Resilience of spider communities affected by a range of silvicultural treatments in a temperate deciduous forest stand.

To secure the ecosystem services forests provide, it is important to understand how different management practices impact various components of these ecosystems. We aimed to uncover how silvicultural treatments affected the ground-dwelling spider communities during the first five years of a forest ecological experiment. In an oak-hornbeam forest stand, five treatments, belonging to clear-cutting, shelterwood and continuous cover forestry systems, were implemented using randomised complete block design. Spiders were sampled by pitfall traps, and detailed vegetation, soil and microclimate data were collected throughout the experiment. In the treatment plots spider abundance and species richness increased marginally. Species composition changes were more pronounced and treatment specific, initially diverging from the control plots, but becoming more similar again by the fifth year. These changes were correlated mostly to treatment-related light intensity and humidity gradients. The patchy implementation of the treatments induced modest increase in both gamma and beta diversity of spiders in the stand. Overall, spiders gave a prompt and species specific response to treatments that was by the fifth year showing signs of relatively quick recovery to pre-treatment state. At the present fine scale of implementation the magnitude of changes was not different among forestry treatments, irrespective of their severity.

Accumulation of selected metals and concentration of macroelements in liver and kidney tissues of sympatric golden jackal (Canis aureus) and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Somogy County, Hungary.

This study examined the concentrations of Al, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the liver and kidney samples of golden jackals (n = 163) and red foxes (n = 64). Additionally, we studied how sex affected element concentration in both species, and in the case of golden jackals, how concentration levels were affected by age.Liver was the most important storage organ for Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn, while kidney for Cd and Na in jackals and foxes.We found no sex-related differences in concentration of any of the selected elements in fox samples. In jackals, the mean concentrations of Al, Mn, and Zn were significantly higher in kidneys of males, while Zn and Cu had higher concentrations in female livers. Our results suggest bioaccumulation processes do not occur in mesocarnivores.Lead and Cd concentrations fell within ranges accepted as normal for canine species and were below toxic levels in the organs of the examined species. Concentrations of Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn were far below the toxic levels in both organs of both species, with a slight sign of deficiency of Fe, Mn, and Zn in jackal and fox kidneys. In comparison with toxicity levels and results from other European study sites, the current study demonstrated that species living in the examined area of Somogy County, Hungary, are generally exposed to low levels of environmental contamination.

Environmental drivers of forest biodiversity in temperate mixed forests - A multi-taxon approach.

Harmonization of timber production and forest conservation is a major challenge of modern silviculture. For the establishment of ecologically sustainable forest management, the management-related environmental drivers of multi-taxon biodiversity should be explored. Our study reveals those environmental variables related to tree species diversity and composition, stand structure, litter and soil conditions, microclimate, landscape, and land-use history that determine species richness and composition of 11 forest-dwelling organism groups. Herbs, woody regeneration, ground-floor and epiphytic bryophytes, epiphytic lichens, terricolous saprotrophic, ectomycorrhizal, and wood-inhabiting macrofungi, spiders, carabid beetles, and birds were sampled in West Hungarian mature mixed forests. The correlations among the diversities and compositions of different organism groups were also evaluated. Drivers of organism groups were principally related to stand structure, tree species diversity and composition, and microclimate, while litter, soil, landscape, and land-use historical variables were less influential. The complex roles of the shrub layer, deadwood, and the size of the trees in determining the diversity and composition of various taxa were revealed. Stands with more tree species sustained higher stand-level species richness of several taxa. Besides, stands with different dominant tree species harbored various species communities of organism groups. Therefore, landscape-scale diversity of dominant tree species may enhance the diversity of forest-dwelling communities at landscape level. The effects of the overstory layer on forest biodiversity manifested in many cases via microclimate conditions. Diversity of organism groups showed weaker relationship with the diversity of other taxa than with environmental variables. According to our results, the most influential drivers of forest biodiversity are under the direct control of the actual silvicultural management. Heterogeneous stand structure and tree species composition promote the different organism groups in various ways. Therefore, the long-term maintenance of the structural and compositional heterogeneity both at stand and landscape scale is an important aspect of ecologically sustainable forest management.

Influence of human impacts on trace metal accumulation in soils of two Hungarian cities.

