Floristic changes to pasture after the chemical elimination of timber species
1998
Novak, J. (Slovak Agricultural Univ., Nitra (Slovak Republic))
Garlon-4 (2 l/ha) was applied from the air to the timber species of an extensively degraded pasture coppice in a cold mountain area (altitude 600 m) of Spisska Magura (Slovak Republic) from 1994-1996. 20 species of the leafy bushes and trees had been on the increase in the original forest-grassland ecotone with 58 plant species (of which 45 were herbages). The bushes and trees were eliminated by the chemical with an efficiency of 100%. The newly desolated sites were mainly covered by rhizome species of grass, leguminous plants, and stolons of other herbages, or alternatively by species germinated from seeds in the soil. The percentage of grasses increased by 77.58%, since this group was not damaged by the chemical. The percentage of leguminous plants, mainly Trifolium repens, also increased despite the partial phytotoxicity of the chemical on them. The herbages under the timber species, or hard by them, were the most sensitive to the chemical. The number of some herbages was diminished to such a degree that the total species diversity was reduced by eight species. However, this did not influence the total value of the grassland, which increased by nearly 100%, as the disappeared species did not belong among valuable fodder species (Kh5). On the contrary, the quality of the site was remarkably improved by the recovery of old valuable species, and by an increasing number of new ones. This justified the intervention, which returned the grassland to the condition of an original grass ecosystem
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