15E2

E. Herbaceous communities and communities of lichens and mosses

Lowland hay meadows

Relationships with habitat classifications. EUNIS: E2.252 Moesio-Thracian hay meadows; PAL. CLASS.: 38.252 Moeso-Thracian mesophile hay meadows; HD 92/43: 6510 Lowland hay meadows (Alopecurus pratensis, Sanguisorba officinalis); Bondev (1991): 148 Mesophytous grass communities (meadows) (Festuceta pratensis, Poaeta sylvicolae, Alopecureta pratensis, Lolieta perennis, Agrostideta stoloniferae etc.) replacing forests of elm, field ash, Querceta roboris and Q. pedunculiflorae, etc.

Conservation status. BDA, BC, HD.

Category. Endangered [EN - A1, 2 D3 E2 F2 G2 H2 J L2].

General characteristics. The lowland hay meadows cover riverside terraces and depressions of the relief in the lowlands. The area of the different localities varies from about one to several hundred decares. The areas are flat or slanting, rarely with slopes bigger than 25°. Thus, the surface (from rains) and underground (close to the surface) water is retained. The temporary river floods are rare and occur only in certain places. The soils are of alluvial-diluvial and diluvial-meadow type, in many places clay-sandy, sometimes covered by river deposits. In some places they are slightly saline. During most of the vegetation period the soils are moderately humid but during the second half of the summer, these localities become very dry. Some of the meadows are drained, others are watered artificially in certain periods of the year. Due to their fertility these places used to be ploughed and turned into arable land in many places.. Opposite processes have been observed in the last years.The area of the different parts of this habitat varies from one to several hundred decares. The vertical range of distribution is very wide. It starts from the sea level but the upper border varies considerably. Sometimes it reaches 1200, even 1300 m alt. The vertical optimum of distribution is up to 600–800 (1000) m alt. in the high plains and between 300 and 600 m alt. in the lowlands.

The anthropogenic pressure has significant impact on the composition and structure of the vegetation of the lowland hay meadows. In most cases they are phytocoenoses of secondary origin which have replaced mesophyllous and hygro-mesophyllous forests. Mowing prevents the restoration of the primary wood vegetation and determines their floristic composition to a significant degree. Sowing of seeds, additional fertilizing and other human activities also have impact on the floristic composition of the phytocoenoses of this habitat type. The true hay meadows are used only for hay making, but this happens very rarely. More often these meadows are also used as pastures throughout most of the vegetation period and this also reflects in the species composition.

The typical mesophytic coenoses are very rich in species. The changes in the floristic composition of each phytocoenoses are mainly fluctuations. The abundance of a certain species is a result of some variation in the ecological conditions and in some cases of anthropogenic impact. The dominant grass species are Alopecurus pratensis, Elymus repens, Festuca pratensis, Poa sylvicola. The coenoses of Bromus commutatus, Deschampsia caespitosa, Lolium perenne, Poa pratensis, etc. are of more restricted distribution. Alopecurus rendlei (= Alopecurus utriculatus), Anthoxanthum odoratum, Anthriscus sylvestris, Arrhenatherum elatius, Briza media, Bromus racemosus, Campanula patula, Carex distans, C. spicata, C. vulpina, Centaurea jacea, Cirsium canum, Crepis biennis, C. setosa, Cynosurus cristatus, Daucus carota, Filipendula vulgaris, Geranium pratense, Gratiola officinalis, Heracleum ternatum, Holcus lanatus, Knautia arvensis, Lathyrus pratensis, Leucanthemum vulgare, Lotus corniculatus, Lychnis flos-cuculi, Lysimachia nummularia, Medicago arabica, M. polymorpha, Moenchia mantica, Oenanthe banatica, O. silaifolia, Orchis coriophora, O. laxiflora subsp. elegans, Phleum pratense, Plantago lanceolata, Poa angustifolia, Prunella vulgaris, Rhinanthus minor, R. rumelicus, Ranunculus acris, Rorippa sylvestris, Rumex acetosa, Stellaria graminea, Tragopogon pratensis, Trifolium campestre, T. dubium, T. fragiferum subsp. bonannii, T. hybridum subsp. elegans, T. pratense, T. repens, T. flavescens have different abundance in the mesophytic lowland grasslands. Same refers also to many other species, including some xeromesophytes like Achillea millefolium, Scorzonera hispanica, Trifolium patens, etc. The transition between the lowland and mountain hay meadows is very smooth – on the one hand some coenoses belonging to the group of lowland meadows occur up to 1300 m alt. and very rarely reach higher altitudes. On the other hand some coenoses considered as mountain hay meadows, e.g. the coenoses of Agrostis capillaris, start to occur from 800 m. upwards. Lowland coenoses, e.g. dominated by Poa pratensis, Festuca pratensis, etc. occur in some places of the mountain belt. Their floristic composition differs very little from the one of the typical lowland hay meadows, because a considerable part of their species occurs above 800 (1000) m alt. But there are such species that occur mainly in the mountains: Agrostis capillaris, Galium cruciatum, Rumex alpinus, Viola tricolor,etc.

