Origin, history, management and plant species composition of grasslands in Central Europe - a review

摘要

Until now, relatively little attention has been paid to the origin and history of grasslands in Central Europe and to the sources of information that can be used for such study. The aim of this review was to discuss the origin of natural and semi-natural grasslands in Central Europe. Without any written records, grassland history can be studied using the pollen and macrorem-nant analysis of different sediments and by soil charcoal analysis. An indicator of grasslands is the ratio of non-arboreal/arboreal pollen and species such as Plantago lanceolata and Urtica dioica in sediments. Pastures can be indicated by Juniperus communis pollen or by its charcoals. Insect-pollinated species can be studied using cesspit sediments and vessels in graves, because of their pollen in honey which was used as a sweetener. In Central Europe, natural grasslands occurred even before the start of agricultural activities in the Early Neolithic (5500 BC), but their area was relatively small and grassland patches were rather fragmentary in the forested landscape. Large-scale enlargement of grasslands can not be expected to have occurred before the Iron Age. The first scythes come from the 5th century BC, therefore, hay meadows did not develop before this time. From the start of the agriculture until the 18th century, pastures and pasture forests were dominant sources of forage in Central Europe. Large scale enlargement of hay meadows and decline of pastures in many regions occurred from the 18th century, when livestockwere predominantly moved into barns because of higher demand for organic fertilizers that were used to increase crop production on arable land. In some mountain areas, there are no records of large-scale deforestation and enlargement of grasslands untilthe Middle Ages, in the 14th century, and the peak of the agriculturally used area was recorded for the period from the 18th to the first half of the 20th century. Mountain grasslands were converted into arable land during the wars and, in contrast, grasslands replaced arable land after the collapse of agriculture in many regions of former communist countries following the change of the political regime in the 1990s. The dynamics of the grassland area reflect the development of human society, because grasslands are an integral part of the cultural landscape in Central Europe.