18.04.2023: András Kelemen (Univ. of Szeged, Hungary): New challenges of nature conservation in the light of climate change and economic transformations. Some examples from Central Hungary, HS 32.01, Institut für Biologie, Bereich für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Holteigasse 6, 17.00 - 18.30 Uhr.
The effects of global climate change are manifested in the Hungarian lowlands through an increase of the average annual temperature, a slight reduction in precipitation, and changes in the distribution of rainfall. This leads to a pronounced decrease in the amount of precipitation during the vegetation season, lengthening of drought periods, and milder winters. Under such drier and warmer circumstances there are significant challenges such as control of the invasion of C4 plants, maintaining favorable grazing practices, control of the shrub encroachment and of course, preserving wetland habitats. Habitat reconstruction using seed sowing and hay spreading is also much more difficult nowadays, as seed production and the establishment of sown plants are much more unpredictable than before. In my presentation, I will talk about the above problems and their potential solutions. Unfortunately, in the current state of research, we cannot provide solutions to every problem, but we are making progress.