizsgálataink azt mutatták, hogy a látogatók a környező településekről kirándulás és kikapcsolódás céljából érkeztek, kevesebb mint egynapos időtartamra, és évente többször látogatták a területet. A szikes tavak értékeinek ismerete változó volt. A nem túl erős korlátozásokat a kitöltők nagy százaléka el tudta fogadni kellő irányított alternatíva esetén, de a fotózás térbeli korlátozásával kapcsolatban hezitálást mutattak a válaszok. A turisztikai programokban a természetvédelmi irányultságú programlehetőségeket támogatták, a fejlesztésekben a tanösvény és a madármegfigyelő torony volt a legnépszerűbb, de a komfortérzetet növelő alapinfrastruktúra kiépítését is preferálták. A projektben megvalósult és tervezett fejlesztések a válaszokban megfogalmazott igényekkel összhangban vannak, s megvalósításuk során a természetvédelmi és ökoturisztikai célok harmonizálása is biztosított. A program- és az infrastruktúra-fejlesztés ös - szeköthető a környezeti neveléssel, hogy e szép és különleges természeti értékeinkkel kapcsolatos ismeretek is bővüljenek, segítve ezzel a tavak megőrzését is. A kérdőívezés hasznos eszköznek bizonyult az ökoturisztikai fejlesztések tervezéséhez. A vizsgálatot érdemes megismételni a fejlesztések megvalósulása után is.

A hagyományos legeltetés kulturális örökségünk része, és egyben fontos természetvédelmi kezelési módszer Magyarországon. A természetvédők kiemelt feladata a legeltetés és az általa létrehozott életközösségek fenntartása. A fenntartható mezőgazdaságnak és a vidékfejlesztésnek is nélkülözhetetlen alkotórésze az extenzív legeltetés. Mezőgazdasági szempontból a legelőt csak a termelt takarmány mennyisége és minősége alapján értékelik, a természetvédelmi-biológia azonban az életközösséget fenntartó diszturbanciának tekinti a legeltetést. A vegetációtudomány vizsgálja a legeltetés hatását különböző gyeptársulásokra. A konkrét, lokális esettanulmányok igen fontosak lehetnek a megfelelő legeltetési módszer kiválasztásában. A tanulmány célja egy bugaci legeltetett és egy nem legeltetett terület összehasonlítása a vegetáció természetvédelmi értéke szempontjából. Négy mintaterületet jelöltünk ki: ( 1) legeltetett buckatető (Potentillo-Festucetum pseudovinae danubiale), (2) legeltetett buckaköz (Potentillo-Festucetum pseudovinae danubiale cynodonetosum). (3) kontrol buckatető (Festucetum vaginatae) és (4) kontol buckaköz (Molinio-Salicetum rosmarinifoliae). A növényfajok borításértékeit felvételeztük minden mintavételi helyen 10 db 1x1 m-es kvadrátban júniusban és szeptemberben 1991 és 1998 között. A növényfajok természetességi értékbesorolását Borhidi (1993) rendszere alapján végeztük el. A természetes élőhelyek fajainak borítás-aránya nagyobb volt a nem legeltetett területeken. A legeltetett buckaközben a csillagpázsit (Cynodon dactylon) nagy borítása miatt a gyomok aránya volt nagy. A legeltetett területeken azonban magasabb volt a fajszám, főleg a természetes zavarástűrő fajok nagy száma miatt. A legeltetett és a nem legeltetett területek fajkészlete jelentősen különbözött. Igen jelentős volt azoknak a fajoknak a száma, amelyek csak a kontroll területen fordultak elő, de még nagyobb volt azoknak a fajoknak a száma, amelyek csak a legeltetett területen voltak megtalálhatók. Ezek alapján megállapíthatjuk, hogy a bugaci pusztán a biodiverzitás fenntartásához szükség van mind a legeltetett mind a nem legeltetett területekre.

