Abstract
Riparian zones provide many ecosystem services and are a frequently found type of green area in urban ecosystems; these areas increase the aesthetic value of urban landscapes. The aim of this 17-year study was to assess the applicability of passive vegetation restoration of the gravel/sand bars that emerged after a devastating flood along the river in the city of Prague. The number of species and the sum of their coverages rapidly increased for the initial six years. After the twelfth year, the vegetation composition gradually began to stabilize. Species diversity increased for seven years after the beginning of the succession and then remained essentially unchanged. The diversity values were lower on finer substrates with higher proportions of dust and clay particles. The neophytes, i.e. species introduced after the year 1500, established with more successful on substrates with greater soil skeleton proportions. Finer substrates were preferred by graminoids; among them, the invasive Arrhenatherum elatius was the most abundant. The share of invasive species in the total vegetation cover initially fluctuated at approximately 40%; after eight years, it stabilized at approximately 10%. The proportion of naturalized alien species stabilized within the range of 20–30%.
The results show that a new type of species-rich vegetation spontaneously emerged on gravel/sand bars. The vegetation consisted mainly of native and naturalized non-invasive alien species. However, attention needs to be given to potential alien plant invasions.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening (research project no. VUKOZ-IP-00027073), the Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (project no. RVO 67985939) and was partly supported by Prague City Council. Special thanks go to Jiří Rom of the Prague City Council Administration for logistical support. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable and insightful comments, which have improved our manuscript substantially.
Funding
Jiří Dostálek has received research support from the Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening under Grant Agreement no. VUKOZ-IP-00027073. Tomáš Frantík has received research support from the Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic under Grant Agreement no. RVO 67985939. Lenka Pavlů is an employee of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. Partial financial support for all authors was received from the Prague City Council Administration under Grant Agreement no. S-DOT/54/12/013613/2018.
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Jiří Dostálek, Tomáš Frantík and Lenka Pavlů contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript.
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Dostálek, J., Frantík, T. & Pavlů, L. Passive restoration of vegetation on gravel/sand bars in the city: a case study in Prague, Czech Republic. Urban Ecosyst 25, 1265–1277 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01225-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01225-8