engleski

Assessment of the North Adriatic pastoral landscape (Ćićarija, Croatia)

European semi-natural calcareous grasslands are very species-rich ecosystems, considered priority habitats by the European Union (92/43/EEC Directive) and judged worthy of conservation. They are in strong decline in extension and threatened by abandonment throughout Europe. This trend has been also observed in the North Adriatic pastoral landscape (Poldini 1989 ; Kaligarič et al. 2006 ; Kaligarič & Poldini 2007) and on the Ćićarija mountainous plateau as well. This area (about 1, 000 ha) was studied in order to understand which factors drive floristic differentiation (environmental features and/or grassland management conditions), to identify indicator species sets linked to those factors and to appraise the effects of management type on the coenological and functional composition of indicator species sets. To achieve the research aims, 73 phytosociological relevés were carried out ; for each of them field data (altitude, aspect, slope angle and land form), productivity measurements and information on grassland management were collected. Redundancy analysis (RDA) identified a productivity- related soil moisture gradient as the environmental driving force of grassland floristic differentiation. The variability of floristic data set was better explained by environmental parameters than by management (use/not use). Indicator species analysis (ISA) detected the indicator species sets related to environmental features and management type. Shifts in coenological composition comparing used and abandoned grasslands, were linked to the entry of successional species in ungrazed pastures and to the loss of meadow species in hay meadows. The variations that emerged from the comparison of the functional characteristics of the indicator species of grazing and of mowing (avoidance strategy, life form, and storage organs) proved more important than those observed in comparing used and abandoned grasslands. Such changes could be explained because of the low intensity use of such pastoral ecosystems (undergrazing and lack of periodic mowing).

procjena ; pašnjački krajobraz ; Sjeverni Jadran ; Ćićarija

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