Abandonment of croplands: problem or chance for grassland restoration? Case studies from Hungary  

作　　者：Orsolya Valkó Balázs Deák Péter Török András Kelemen Tamás Miglécz Katalin Tóth Béla Tóthmérész 

机构地区：[1]Department of Ecology,University of Debrecen,P.O.Box 71,Debrecen,H-4010 Hungary [2]MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group,Egyetem ter 1,Debrecen,H-4032 Hungary

出　　处：《Ecosystem Health and Sustainability》2016年第2期1-10,共10页生态系统健康与可持续性（英文）

基　　金：The pub-lication was supported by the SROP-4.2.2.B-15/1/KONV-2015-0001 project;The project has been supported by the European Union,co-financed by the European Social Fund.The research was also supported by OTKA PD 111807 and OTKA K 116639.

摘　　要：In Central-and Eastern Europe,the collapse of socialist regimes resulted in a transformation of state-owned agricultural cooperatives to privately owned lands from the early 1990s onwards.These socioeconomic processes resulted in landscape-scale changes in biodiversity,ecosystem services and agricultural production.In parallel,large-scale abandonment of croplands,especially on sandy,salty or fre-quently inundated areas,became common.Abandoned croplands are usually sensitive to species invasions,and are hotspots of noxious weeds,posing threats both to agriculture and nature conservation.Grassland restoration on former croplands can be an effective strategy for suppressing these species.Thus,a common goal of nature conservation and agriculture can be the restoration of grasslands on former croplands to(1)suppress weed and/or invasive species in line with the EU policy“Good Farming Practices”,(2)support animal husbandry by creating meadows or pastures,and to(3)recover biodiversity and ecosystem services.In the present paper we report“best practices”of grassland restoration projects from Hungary.Our aim was to compare the effectiveness of spontaneous grassland recovery vs.active grassland restoration by seed sowing in terms of the recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem services,such as weed control and biomass production.Our results showed that grassland restoration on abandoned fields offers a viable solution for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services.Seed sowing ensures higher weed control and biomass pro-duction,but results in lower biodiversity compared to spontaneous recovery.Both restoration methods can be cost-effective,or even profitable even within a relatively short period of a nature conservation project.

关 键 词：agri-environmental schemes agri-environmental subsidy AGROBIODIVERSITY Central Europe intensive agriculture OLD-FIELD seed sowing Special Feature:Ecosystem Management in Transition in Central and Eastern Europe spontaneous succession. 

分 类 号：S81[农业科学—畜牧学]