Adrienne Ortmann-Ajkai

TL;DR: This work quantifies how individual species trajectories scale up to diversity changes using data from 68 vegetation resurvey studies of seminatural forests in Europe, and suggests that Herb-layer species with small geographic ranges are being replaced by more widely distributed species.

Abstract: Comparison of spontaneous revegetation and forestry reclamation can provide valuable information about the trajectories and rate of vegetation development applicable to restoration practice over broader geographical scales. In the current study, we sampled terrestrial vegetation in spontaneously revegetated and forestry reclaimed spoil heaps after brown coal mining differing in age in three regions across Central Europe (Germany, the Czech Republic, and Hungary). The main objective was to compare the course of vegetation development and species richness between the two restoration methods over a large geographical scale. In all geographical regions, species richness was higher on spontaneously revegetated sites. Although the starting point differed across regions, trajectories to woodland development converged with time. In addition, spontaneous revegetation was comparably as fast as forestry reclamation in developing towards woodland. Spontaneous revegetation proved to be more valuable and cost‐effective in terms of nature conservation and should be considered as an alternative restoration strategy to forestry reclamation in Central Europe.

TL;DR: In this article, the changes of wetland vegetation were evaluated on the Drava floodplain, Hungary, where large-scale hydrological interventions have not been implemented during this time.

TL;DR: Habitat composition and complexity appears to determine the emergence behaviour of C. heros, so for the successful conservation of this species, choosing appropriate forest management regimes and even maintaining riparian forests in near-pristine condition is recommended.