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The influence of the Eastern migration route on the Slovak flora – a comparison after 40 years
(2017)
Transport is an important source of introduction and spread of alien plants into new areas and countries. This study provides comprehensive research of selected railway localities in South-Eastern Slovakia to determine the influence of the Eastern Migration Route on the Slovak flora. Railway transshipment yards in Čierna nad Tisou, Dobrá, Velké Kapušany and Matovce were studied from 1964 to 2013; with historic data sampled 1964–1998 and recent data sampled 2012–2013. These data sets were compared to determine differences in species structure following the decreased use of the transshipment yards.
A total of 657 vascular plant taxa were recorded in all localities (566 taxa in the historic and 431 taxa in the recent data set). Native species prevailed over aliens and archaeophytes over neophytes in both time periods. The most frequent aliens were naturalised taxa, where Asiatic and European species prevailed. The most frequent families were Poaceae, Asteraceae and Brassicaceae, and while many species introduced with Russian wheat were recorded only in the past, several taxa are also recorded only recently. Hemicryptophytes were the most abundant life form. Most recorded species were competitors, reproducing by seed and pollinated by insects. Zoochory and hemerochory were the most frequent dispersal types. The proportion of species traits has not changed over time. We identified 49 threatened taxa (38 in the historic and 27 in the recent data set). The Eastern migration route significantly increases the species number of alien vascular plants in the Slovak flora. Although this route had much greater importance in the past, when the role of the Eastern Slovak trans-shipment railway yards was much higher, the studied yards remain an important gateway to Eastern Central Europe and they continue to support agestochory migration of adventive plants.
Scholars are coming to terms with the fact that something is rotten in the new democracies of Central Europe. The corrosion has multiple symptoms: declining trust in democratic institutions, emboldened uncivil society, the rise of oligarchs and populists as political leaders, assaults on an independent judiciary, the colonization of public administration by political proxies, increased political control over media, civic apathy, nationalistic contestation and Russian meddling. These processes signal that the liberal-democratic project in the so-called Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) has been either stalled, diverted or reversed. This article investigates the “illiberal turn” in the Visegrad Four (V4) countries. It develops an analytical distinction between illiberal “turns” and “swerves”, with the former representing more permanent political changes, and offers evidence that Hungary is the only country in the V4 at the brink of a decisive illiberal turn.
Das Landschaftsschutzgebiet und Biosphärenreservat Pol’ana ist sehr reich an Pflanzenarten und Pflanzengesellschaften. Innerhalb der Ordnung Molinietalia werden 18 Assoziationen unterschieden, neun aus dem Calthenion, vier aus dem Filipendulenion und fünf aus dem Molinion. In Bezug auf die Subassoziationen zeigt das Cirsio palustris-Calthetum die größte Diversität. In phytogeographischer Hinsicht gibt es nur vier Assoziationen, deren Verbreitungsschwerpunkt im Carpaticum liegt; drei sind an kontinental geprägtes Klima gebunden, zwei zeigen submediterran-subkontinentale Verbreitungstendenz, zwei andere haben enge chorologische Beziehungen zum Hercynicum. Groß ist auch die Zahl der unter Schutz stehenden Pflanzenarten in den meisten untersuchten Gesellschaften.
Der vorliegende Beitrag möchte die Perspektiven einer solchen akteursorientierten Diskursanalyse aufzeigen. Die Akteure stellen nämlich diejenige "Kraft" dar, die den Diskurs ins Leben ruft, diesen formuliert und dynamisiert. Auf die Lexik ausgerichtete Untersuchungen fokussieren in erster Linie auf die sprachliche Oberfläche, d.h. etwa auf Fahnenwörter, Schlüsselwörter oder auf die Metaphorik. Diese können jedoch erst als Endprodukte der sprachlichen Tätigkeit der Akteure betrachtet werden, in denen sich deren Motivationen, Meinungen, Positionierungen und Einstellungen konstituieren. Akteursorientierte Analysen möchten hingegen auch den Hintergrund beleuchten: die Ebene der Argumentation, die Topoi, die im Diskurs in konkreten Sprachgebrauchsmustern sich materialisieren. Diese Muster sind als kollektive Denkmuster zu betrachten, die einer Gemeinschaft im kollektiven Gedächtnis zur Verfügung stehen. Als kollektiv gespeichertes und durch die Sprache zugänglich gemachtes Wissen prägen sie das Weltbild der jeweiligen Sprachgemeinschaft. Das bedeutet zugleich, dass der Sprache eine fundamentale Rolle als wissensstiftendes Medium zukommt. Sie bestimmt, wie die Welt wahrgenommen und daraus Faktizität hergestellt wird. Ferner heißt das auch, dass Diskurse zugleich als Orientierungsrahmen dienen. Sie stellen den Sprachbenutzern Wissensbestände zur Verfügung, die sowohl bei der Deutung von Ereignissen und Entitäten eine kognitive Basis bilden, als auch eine Struktur anbieten, in die neue Kenntnisse integriert werden können.