Changes of the social-political system in the last twenty-five years heavily affected biodiversity conservation in the post-soviet Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. We used a framework to present the effect of the two fundamental social, political and economic changes on the biodiversity and ecosystems of Hungary from 1989 until recently. First, following the democratic transformation in 1989 social, political, economic and institutional drivers led to the increase in farmland biodiversity, improvement of water quality due to less chemical use and decrease of habitat loss within protected areas. At the same time, land privatisation and uncertain ownership led to habitat degradation, abandonment and fragmentation. These changes were coupled with the spread of alien species and re-ploughing. The second change was joining the European Union in 2004. This resulted in the establishment of the Natura 2000 network, the application of the relevant EU policies, and access to conservation related EU funds, which contributed to successful habitat restorations increasing of some charismatic species' populations. Meanwhile, however, disappearance of extensive farming practices, agricultural intensification and infrastructural developments driven by some increasing EU funds led to a net habitat loss, degradation and decline in biodiversity, with more than half of the species of European importance having unfavourable conservation status. Increased support for conservation institutions, adaptive and extended agri-environment schemes and further research and monitoring to establish, refine and supervise sustainable management practices, including water management, are needed to prevent further biodiversity loss in the coming years.

In this study eight temperate grassland sites were monitored for soil CO2 efflux (Rs) and the spatial covariate soil water content (SWC) and soil temperature (Ts) at fine scale in over 77 measurement campaigns. The goals of this multisite study were to explore the correlations between environmental gradients and spatial patterns of Rs, SWC and Ts, which are not site-specific and to quantify the relevance of biotic and abiotic controls over spatial patterns along increasing vegetation structural complexity. These patterns in water-limited ecosystems in East-Central Europe are likely to be influenced by summer droughts caused by the changing climate. A consistent experimental setup was applied at the study sites including 75 sampling locations along 15 m circular transects. Spatial data processing was mainly based on variography. Two proxy variables were introduced to relate the site characteristics in terms of soils, water status and vegetation. Normalised SWC (SWCn) reconciled site-specific soil water regimes while normalised day of year integrated temperature and vegetation phenology. A principal component analysis revealed that the progressing closure of vegetation in combination with large Rs and SWCn values, as well as low Ts and Rs variability support the detectability of spatial patterns found in both the abiotic and biotic variables. Our results showed that apart from SWC the pattern of soil temperature also had an effect on spatial structures. We detected that when the spatially structured variability of Ts was low, a strong negative correlation existed between SWCn and the spatial autocorrelation length of Rs with r = 0.66 (p

In constantly changing complex social-ecological systems conservation organisations need to take steps toward adaptive co-management if they want to be effective in their conservation activities. In the surroundings of the soda pans of the Kiskunsag region in Hungary, a participatory process was initiated with the local national park directorate to understand the socio-economic context of the sodic wetland area, reveal the perceptions of local stakeholders about the current and preferable management of the area and start discussions with them about certain priority management issues related to sustainable use (grazing and ecotourism). In this article, we show how this process helped in taking the first steps toward adaptive co-management. For the assessment, criteria of effective adaptive co-management were derived from the literature. The results show that most conditions for adaptive co-management have already been fulfilled (e.g. identified set of stakeholders, sense of place shared or incentives for participation) and some social outcomes were achieved. The participatory process assisted the collaboration of stakeholders, which can contribute to positive economic and ecological outcomes in the future. Through the engagement of local stakeholders some conflicting management issues were resolved (e.g. accepting a wider range of grazing animal species and allowing flexible time for mowing) and collaboration started on ecotourism issues (e.g. information sharing with the assistance of the national park directorate). This process can be seen as the ‘formulation’ phase of adaptive co-management but more efforts are needed to move toward the ‘conjoint’ phase with more actions, monitoring and social learning. Our case also shows that ACM can be a good method for both conservation and rural development but supporting policy environment as well as financial resources assisting the participatory process and nature-friendly farming activities can be important for its long term success.

Lowland rivers and their floodplains have changed markedly over the last centuries. River dikes have become among the most extensive secondary habitats of former floodplains. Our main question was, what role do secondary habitats on river dikes play in harbouring plant species and maintaining plant diversity of lowland landscapes dominated by agricultural areas? We compared historical maps and current habitat maps to understand the effects of landscape changes on the vegetation pattern of the study region, in southern Hungary. Dikes and primary vegetation of the landscape were selected for intensive vegetation sampling. We compared the floristic similarity and the Shannon diversity of the vegetation types. We used ordinations to visualize relationships among the vegetation types and among dike vegetation and environmental variables. Our results indicated that profound changes have been brought about in the vegetation during the last 150 years, resulting in a transition from marshland to agricultural land. The species composition and pattern of dike vegetation strongly depended on their relative position to the river and their aspect. We conclude that dikes can harbour many vascular plants that are absent or rare in the surrounding habitats and therefore play a decisive role in maintaining plant diversity in agricultural landscapes.

