Megjelent Deák Balázs elsőszerzőségével kutatócsoportunk újabb cikke a Basic and Applied Ecology című szakfolyóiratban. A cikk rámutat arra, hogy a mikroléptékű magassági eltérések szerepe a fajdiverzitás és a növényi stratégiák diverzitásában eltérő lehet fiatal és időskorú gyepesedő csatornanyomvonalak esetében. A cikk letölthető a honlapomról és a  folyóirat honlapjáról, illetve az összefoglalója az alábbiakban olvasható.

Micro-topographic heterogeneity increases plant diversity in old stages of restored grasslands

Deák B., Valkó O., Török P., Kelemen A., Miglécz T., Szabó Sz., Szabó G., Tóthmérész B.

It is a truism in ecology that environmental heterogeneity increases diversity. Supporting field studies are mostly concerned with a large-scale topographic heterogeneity, ranging from a couple of meters to landscape-scale gradients. To test the role of fine-scale micro-topography on plant diversity, we studied the initial vegetation of recently filled (1-year-old), and established vegetation on old (7-year-old) soil-filled channels in an alkali landscape, East-Hungary. We hypothesised that (i) recently filled channels are characterised by a high cover of ruderal species and high species diversity and (ii) high micro-topographic heterogeneity increases the diversity of species and plant strategy types (mixed C-S-R categories) in early stages but later on this effect diminishes. We found that diversity of species and plant strategy types was higher in recently filled channels compared to old filled channels. Micro-topographic heterogeneity had no effect on the studied vegetation parameters in recently filled channels. Conversely, in old filled channels higher micro-topographic heterogeneity resulted in higher diversity and lower cover of the dominant grass Festuca pseudovina. Higher micro-topographic heterogeneity resulted in increased ruderality and decreased stress-tolerance, but it did not increase the diversity of plant strategy types. In contrast with former studies, we found that a couple of centimeters of micro-topographic heterogeneity had no effect on vegetation in recently filled channels, but supported a high diversity in old filled channels. An important practical implication of our study is that in grassland restoration projects, micro-topographic heterogeneity has a crucial role in sustaining biodiversity.