New vegetation data of dry grasslands in the Western Carpathians and the northern Pannonian Basin
(2010)
The paper presents new vegetation data from dry grassland sites in the biogeographical regions of the Western Carpathians and the northern Pannonian Basin, mainly belonging to the alliances Bromo pannonici-Festucion pallentis and Festucion valesiacae (Festuco-Brometea). The 124 phytosociological relevés were sampled between 2005 and 2009 in Slovakia, the SE Czech Republic, NE Austria, and N Hungary. They are classified into 16 associations and four transitional vegetation types. The paper also brings new information on the distribution of grassland associations in the study area. A new locality of the rare association Teucrio botryos-Andropogonetum ischaemi was confirmed. During our recent investigation of historical sites of the Alopecuro pratensis-Festucetum pseudovinae (Cynosurion cristati, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea) in the Slaná river floodplain, only one occurrence could be confirmed. Geographical principles in distribution of dry grassland associations and classification of the Stipa pulcherrima-dominated stands are also discussed.
The main aim of this paper was to test the national electronic expert system for grassland classification in Slovakia as a tool for grassland classification on a regional data set from an area with high vegetation diversity. The study region comprised five orographic units located in central Slovakia (Starohorské vrchy Mts., Kremnické vrchy Mts., Veľká Fatra Mts., Nízke Tatry Mts. and Zvolenská kotlina Basin). The data set included 411 phytosociological relevés of all grassland types (xero-, subxero- and mesophilous grasslands as well as wet and fen meadows), recorded by the authors between 1980 and 2007. The relevés were classified to associations by the expert system formulated for the Slovak grassland vegetation either according to association definitions or (in case of relevés not matching any association definition) according to the Frequency-Positive Fidelity Index (FPFI). Wetland relevés were classified according to results of a cluster analysis. Diagnostic species from the regional data were compared to diagnostic species derived at the national level from the data including all vegetation units in Slovakia. According to the results, 49% of the relevés classified by the expert system were matched by the association definitions. Xerophilous grasslands were classified within three alliances of the class Festuco- Brometea: Festucion valesiacae, Bromo pannonici-Festucion pallentis and Diantho lumnitzeri-Seslerion. The occurrence of these communities in the region is rare, restricted to rocky habitats and steep slopes with shallow soil over calcareous bedrock. Sub-xerophilous grasslands were classified within four associations belonging to the two alliances Cirsio-Brachypodion pinnati and Bromion erecti. In the study region, these communities are widely distributed mainly in areas built by calcareous bedrock. Mesophilous grasslands are the most common communities in the study region. They were classified within eight associations belonging to four alliances: Cynosurion cristati, Arrhenatherion elatioris and Polygono bistortae-Trisetion flavescentis (all of them belonging to the class Molinio-Arrhenatheretea) and Nardo strictae-Agrostion tenuis (belonging to the class Nardetea strictae). Wetland communities belonged to the classes Phragmito-Magnocaricetea (alliances Phragmition communis and Glycerio-Sparganion), Molinio-Arrhenatheretea (alliance Deschampsion cespitosae) and Scheuchzerio-Caricetea fuscae (alliance Caricion davallianae). The results demonstrate that the national expert system used can be successfully applied to a heterogeneous regional data set without discarding the particularities of the regional vegetation. The uniqueness of the regional vegetation is reflected in the set of diagnostic species determined at the regional level, which can differ strongly from those estimated at the national level.
The subgenus Hystricochaetonotus Schwank, 1990 is one of the most species-rich subgenera of Chaetonotus Ehrenberg, 1830. It has a worldwide distribution and encompasses 37 species predominantly living in the benthos and periphyton of limnetic habitats. We have discovered further nine new species in running and stagnant waters in Slovakia (Central Europe): Ch. (H.) arcanus sp. nov., Ch. (H.) avarus sp. nov., Ch. (H.) gulosus sp. nov., Ch. (H.) iratus sp. nov., Ch. (H.) luxus sp. nov., Ch. (H.) mirabilis sp. nov., Ch. (H.) optabilis sp. nov., Ch. (H.) slavicus sp. nov., and Ch. (H.) superbus sp. nov. Their morphology was studied using differential interference contrast microscopy and subsequent morphometric analyses were carried out. In addition, the primary and secondary structures of their 18S, ITS2, and 28S rRNA molecules as well as their barcoding mitochondrial gene encoding for cytochrome c oxidase (COI) were analyzed. Species boundaries were tested also using the compensatory base change analysis. The new species could be well separated both morphologically and molecularly. The present barcoding analyses revealed that the nuclear ITS2 sequences represent a powerful DNA barcode in addition to the mitochondrial COI gene. According to the multi-gene phylogenetic analyses, the lineage leading to the last common ancestor of the ‘Hystricochaetonotus’ clade is the longest internal branch within the family Chaetonotidae Gosse, 1864. Since members of the subgenus Hystricochaetonotus are morphologically highly heterogeneous, parallel evolution of Chaetonotus-like and/or Hystricochaetonotus-like characters of scales and spines occurred during its radiation.