Halting biodiversity loss is a critical aim for the forthcoming decades, but is hindered by the gap between research and practice. Bridging this gap is a significant challenge in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, where, compared to Western European countries, biodiversity is higher but the research budget is lower. Approaches to address bridging this gap include participatory research prioritizing exercises. These demand-driven collaborative ranking processes have proven to be a useful tool in providing a research agenda derived from a review of critical challenges based on stakeholder engagement. However, for research agendas to be effectively realized, they are best developed and implemented at the operative level of research financing and implementation. This paper shows the process and the outcome of an exercise conducted in Hungary aiming to compile the most important conservation research questions at the country-level and outlines a set of further measures and tools required for dissemination and advocacy for the research agenda. During the process 792 research questions were collated from conservation practitioners and natural resource managers based on interviews and via an online questionnaire; the final 50 most important questions were identified by practitioners and policy makers during an expert workshop. Questions are embedded in global and EU biodiversity targets and imply a pragmatic approach with the aim of identifying research that supports policy- and decision-making regarding habitat management, land-use and regional development, while also focussing on conflicting issues. The outcome of the process includes the potential for lobbying, therefore post-publication activities and dissemination strategies are outlined as an integrated part of the exercise.

Land use changes induced by nature conservation regulation and management practices, especially in protected areas, often result in trade-offs between ecosystem services (ESs). Exploring trade-offs between ESs and linking them with stakeholders can help reveal the potential losers and winners of land use changes. In this paper, we demonstrate that ES trade-offs do not always go hand in hand with conflicts. The perception of local stakeholders about trade-offs between ESs at three protected sites in the Great Hungarian Plain were assessed through qualitative methods. In all areas significant conservation measures had been introduced since the 1990s resulting in land use changes. Locals (farmers at each site and inhabitants at one site) were the main ‘losers’ of the land use changes and related ES trade-offs, while there were many winners at different spatial and temporal scales. Conflicts appeared only between locals and the national park directorates, and not between locals and other beneficiaries of the new ESs. Due to scale mismatch, locals might not be in direct contact with other stakeholders, and vice versa, and therefore there is no interface between them for confrontation and negotiation. Integrating scale into the analysis also helps in advising policy instruments to minimise local-level conflicts.

Questions (i) Which species dominate mid-successional old-fields in Hungary? How does the identity of these species relate to local (patch-scale) diversity and to the progress of succession? (ii) Which species have the strongest negative impact on diversity in spontaneous old-field succession and what generalizations are possible about traits of these species? (iii) Are these species dominant or subordinate components in mature target communities? (iv) Do native or alien species have stronger effects on the diversity and progress of succession? Location Abandoned agricultural fields (abandoned croplands, orchards and vineyards) at various locations throughout Hungary. Methods Vegetation patterns on 112 old-fields, in 25 sites varying in soil and climatic conditions, topography, landscape contexts and land-use histories were sampled. Most old-fields had appropriate seed sources in the immediate vicinity, i.e. natural or semi-natural grasslands (meadows steppes, closed and open sand steppes) as source and target habitats. Age of abandoned fields ranged from 1 to 69 yr, but most sites were between 15 and 60 yr. The cover of vascular plant species (%) was estimated in 2 × 2-m plots. Relationships between diversity, progress of succession (similarity to target communities) and identity of dominants were tested. Results A small portion of successional dominants (eight species) had strong negative impacts on diversity. These species belonged to Poaceae, Asteraceae and Fabaceae. Most of these species were wind-pollinated, and capable of lateral vegetative spread. Dominant species varied in size and had, on average, a low requirement for N but a high requirement for light. With one exception, Solidago gigantea, they were native to the Hungarian flora. Significant differences were found among the impact of successional dominants when dominant species were grouped according to their original role (dominants or subordinates) in natural communities. The overall effect of species identity was also significant. Bothriochloa ischaemum was identified as the species with the strongest negative effect on species diversity. Conclusions Our results suggest that mid-successional dominant species differ in their impact on diversity and progress of succession. Mid-successional plots dominated by alien species, or by native species that were originally subordinate in natural communities, regenerate less successfully and may temporarily arrest succession. Therefore, early colonization of native dominants should be enhanced with restoration measures.

