Vegetation and Fauna of Tisza River Basin III.
László Körmöczi and Orsolya Makra (eds.): Vegetation and Fauna of Tisza River Basin III. Tiscia Monograph Series 12, Szeged, 2019.
Published by the Depatment of Ecology, University of Szeged, Hungary
Introduction:
The basin of River Tisza and its main tributaries – river Szamos, river Körös, river Maros – play very important role in the life of the Great Hungarian Plain. Most of the human activities are coupled with the water regime of the rivers and of their larger surroundings. The rivers also determine the natural vegetation and fauna of several habitats and affect the crop and livestock.
The human activity of the last decades or even centuries transformed substantially the landscapes of the Great Hungarian Plain causing heavy fragmentation and degradation of natural habitats and as a consequence, the loss of substantial natural values. 2010’s is the Decade of biodiversity that emphasizes the importance of increasing knowledge on the biota of the Earth, a minor portion of which is the river basin of the Plain.
Large amount of historical and recent data exists on the flora and vegetation types (phytocenoses) of the rivers and the floodplain, but rarely summarized in a comprehensive book (some monographs devote substantial chapters for vegetation description but only for certain areas of river basins, e.g. Hamar and Sárkány-Kiss 1995, 1999, Sárkány-Kiss and Hamar 1997, Tuba 2008). Authors of this monograph decided to collect and evaluate published and unpublished cenological data recorded from the characteristic plant communities of the target area, and to reveal the main rules and relationships in the patterns of the floodplain vegetation. We intended to enumerate all the plant associations in cenotaxonomic order that hawe been found in and affected by the surroundings of Tisza and its tributaries. In the evaluation, we followed the phytocenological nomenclature of Borhidi (2003).
The total length of the river Tisza section – and also of the river basin – is 596 km in the region of Hungary. This large strip runs through rather different floristic regions therefore the floristic composition of the vegetation units may also differ. On the basis of previous knowledge and the data gathered, the studied area was divided into three sections, as follows: 1. North-Eastern border—Tokaj, 2. Tokaj— Szolnok, 3. Szolnok—Southern border.
Authors of the following chapters intended to collect and evaluate as many recent and historical data as possible. The result of their effort, however, very diverse indicating rather uneven surveys of both phytocenoses and geographical regions. Nearly 1500 cenological relevés were treated from 34 associations. Distribution of the relevés among associations ranges from 10 to 90, but the extremes are one relevé for an association, and the other extreme 429 relevé for an association. This emphasizes the scientific interest regarding the floodplain oak forests. Therefore the cumulative species list is significantly larger in the case of extensively studied communities.
The vegetation of the Tisza river basin was analysed on the basis of recent and historical, published or unpublished relevés available. Time span of the records is also rather wide, the earliest data came from the late 1940-ies. Two types of records were used in the analyses: cover estimation of the plant species was made on A-D scale mainly in the earlier relevés while in the more recent ones percentage cover estimations were applied. The two types were treated separately only in the multivariate analyses since the transformation of data is either ambiguous or causes information loss.
Authors of this book give general description of each community and the habitat conditions on the basis of literature data and their own survey results that is followed by detailed floristic and cenological evaluation of the association according to the river sections distinguished.
Content
I. Duckweed covers – Lemnetalia minoris
Orsolya Szirmai, Zoltán Tuba, László Körmöczi
II. Bladderwort colonies – Lemno-Utricularietalia
Orsolya Szirmai, Zoltán Tuba, László Körmöczi
III. Large pondweed beds – Potametalia
Orsolya Szirmai, Mihály Vas, Zoltán Tuba, László Körmöczi
IV. Small galingale swards – Nanocyperetalia Klika 1935
Balázs András Lukács, Béla Tóthmérész
V. Reed beds – Phragmitetalia
Orsolya Szirmai, Zoltán Tuba, László Körmöczi
VI. Water dropwort-Flowering rush communities – Oenanthetalia aquaticae
József Áron Deák
VII. Tall herb communities – Molinietalia
Orsolya Szirmai, Zoltán Tuba, László Körmöczi
VIII. Pannonic saline meadows – Scorzonero-Juncetalia gerardii
Balázs Deák, Béla Tóthmérész
IX. Willow scrubs and galleries – Salicetalia purpureae
Orsolya Makra, László Körmöczi
X. Mezophilous deciduous forests – Fagetalia sylvaticae
Balázs Kevey
XI. Subcontinental submediterranean dry deciduous forests of Southeast Europe – Quercetalia cerris
Balázs Kevey
XII. Alder swamp woods - Alnetalia glutinosae
Orsolya Szirmai, Zoltán Tuba, László Körmöczi
Appendix