Further Successes of Scientists from Institute of Biology

The first two works on effectiveness, habitat transformations and changes in species composition of three habitat types have been published. The texts were published in two influential ecological periodicals - Land Degradation and Development and Applied Vegetation Science.

The team which, with the participation of Professor Arkadiusz Nowak, has been monitoring meadows, flush mires and heathland in the Botanical Garden in Radzionków for five years, showed significant changes in some physical and chemical parameters of the soil and relative stability in the species composition of the transferred habitat patches.

The project started in 2012, when it was necessary to relocate more than 1 ha of valuable plant groups at the airport in Katowice-Pyrzowice, threatened by the construction of the second runway. The team of botanists from the Silesian Botanical Garden in Mikołów, the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Powsin, the Jagiellonian University and the University of Opole made one of the largest transfers of entire patches of natural habitats with the help of heavy equipment in the history of nature protection in Central Europe. The developed method proved to be so effective that in cases of higher necessity and lack of an alternative it can be used for preservation of meadows, flush mires and heathland rich in species.

In the photos: Establishing a permanent floral monitoring network on translocated meadows.