Soil moisture and a legacy of prehistoric human activities have contributed to the extraordinary plant species diversity of grasslands in the White Carpathians

0533892 - BÚ 2021 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Fajmonová, Zuzana - Hájková, Petra - Hájek, M.
Soil moisture and a legacy of prehistoric human activities have contributed to the extraordinary plant species diversity of grasslands in the White Carpathians.
Preslia. Roč. 92, č. 1 (2020), s. 35-56. ISSN 0032-7786. E-ISSN 0032-7786
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : forest steppe * Neolithic segments * semi-dry grasslands * soil moisture * species richness
OECD category: Plant sciences, botany
Impact factor: 4.167, year: 2020
Method of publishing: Open access

The factors that determine the unique species richness and composition of some temperate grasslandsare poorly known. Uniqueness of the extraordinarily species-rich grasslands in the WhiteCarpathian mountain range (Czech Republic, Slovakia), with many disjunct occurrences of species,have been previously attributed to intermittently wet deep soils, which facilitate the co-occurrenceof steppe and wet-grassland species, and Holocene continuity of open land, resulted in large speciespools. Based on a detailed investigation of 23 well-preserved regularly mown grasslands differingin their vegetation composition and species richness, we tested the relative importance of the hypotheticaldeterminants of compositional variability within semi-dry grasslands. For the first time weincluded measurements of seasonal moisture at different soil depths and landscape differences inthe intensity of the effect of prehistoric humans. The species richness was best explained bymean soil moisture, which increased towards the most species-rich grasslands, whereas the distancefrom prehistoric settlements had no effect. Basicity, moisture and the distance from prehistoric settlementshad significant conditional effects on species composition. We conclude that coexistence of species from different habitats is dependent on regular management and high soil moisture throughout the growing season. Due to intermediate moisture conditions that are tolerated by multiple ecological groups of species, many species may locally coexist and form a species-rich grassland community of unique species composition. In addition, prehistoric human activities contributed to landscape openness and helped maintain a forest-steppe speciespool during the Holocene forest optimum.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0312483