Changes in the plant cover of the dune hill in Folusz near Szubin (NW Poland) between 1959 and 2012: the problem of preservation of xerothermic grasslands in the agricultural landscape

Abstract

The dune hill in Folusz is one of the most interesting sites with xerothermic vegetation in the Polish lowland. It is different from other sites by the fact that xerothermic vegetation covers a single dune located amidst large areas of Molinia meadows rather than slopes of river valleys. Vegetation occurring on the hill represents a cold Stipa steppe with rare species of floodplain meadows and has long aroused the interest of botanists. In the 19th century and in the early 20th century, observations in this area were carried out by German botanists (L. Kühling, F. Spribille, H. Miller, W. Bock). In the 1930s, the investigation was continued by botanists from the University in Poznań. After World War II, it was one of the main research sites for botanists and ecologists from the University in Toruń, and recently also from the universities in Bydgoszcz. Floristic lists were compiled by all the aforementioned researchers, which describe the state of flora in the subsequent periods, and when collated in tables, they help to determine the directions of changes occurring in the area over a hundred years. Not all the materials obtained in the past were published. A lot of interesting data were preserved in the Toruń centre in the form of actual vegetation maps and relevés. This paper presents the comparison of vegetation from 1959, plotted on the unpublished vegetation map by J. Wilkoń-Michalska, with the vegetation in 2013. Changes in the land cover were also analysed through a series of aerial photographs from 1961, 1975, 1986 and 2005. The GIS and GPS technology was used in the spatial analysis. Furthermore, the analysis of flora changes was performed, including the comparison of data presented in ecological literature with unpublished data collected by J. Wilkoń-Michalska in 1956-1964 In addition, numerical analysis of relevés from both these periods and from 2012 was performed. The objective of all the analyses was to determine how the changes were affected by spontaneous development of oak trees on the dune and destructive human activity related to exploitation of the sand, afforestation of the dune with pine, birch and oak, and planting of common lilac. An effort was also made to assess the importance of including the Folusz dune hill within the Natura 2000 site − PLH040027 "Molinia meadows in Folusz" − for preventing further degradation of xerothermic vegetation.

Materials to the lichen biota of the hill in Folusz near Szubin (NW Poland)

“…Another source of historical data on the occurrence of lichens are unpublished data coming from the notes made by Wilkoń-Michalska in 1956, 1959and 1964. Lichenological data provided by Nienartowicz et al (2014) are consistent with those included in this paper.…”

“…According to Nienartowicz et al (2014), based on the data described in this study, the bark of more than 100 years old oak trees and birch trees (10-15 species, respectively) was most abundantly colonized by lichens. Hypocenomyce scalaris was the most frequent epiphytic lichen, found on 11 out of the 12 analysed sites.…”

“…A detailed description of the study area as well as a map of its location and land cover were presented in several previous studies (i.a. Kunz et al 2013;Kunz et al 2014;Nienartowicz et al 2014: this issue of Ecological Questions). The Folusz hill is a sandy dune located in the middle of peat-bog meadows from the Molinietalia order in the Noteć ice-marginal valley (Korczyńska-Krasicka & Rutkowski 2005).…”

“…Vegetation of the Folusz hill has been frequently studied, and data on this subject can be found in papers by Banaszak et al (2004), Ceynowa (1968), Krasicka-Korczyńska (2004), Wilkoń-Michalska & Bohr (1960), in recent studies by Kunz et al (2013), Kunz et al (2014), Nienartowicz et al (2014) and in unpublished materials of Wilkoń-Michalska.…”

Mycorrhizal status of selected herbaceous plants in Molinia meadows of Folusz, near Szubin (Poland)

“…To date, the "Molinia meadows in Folusz", Nature 2000 site (PLH040027), has mainly been investigated to examine floristic and phytosociological aspects (KrasickaKor czyńska & Rutkowski 2005;Nienartowicz et al 2014). The present study provided basic information on the mycorrhizal status of selected plant species characteristic of Molinia meadows.…”