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The maintenance of biodiversity is crucial for ecosystem processes such as plant biomass production, as higher species richness is associated with increased biomass production in plant communities. However, the effects of evenness and functional diversity on biomass production are understudied. We manipulated the composition of an experimental grassland by sowing various seed mixtures and examined the effects of diversity and evenness on biomass production after three years. We found that biomass production increased with greater species and functional richness but decreased with greater species and functional evenness. Standing biomass increased but species number and functional richness decreased with increasing proportion of perennial grasses. Our findings emphasise the importance of productive dominant species, as the proportion of perennial grasses had a positive effect on standing biomass, while species and functional evenness had a negative effect on it. Thus, our findings support the theory that, besides diversity, dominance effects and the so-called mass ratio hypothesis may also play a key role in explaining primary biomass production.

Grasslands used to be vital landscape elements throughout Europe. Nowadays, the area of grasslands is dramatically reduced, especially in industrial countries. Grassland restoration is widely applied to increase the naturalness of the landscape and preserve biodiversity. We reviewed the most frequently used restoration techniques (spontaneous succession, sowing seed mixtures, transfer of plant material, topsoil removal and transfer) and techniques used to improve species richness (planting, grazing and mowing) to recover natural-like grasslands from ex-arable lands. We focus on the usefulness of methods in restoring biodiversity, their practical feasibility and costs. We conclude that the success of each technique depends on the site conditions, history, availability of propagules and/or donor sites, and on the budget and time available for restoration. Spontaneous succession can be an option for restoration when no rapid result is expected, and is likely to lead to the target in areas with high availability of propagules. Sowing low-diversity seed mixtures is recommended when we aim at to create basic grassland vegetation in large areas and/or in a short time. The compilation of high-diversity seed mixtures for large sites is rather difficult and expensive; thus, it may be applied rather on smaller areas. We recommend combining the two kinds of seed sowing methods by sowing low-diversity mixtures in a large area and high-diversity mixtures in small blocks to create species-rich source patches for the spontaneous colonization of nearby areas. When proper local hay sources are available, the restoration with plant material transfer can be a fast and effective method for restoration.

We demonstrated the metal accumulation potential of Amaranthus retorflexus , a European weed species, both in moderately and strongly metal-contaminated sites. Metal accumulation in roots, stems, and leaves were studied. We also calculated the bioaccumulation factor ( BAF ), and translocation factor ( TF ) values to quantify the metal accumulation, and translocation between plant organs. Our findings indicated that metal accumulation correlated with metal concentration; that is plant organs accumulated higher concentration of metals in the contaminated area than in the control one. We found that the concentrations of Ba, Mn, Sr and Zn were the highest in leaves, and Al, Cr, Cu, Fe and Pb in roots. High BAF value was found for Sr in all studied areas, indicating this metal’s high accumulation potential of Amaranthus retorflexus . High TF values were found for Al, Ba, Cu, Fe, Mn, Sr and Zn; these metals were successfully transported to aboveground plant organs. We demonstrated that A. retroflexus , a fast-growing, rapidly spreading weed in Europe, was especially useful for heavy metal phytoremediation and phytoextraction.

Soil has the ability to serve as a universal sink, meaning it may absorb contaminants from the environment. Additionally, plant leaves can also be used as indicators of environmental contamination. In our study, the bioaccumulation factor (BAF) was used to assess metal accumulation in the soil and leaves of the neem tree (Azadirachta indica) in Faisalabad, Pakistan. We analyzed the primary physical and chemical characteristics of the surface layer of soil in urban, suburban, and rural areas along an urbanization gradient. The ICP-OES technique was used to analyze the following elements: Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn. The highest concentration of all elements was found in soil samples from urban areas, with an increasing tendency along with the urbanization gradient. A significant difference was found along the urbanization gradient on the plant leaves except for Cd, Cu, and Zn; a high level of pollution was measured for Ba, Pb, Co, Ni, Cr, and Cd in the urban area. We also calculated the bioaccumulation factor (BAF), but no clear pattern was found. Our findings show that high concentrations in soil do not always turn into higher plant uptake for plants. Our findings suggest that traffic and industrial emissions are likely the main cause of the metals in Faisalabad, because their concentration is higher than their background concentration. Our results also suggest that elemental analysis of soil and plant leaves is an appropriate indicator of environmental contamination.

