Effect of Austrian pine on naturalness and succession of vegetation in reclaimed bauxite quarries

Abstract

Phytosociological and nature conservation assessment of the herb layer of 6-, 15-and 20-yearold post-mining Austrian pine stands was conducted in reclaimed bauxite quarries in Hungary. Great differences among the vegetations were found. Disturbance-tolerant species were dominant, subdominant and subordinated in the youngest, middle-aged and oldest pine stand, respectively. In parallel, proportion of the species characteristic for natural habitats increased gradually, leading to growing diversity and naturalness. The increasing pine cover reduced the species number and the coverage of herb layer. Postmining flora differed significantly from both the potential mature oak forest vegetation of the areas and from the associations developed through regenerative succession on clear-cut areas of oak forests. Vegetation of the reclaimed quarries had lower naturalness: relative abundances of disturbance-tolerant and ruderal species were higher, but ratio of natural broad-leaved forest's species was smaller than in the potential vegetation. Similar differences were shown by comparison of the flora of bauxite quarries with the same-aged stages of regenerative succession of oak forests. In pine stands the repression of weeds parallel to the spreading of natural competitors was slower, and natural geophytes and protected species remained absent. Deficiency of propagule sources in reclaimed areas could contribute to the retentive effect of Austrian pine on vegetation succession.

Assessment of Naturalness: The Response of Social Behavior Types of Plants to Anthropogenic Impact

“…The flora of habitats subjected to the highest level of anthropogenic impact had a high proportion of annual species, but not the highest proportion of non-native species (Kim et al, 2002). The naturalness of the plant community increases during restoration succession at the reclamation site, which was confirmed using the quasi-mean naturalness value (Cseresnyés et al, 2014). Our results suggest that as the community approaches the middle part of the hemeroby/naturalness gradient, the number of possible community states increases, so diversity of the community in the middle part of the disturbance gradient is the greatest.…”

Vegetation development of forestry reclaimed sand and sand‐gravel pits: is it on a way towards more natural species composition?

“…Lenda et al ; Prach et al ; Tischew et al ; Heneberg & Řezáč ) as shown by the occurrence of rare and even threatened species of plants and various groups of insects (Novák & Prach ; Heneberg et al ; Řehounková et al ). This value, however, largely depends on the restoration method applied, that is, spontaneous revegetation or forestry reclamation (Tropek et al ; Ballesteros et al ; Řehounková et al ; Šebelíková et al ), the latter being usually applied in most of Europe (Badía et al ; Pietrzykowski & Socha ; Krümmelbein et al ; Cseresnyés et al ). Forestry reclamation means artificial afforestation preceded by land remodeling, topsoil overlay, or fertilization (Kaźmierczak et al ) resulting prevailingly in monocultural stands arranged in dense rows (Pietrzykowski & Socha ) with more or less homogeneous site conditions (Cseresnyés et al ).…”

“…This value, however, largely depends on the restoration method applied, that is, spontaneous revegetation or forestry reclamation (Tropek et al ; Ballesteros et al ; Řehounková et al ; Šebelíková et al ), the latter being usually applied in most of Europe (Badía et al ; Pietrzykowski & Socha ; Krümmelbein et al ; Cseresnyés et al ). Forestry reclamation means artificial afforestation preceded by land remodeling, topsoil overlay, or fertilization (Kaźmierczak et al ) resulting prevailingly in monocultural stands arranged in dense rows (Pietrzykowski & Socha ) with more or less homogeneous site conditions (Cseresnyés et al ). In the Czech Republic, Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) is the most frequent woody species planted in afforested sand and sand‐gravel pits being considered as an easy colonizer of nutrient‐poor habitats (Chytrý ; Řehounková et al ).…”