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Main research areas
Restoration ecological research
Intensive land-use change and habitat destruction became the most significant cause of biodiversity loss on global and local scales. The rapid land-use change due to the socio-economic transition of the past two decades had a considerable influence on the dry grassland habitats in Hungary. On one hand they have been ploughed and utilized for agricultural or sylvicultural purposes, while many agricultural fields on poor soils have been abanoned allowing spontaneous regeneration processes to take place. However, spontaneous regeneration after intensive anthropogenic disturbance may be hindered by many factors, like abiotic conditions modified by previous land use (e.g. high nutrient content of the soil) or the lack of propagules in a fragmented landscape. Due to these factors the weedy community normally characteristic for the first few years of the secondary succession can stay for a longer time or invasive species can colonize the old-field. Therefore active measures need to be applied which aim at eliminating the factors inhibiting regeneration and thus facilitating natural secondary succession. The goal of restoration ecological research is to create a scientific basis for measures facilitating the reconstruction of a self-sustainable ecosystem.
One of the important localities of the research activity carried out by the Institute of Ecology and Botany is the Fülöpháza Sand Dune Area (Kiskunság National Park) and the sourrounding anthropogenic landscape. Typical natural vegetation is the open sandy grassland as part of the forest-steppe mosaic. The central question of our restoration experiments is to find appropriate methods for facilitating the regeneration process of this grassland.
Black locust clear-cut
Old-field restoration through nitrogen immobilization
Combined experiment
Common milkweed experiment
Related projects
Actual projects
- Establishment of the Pannon Seed Bank for the long-term ex situ conservation of Hungarian vascular wild plants
Finished projects
Contributors
Katalin Török team leader
Balázs Fehér
Melinda Halassy
Rebeka Szabó
Katalin Szitár
Gergely Torda
Selected publications
2008
Szabó, R., Fehér, B., Szitár, K., Halassy, M. and Török, K. (2008): The effect of reduced soil nitrogen on the plant composition of abandoned agricultural fields. Cereal Research Communications. Vol. 36. Suppl. 1027-1030. Proceedings of the VII. Alps-Adria Scientific Workshop. 28 April-2 May 2008, Stara Lesna, Slovakia.
Szitár, K., Szabó, R. and Török, K. (2008): Vegetation composition changes in ex-arable fields following glyphosate application: the role of soil seed bank and timing of seed production. Cereal Research Communications. Vol. 36. Suppl. 1587-1590. Proceedings of the VII. Alps-Adria Scientific Workshop. 28 April-2 May 2008, Stara Lesna, Slovakia.
 2006
Szabó, R., Halassy, M., Szitár, K. and Török, K. (2006): Restoration of open sandy grassland on old-fields: does soil nitrogen matter? 1st European Congress of Conservation Biology, 22-26 August 2006 – Eger, Hungary. Book of abstracts. pp. 79.
2004
Bartha S., Campatella G., Canullo R., Bódis J., Mucina L. (2004): On the importance of fine-scale spatial complexity in vegetation restoration. International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 30: 101-116.
Halassy M. (2004): Crossing the edge: Colonisation dynamics of fallow land in the sandy regions of Hungary. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration, Victoria, Canada. pp. 1-10. (CD)
Halassy M., Török K. (2004): Combination of Treatments to Restore Native Sand Grassland Species to Black Locust Plantations (Hungary). Ecological Restoration 22: 217-218.
Szili-Kovács T., Török K., Elhottová D., Halassy M. (2004): Changes of microbial biomass C and N in abandoned low fertility sandy soils in an ecological restoration experiment. Acta Microbiol. Immunol. Hung. 51: 199.
2003
Szabó R., Halassy M., Török K., Szili-Kovács T. (2003): Ecological restoration of oldfields in the sandy plains of Hungary. In: Zajac A., Zajac M., Zemanek B. (eds.): Phytogeographical problems of synanthropic plants, Institute of Botany, Jagellonian Univestity, Cracow, pp. 267-274.
2001
Halassy M. (2001): Possible role of the seed bank in the restoration of open sand grassland in old fields. Community Ecology 2: 101-108.
Pickett S. T. A., Cadenasso M. L., Bartha S. (2001): Implications from the buell-small succession study for vegetation restoration. Applied Vegetation Science 4: 41-52.
Prach K., Bartha S., Joyce C. B., Pysek P., van Diggelen R., Wiegleb G. (2001): The role of spontaneous succession in ecosystem restoration: A perspective. Applied Vegetation Science 4: 111-114.
2000
Török K., Szili-Kovács T., Halassy M, Tóth T., Hayek Zs., Paschke M. W., Wardell L. J. (2000): Immobilization of soil nitrogen as a possible method for restoring sand grasslands. Applied Vegetation Science 3: 7-24.
1998
Halassy M., Török K., Hayek Zs. (1998): Trials to rehabilitate sand grasslands native to Hungary. ”Ecological Aspects of Grassland Management” 17th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation. Debrecen, Hungary, pp. 409-412.
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