Along an urbanization gradient, we explored the soil metal pollution in Vienna, Austria. We analyzed the physical and chemical parameters of topsoil from urban, suburban, and rural areas. The following elements were quantified using ICP-OES technique: Al, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Sr, and Zn. For heavy metals, PI (pollution index) values were used to assess the level of pollution. We found that the concentration of Cu, Pb, Sr, and Zn was higher in the urban and suburban area than in the rural area. The PI values indicated a moderate level of pollution by Cd (1 ≤ PI ≤ 2) along the urbanization gradient. We found a low level of pollution for Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn (PI ≤ 1) in studied areas. Our findings demonstrated the presence of anthropogenic contamination, and it is likely that traffic emission may be the major source of metal pollution in Vienna. Our findings also demonstrated that the elemental analysis of soil and the values of PI are adequate indicators of the level of pollution based on soil sample analysis in urban ecosystems.

Fragmented natural habitats within human-transformed landscapes play a key role in preserving biodiversity. Ants as keystone species are essential elements of terrestrial ecosystems; thus, it is important to understand the factors influencing their presence. In a large-scale multi-site study, we surveyed ant assemblages using sweep netting and D-vac sampling on 158 ancient burial mounds preserving grassland habitats in agricultural landscapes in East-Hungary. We asked the following questions: (1) How do habitat factors and landscape composition affect species richness and functional diversity of ants? (2) Which ant traits are affected by habitat factors and landscape composition? Despite their small sizes, mounds as permanent and relatively undisturbed landscape elements could provide safe havens for diverse ant assemblages even in transformed agricultural landscapes. The complex habitat structure of wooded mounds supported high species and functional diversity of ant assemblages. Ant species on wooded mounds had small or medium-sized colonies, enabling the co-existence of more species. The effect of landscape composition on ant assemblages was mediated by habitat factors: steep slopes buffered the negative effect of the cropland matrix and enabled higher ant diversity.

QUESTION: Explaining the biomass–species richness relationship is key to understanding vegetation dynamics. Several possible mechanisms have been suggested, but complex analysis of plant strategies, major biomass and species richness components along a long productivity gradient is still lacking. We provide a detailed analysis of the relationship between major biomass components (total above‐ground biomass, green biomass and litter), plant strategies and species richness along a long gradient of alkali and loess grasslands in a steppe landscape in Central Europe. LOCATION: Hortobágy, Great Hungarian Plain, East Hungary. METHODS: Above‐ground biomass of characteristic alkali and loess grassland stands was sampled along a gradient of increasing productivity. In each grassland stand, a 25‐m² sample site was randomly selected. Within each site, ten above‐ground biomass samples (20 × 20 cm) were collected randomly in June 2009, at the peak of biomass production. We classified all species into mixed C‐S‐R strategy types. To obtain correlations between various biomass and species richness data, Spearman rank correlation was used. The relationship between plant strategies and species composition were displayed with a DCA ordination. RESULTS: The frequently detected humped‐back relationship was valid for the relation of total biomass and species richness. With increasing amount of total biomass, we detected an increasing proportion of competitors, and a decreasing proportion of stress tolerators in green biomass. A low proportion of ruderals was detected at both low and high biomass levels. Species richness was affected positively by litter at low litter scores, but there was a negative litter effect from much lower scores than detected previously (from 400 g·m⁻²). There was a positive relationship between green biomass production and species richness. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed that at the initial part of a productivity gradient, stress is likely responsible for low species richness. Our results show that litter can shape changes in species richness along the whole biomass gradient, thus the litter effect is one of the major mechanisms structuring grassland diversity.