Hydrological background of the dune slack vegetation in the Kiskunság In the southern Kiskunság the natural vegetation (sand steppe, fen meadow, fen or marsh and alkali vegetation) survived in the dune slack meadows (DSM). The vegetation of these meadows are species rich, and has high natural value. The main goal of this study is to reveal the hydrological backgrounds in order to help conservation of the natural values. Two DSM was investigated (MM and CS site): vegetation was sampled, observation wells were planted, and data of other wells in similar position were used to describe the hydrological background of the vegetation. The characteristic groundwater level of the same vegetation type in the relatively wet 2005 year was higher in MM site, than in the CS site. We suppose, that this is a consequence of the earlier vegetation change because of the strong decrease of groundwater level in the region of MM site. The model of hydraulic flow system showed that the DSMs are situated in hydraulic discharge zones. We suppose, that an upward flow plays an important role in development of alkali vegetation in the CS site. Cross-correlation coefficient between groundwater and previous precipitation indicated a quick infiltration of rainwater into the soil, and a pressure front of the groundwater stream reaching the area of well after 22-23 days after rainfall. The quick and strong regional hydrological changes, especially the decrease of groundwater level would endanger this valuable vegetation, but certain resistance and plasticity of it is rather possible.

Background Previous studies showed an in-depth ecological understanding by traditional people of managing natural resources. We studied the landscape ethnoecological knowledge (LEEK) of Székelys on the basis of 16-19th century village laws. We analyzed the habitat types, ecosystem services and sustainable management types on which village laws had focused. Methods Székelys had self-governed communities formed mostly of “noble peasants”. Land-use was dominated by commons and regulated by village laws framed by the whole community. Seventy-two archival laws from 52 villages, resulting in 898 regulations, were analyzed using the DPSIR framework. Explicit and implicit information about the contemporary ecological knowledge of Székelys was extracted. We distinguished between responses that limited use and supported regeneration and those that protected produced/available ecosystem services and ensured their fair distribution. Results Most regulations referred to forests (674), arable lands (562), meadows (448) and pastures (134). Székelys regulated the proportion of arable land, pasture and forest areas consciously in order to maximize long-term exploitation of ecosystem services. The inner territory was protected against overuse by relocating certain uses to the outer territory. Competition for ecosystem services was demonstrated by conflicts of pressure-related (mostly personal) and response-related (mostly communal) driving forces. Felling of trees (oaks), grazing of forests, meadows and fallows, masting, use of wild apple/pear trees and fishing were strictly regulated. Cutting of leaf-fodder, grazing of green crops, burning of forest litter and the polluting of streams were prohibited. Marketing by villagers and inviting outsiders to use the ecosystem services were strictly regulated, and mostly prohibited. Székelys recognized at least 71 folk habitat types, understood ecological regeneration and degradation processes, the history of their landscape and the management possibilities of ecosystem services. Some aspects of LEEK were so well known within Székely communities that they were not made explicit in village laws, others remained implicit because they were not related to regulations. Conclusions Based on explicit and implicit information, we argue that Székelys possessed detailed knowledge of the local ecological system. Moreover the world’s first known explicit mention of ecosystem services (“Benefits that are provided by Nature for free”) originated from this region from 1786.

A fen has vegetation that is actively forming peat and is fed by ground-or sur- face water (Joosten and Clarke 2002). In Europe a “fen meadow” is a ground- or surface water-fed mown grassland that does not form peat, since it was formed after modest drainage of a fen or it developed on a predominantly moist soil (Grootjans and Van Diggelen 1995). Therefore, fens and fen mead- ows are considered to be different ecosystems by most European authors. Others do not make a distinction between fens and fen meadows because the species composition of both ecosystems may overlap considerably (Wheeler et al.1995). In North America, fens dominated by tussock-forming sedges are referred to as ‘sedge meadows’, which are often grazed. Since there is not yet scientific agreement on whether sedge meadows are fens or fen meadows, we will refer to them as fens in this chapter.