The most species-rich plant communities in the Czech Republicand Slovakia (with new world records)
2015
We provide an inventory of the sites and vegetation types in
the Czech Republic and Slovakia that contain the highest
numbers of vascular plant species in small areas of up to 625
m2. The highest numbers of species were recorded in
semi-natural grasslands, in which we report four new world
records for fine-scale species richness: 17 species of vascular
plants in 0.0044 m2 in a mountain meadow in the Krkonose Mts,
52 and 63 species in 0.25 and 0.5 m2, respectively, in the
Kopanecke luky meadows in the Slovak Paradise (Slovenský raj),
and 109 species in 16 m2 in the Poražky meadows in the White
Carpathians (Bile Karpaty). The previous world record of 43
species in 0.1 m2 was equalled in the Certoryje meadows in the
White Carpathians, however, the previous record referred to
shoot presence while the new record considers only the species
rooted in the plot.We interpreted and corrected the data from
the Czech Republic thatWilson et al. (2012) used to compile a
list of world records and provide an updated list. The updated
list contains five world records from the Czech Republic and
two from Slovakia. The most species-rich grasslands and forests
in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are concentrated in regions
with base-rich soils in the Western Carpathians, especially in
the flysch zone in SE Moravia and the Czech-Slovak borderland,
and in limestone and volcanic areas in central Slovakia. The
richest types of non-forest vegetation include semi-dry
base-rich meadows (Bromion erecti and Cirsio-Brachypodion
pinnati), base-rich pastures and mesic meadows (Cynosurion
cristati and Arrhenatherion elatioris), Nardus stricta
grasslands (Violion caninae and Nardo strictae-Agrostion
tenuis) and some wet meadows and natural subalpine grasslands.
A special type of species-rich herbaceous to open woodland
vegetation develops as successional stages on gravel
accumulations in Carpathian rivers after severe flooding. The
maximum counts of vascular plant species in non-forest
vegetation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are 7
species/0.0009 m2, 11/0.0011 m2, 12/0.004 m2, 17/0.0044 m2,
23/0.01 m2, 37/0.04 m2, 43/0.1 m2, 52/0.25 m2, 63/0.5 m2, 82/1
m2, 88/4 m2, 109/16 m2, 116/25 m2, 131/49m2 and 133/100m2.While
themaximum counts for plots smaller than 0.5m2 are from various
regions and probably mainly depend on appropriate management,
the maximum counts for plots larger than 0.5m2 are for two
areas only, the south-eastern part of theWhite Carpathians and
Kopanecke luky meadows, suggesting the importance of regionally
specific landscape processes for high species richness at such
scales. Czech and Slovak forest vegetation is much poorer than
grasslands, reaching maxima of 100, 109 and 118 species in
plots of 100, 400 and 500 m2, which are considerably smaller
than global maxima for temperate forests. Most of the
species-rich sites occur on base-rich soils, in habitats with
intermediate values of environmental factors, are subject to
low-intensity management or natural disturbance, occur in
landscapes with large areas of natural and semi-natural
vegetation and probably have a long historical continuity.
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