Nature Returns to Abandoned Industrial Land: Monitoring Succession in Urban-Industrial Woodlands in the German Ruhr (original) (raw)
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2009
Human influence on the biosphere has transformed natural land cover (LC) into modified LC. Shifting focus from individual species study to large-scale assessment is therefore needed to restore the damaged ecosystem. The hypotheses were: (a) the post-mining landscapes are getting more diverse over time (b) GIS, remote sensing and patch analyst can generate LC information and landscape characterization statistics for assessing habitat diversity and monitoring land cover change (LCC) in a disturbance-dominated area (c) relationship exist between habitat diversity and field based species richness/LCC and environmental conditions/LCC and biodiversity losses. The general aims of this research were (a) to assess the impact of disturbance on LCC and habitat diversity (b) to identify how accurately patterns of habitat diversity, complexity, fragmentation, primary production and LCC can be assessed or predicted with GIS and remotely sensed data. LC maps of 1988, 1991, 1995, 1998, 2000 and 200...
Succession of woody species in derelict sites in Central Europe
Ecological Engineering, 1994
Successional seres (17) are compared as to the extent of the participation of woody species during succession, expressed as change in cover degrees. No simple trends are recognized; however, participation of woody species seems to be low in dry and in wet, nutrient-rich sites. The former instance suggests physiological limitations; the latter, limitations by competition from the herb layer. The most successful colonizers (24) among woody species are selected and briefly characterized: they are insect (63%) and/or wind (50%) pollinated; endozoochorous (33%) or anemochorous (67%); some of them, moreover, are capable of intense vegetative spread (21%). The role of the spontaneous succession of woody species in derelict sites is discussed in relation to the reclamation of habitats. In many cases, spontaneous succession can clearly serve as a successful and inexpensive means of reclamation.
Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2013
We performed detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) ordination to compare seven successional seres running in stone quarries, coal mining spoil heaps, sand and gravel pits, and extracted peatlands in the Czech Republic in central Europe. In total, we obtained 1,187 vegetation samples containing 705 species. These represent various successional stages aged from 1 to 100 years. The successional seres studied were more similar in their species composition in the initial stages, in which synathropic species prevailed, than in later successional stages. This vegetation differentiation was determined especially by local moisture conditions. In most cases, succession led to a woodland, which usually established after approximately 20 years. In very dry or wet places, by contrast, where woody species were limited, often highly valuable, open vegetation developed. Except in the peatlands, the total number of species and the number of target species increased during succession. Participation of invasive aliens was mostly unimportant. Spontaneous vegetation succession generally appears to be an ecologically suitable and cheap way of ecosystem restoration of heavily disturbed sites. It should, therefore, be preferred over technical reclamation.
Applied Vegetation Science, 2001
The predictability of early primary succession in post-mining landscapes of eastern Germany was studied at sites 5-70 yr following dumping. This chronosequence was investigated using indirect ordination methods. The position of the vegetation types in the ordination diagram was found not to infer any temporal sequence. Independent observations show that the change of vegetation type is slow and does not necessarily occur among types adjacent in the ordination diagram. Furthermore, direct ordination revealed that environmental parameters such as pH, the levels of available phosphate and organic carbon as well as the age of the study sites do not significantly account for the variance. Instead, attention needs to be paid to the influence of spatial aspects and also what recultivation measures have been carried out. A detailed account of the vegetation dynamics of individual sample plots showed-depending on the respective vegetation type-divergence, convergence, and fluctuation at the smallest spatial scale. While the species richness of the sample plots remained more or less constant after initial colonization, mean vegetation cover continuously increases with age, although some sites still remain free of vegetation after as long as 70 yr. No general trend in dominant life forms was indicated. A conceptual model of early succession mechanisms is outlined and five basic mechanisms are identified (i.e. site availability, site suitability, availability of diaspores, strategies of colonizing species and biotic interactions). Their respective importance in three different stages of early succession is estimated and compared. The predictability of vegetation dynamics at each stage is rated differently.
Ecological Engineering, 2018
The aim of this work was to answer the question wheather woodland can be established spontaneously in a variety of disturbed sites. We analyzed 10 successional series lasting at least 80 years which were located across the Czech Republic, central Europe. The woody species were classified into early and late successional species. Species typical for the respective potential natural vegetation described for Czech woodland were considered as late successional while all the other species were classed as early successional. Data were processed using multivariate analyses and GLM. Cover and the number of woody species gradually increased during succession, and woodland established spontaneously in all series. The relative cover of early successional species reached its peak on average after 40-50 years of succession or gradually decreased in the model since the first year of site abandonment while that of late successional species gradually increased. However, the series largely differed and some of them did not follow the trends. Betula spp. (early) appeared to be by far the most frequent colonizer followed by Pinus sylvestris (late). Spontaneous establishment of woodland can be an effective method for ecosystem restoration in a range of disturbed sites within central Europe. Proportion of alien species was mostly low.