succession

We studied the relationship between the vegetation of the dry habitats and the surrounding habitats in 16 5 x 5 km large sampling sites between 2007-2009. With the repetition of the study we could follow the landscape-scale change. We conducted the repetition of the primary grassland and old-field habitats between 2019-2021. During this second survey we recorded the present land-use, and the type of cultivation and we made the vegetation survey again in 5 x 5m and 20 x 20m large plots.

We follow the spontaneous regeneration of the sandy vegetation on abandoned arable lands and vineyards from 2000, using 40 4 x 4 m permanent plots. This study serves also as a reference for the restoration treatments and the monitoring of primary grasslands. The dates of the previous monitoring are 2000, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2023. In the future, we plan to conduct the monitoring every fifth year.

n 2007 protected juniper-poplar forests and alien pine plantations were on fire near Kunfehértó-Kéleshalom. After the fire the monitoring of the regeneration was started in 2008 and since then it has been conducted once a year in both forest types. In the juniper-poplar forests we study the garsslands around 18 burnt and 18 unburnet junipers (along with adjacent reference grasslands) with 1m*1m and 5m*5m quadrats.

Fire is one of the most important human disturbance in Homokhátság and its impact is increasing due to climate change. We monitor the long term post-fire regeneration of grasslands in juniper-poplar forests in two sites (Bugac and Orgovány) in four stands respectively. We sample 10 grassland patches in every stand with five 1x1 m quadrat in each patch. The sampling has been conducted twice a year since 1997 in Bugac and 2002 in Orgovány. This dataset is the longest among the yearly sampled biodiversity datasets of KISKUN LTER.

We monitor the long term changes of the sandy grassland area at Fülöpháza village after the abandonment of grassing and in the view of climate change. We follow the changes of the vegetation in 200 4 x 4 m large, semi-permanent plots. The study started in 2000 and it was conducted biennial till 2010, afterwards in every fifth year. We executed the last resampling in 2023.