The amount of dust deposited on tree leaves is a cost-effective indicator of air quality. Our aim was to explore the leaf surface deposition, and chlorophyll content of leaves along a road section that started at an intersection, and ended in a less disturbed suburban area in Debrecen, Hungary. We also assessed the impact of meteorological conditions on the amount of deposited dust. Leaf samples were collected in July, and September 2022 from Celtis occidentalis , a frequent species in green urban areas of Debrecen. We found a significant negative correlation between dust deposition, and the distance from the intersection in July. In September, dust deposition decreased considerably compared to July, due to rainfall before the second sampling. Surprisingly, we found a positive correlation between dust deposition and chlorophyll content in July. Our findings suggest that dust deposition on leaves serves as a reliable indicator of traffic intensity, because the excess dust caused by the proximity of vehicle traffic can be detected on the leaf surface. Although, rainfall can disrupt the patterns in dust deposition that have developed over an extended period through wash-off and resuspension. Hence, it is advisable to consider these effects while selecting the sampling time and evaluating the results.

We wanted to test whether urbanization has similar effects on biodiversity in different locations, comparing the responses of ground beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) assemblages with an urbanization gradient. We also wanted to see if urbanization had a homogenizing effect on ground beetle assemblages. Nine forested temperate locations in Europe, Canada and Japan. Published results of the Globenet Project were used. At all locations, three stages were identified: (1) a forested (rural) area, (2) a suburban area where the original forest was fragmented and isolated, and (3) remnants of the original forest in urban parks. These habitats formed an urbanization series. Study arrangements (number and operation of traps) and methods (pitfall trapping) were identical, conforming to the Globenet protocol. Assemblage composition and diversity patterns were evaluated. Diversity relationships were analysed by the Rényi diversity ordering method considering all ground beetles and - separately - the forest specialist species. Taxonomic homogenization was examined by multivariate methods using assemblage similarities. Overall biodiversity (compared by species richness and diversity ordering) showed inconsistent trends by either urbanization intensity or by geographic position. However, when only forest species were compared, diversity was higher in the original rural (forested) areas than in urban forest fragments. Within-country similarities of carabid assemblages were always higher than within-urbanization stage similarities. Urbanization does not appear to cause a decrease in ground beetle diversity per se. Forest species decline as urbanization intensifies but this trend is masked by an influx of non-forest species. The rural faunas were more similar to the urban ones within the same location than similar urbanization stages were to each other, indicating that urbanization did not homogenize the taxonomic composition of ground beetle faunas across the studied locations.

Extensively managed pastures are of crucial importance in sustaining biodiversity both in local- and landscape-level. Thus, re-introduction of traditional grazing management is a crucial issue in grassland conservation actions worldwide. Traditional grazing with robust cattle breeds in low stocking rates is considered to be especially useful to mimic natural grazing regimes, but well documented case-studies are surprisingly rare on this topic. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional Hungarian Grey cattle grazing as a conservation action in a mosaic alkali landscape. We asked the following questions: (i) How does cattle grazing affect species composition and diversity of the grasslands? (ii) What are the effects of grazing on short-lived and perennial noxious species? (iii) Are there distinct effects of grazing in dry-, mesophilous- and wet grassland types? Vegetation of fenced and grazed plots in a 200-ha sized habitat complex (secondary dry grasslands and pristine mesophilous- and wet alkali grasslands) was sampled from 2006-2009 in East-Hungary. We found higher diversity scores in grazed plots compared to fenced ones in mesophilous- and wet grasslands. Higher cover of noxious species was typical in fenced plots compared to their grazed counterparts in the last year in every studied grassland type. We found an increasing effect of grazing from the dry- towards the wet grassland types. The year-to-year differences also followed similar pattern: the site-dependent effects were the lowest in the dry grassland and an increasing effect was detected along the moisture gradient. We found that extensive Hungarian Grey cattle grazing is an effective tool to suppress noxious species and to create a mosaic vegetation structure, which enables to maintain high species richness in the landscape. Hungarian Grey cattle can feed in open habitats along long moisture gradient, thus in highly mosaic landscapes this breed can be the most suitable livestock type.