Despite the advanced activity of urban soil research, comparison of available trace metal contents in the soil of settlements has not yet been well investigated. First aim of research was the comparison of human impacts on urban soils in two Hungarian cities with different structure and development. To detect the sources of contamination, Szombathely and Sopron cities were separated into urban, suburban and peri-urban areas. Altogether 192 topsoil samples were collected at 0-20 cm in order to measure the physicochemical properties of the soil. Instead of total element contents, plant-available trace metal concentrations - Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn - were determined using ICP-OES method. Due to different geological conditions, urban soils of the investigated settlements had similar properties in the case of pH, CaCO3 and texture. In the case of plant available trace metals, limit excesses were found in urban and peri-urban areas mostly, but high values were recorded in the suburb. The amount of Cdavailable, Coavailable and Niavailable were negligible. Downtown area was the most contaminated in both cities, but extremes appeared in suburban areas. In Szombathely, Cuavailable values were <40 mg Cu/kg, but extremely high Cuavailable results were found in the peri-urban viticulture areas of Sopron (>90 mg Cu/kg). The samples taken alongside busy roads near the city centre were Pbavailable-contaminated due to traffic. The Pbavailable concentration decreased slightly towards the suburban areas of the cities. The Znavailable level exceeded 40 mg Zn/kg in soils taken from the watercourses of Szombathely. The highest trace metal pollution levels were recorded in soils of public parks of Sopron. Urban soils of Szombathely were more homogenized than urban soils of Sopron. Based on statistical analyses and comparison of the relations of urban, suburban, and peri-urban areas of Sopron to Szombathely, Szombathely's urban soils show more homogeneity.

Long-term ecological effects of the red mud disaster in Hungary: Regeneration of red mud flooded areas in a contaminated industrial region.

As one of the most severe ecological disasters ever to take place in Europe, the 2010 red mud accident has left behind long-term environmental impact, prompting the need for monitoring of soil biodiversity. Red mud (wet storage solution) can be regarded as a complex mixture of contaminants due to its extreme alkalinity and the presence of potentially toxic trace elements. After-effect investigations on soil properties and soil microarthropods were carried out in three distinct habitat types (agricultural land, grassland, woodland) in the red mud affected area. Soils in the red mud affected area were moderately to strongly alkaline (pH 7.5 to 8.5). Total content of trace metals Cd, Ni, Cr exceeded threshold concentrations for soil. Acari and Collembola were by far the most abundant taxa, while important groups like Pauropoda, Protura and Symphyla were completely absent from the samples of red mud affected plots. These observations were also reflected by the low values of the soil biological quality (QBS-ar) index. Independently of habitat types, total collembolan abundance tended to be lower in the contaminated area when compared with nearby control samples. Typical species distribution of Collembola communities in the contaminated area generally included one or two very common and abundant species and more, relatively rare species of low abundance. In the red mud affected open habitats, a distinct eudominance of Brachystomella parvula and Parisotoma notabilis was observed; whereas in contaminated woodland Parisotoma notabilis formed the bulk of the community with Sphaeridia pumilis, Folsomia manolachei and F. quadrioculata being subdominant. Species sensitive to alkalinity and red mud components (e.g. Hypogastrura vernalis, Lepidocyrtus tomosvaryi) were completely absent or were present only in limited numbers in the contaminated samples.

Accumulation of Metals in Liver Tissues of Sympatric Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) and Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) in the Southern Part of Romania.

Several previous study results have already demonstrated that golden jackal and red fox may serve as biological indicators of trace elements and heavy metal concentrations in the various regions they inhabit. The aim of this study was to evaluate accumulation patterns of targeted elements (Al, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni and Pb) in liver samples of red foxes and golden jackals collected during the same period in the southern part of Romania. The accumulation patterns of trace elements in the livers of sympatric golden jackal and red fox were practically the same. To date, separate studies of the species individually in different habitats have shown that either of the species can be used for ecotoxicological and biomonitoring studies. Moreover, in general gender related studies, no significant differences in the concentrations of the investigated elements were found in either jackals or foxes. Also, average metal concentrations in liver samples do not show significant differences between groups under and above 12 months of age.