Most of the species that participate in the lowland hay meadows have good forage qualities. The species that contain poisonous substances are very rare and of low abundance (Colchicum autumnale, Oenanthe banatica, O. silaifolia, Ranunculus acris, R. polyanthemos, R. repens, R. sardous, Stellaria graminea, Symphytum officinale, etc.). Very often grazing is forbidden only for about two months or a bit more, if a second mowing (otava) is collected. Grazing has direct impact on the plants and indirectly on the species composition through the manure. But a worse impact is trampling and seeds from ruderal plants that deteriorates the quality of the meadow coenoses. Among ruderals and weeds the most frequent are Apera spica-venti, Bromus hordeaceus, B. arvensis, Daucus carota, Carduus nutans, Cichorium intybus, Echium italicum, Crepis setosa, etc. At lower altitudes, in humid ravines of N Bulgaria,the coenoses of Festuca arundinacea are poorer in species. Syntaxonomically the lowland hay meadows in Bulgaria belong to class Molinio-Arhenatheratea (allience Arhenatherion, Deschampsion). In some places Chrysopogon gryllus also makes communities the composition of which is close to of the mesophytic meadows (alliance Chrysopogoni-Danthonion). Many typical mesophyllous species participate in these meadows: Leucanthemum vulgare, Moenchia mantica, Stellaria graminea and many others. However these communities are closer to the meadow steppes and develop on drier and usually elevated places. In these cases mowing helps to retain soil humidity because it prevents the evaporation from the big caespitose grass species.

Characteristic taxa.

Distribution in Bulgaria. In the whole country below 1200 m alt. but most frequently in the high flat areas of W Bulgaria: Sofia, Dragoman, Ichtiman, Samokov (the valley of Palakaria River), Kyustendil regions; more rarely in the flat areas to the South of the Balkan Range (Karlovo, Kalofer, Kazanlak, Nova Zagora regions), in N Bulgaria (Studena River in the Lomove valley), NW Bulgaria (Vidin, Belogradchik, Nikopol regions) and Ludogorie region (Razgrad, Targovishte, Kubrat, Popovo regions).

Conservation importance. The habitat develops under very specific conditions. Some plant and animal species of conservation importance occur: Crex crex, Circus pygargus,as well as the fungi Entoloma incanum of conservation importance. The relatively high abundance of insects is a good food basis for the bats from the neighbouring karst areas, settlements and forests: Myotis capaccinii, Nyctalus noctula, N. leislerii, Hypsugo savii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Eptesicus serotinus.

Threats. The lowland hay meadows were very widely distributed in the past in Bulgaria. Many of them are already destroyed: turned into arable land, built up or transformed into pastures as a result of heavy grazing, etc. As a result of the political-economic changes in the country, grazing has been almost completely terminated, and many fields have been abandoned. Consequently the meadow coenoses have been restored but they do not have the same qualities as the primary meadows. Other negative factors are the changes in the hydrological regime of the rivers through building of dykes and draining of riverside flooded areas, pollution with synthetic fertilizers, use of herbicides, general aridisation, etc.

Conservation measures taken. The habitat is included in Annex № I of the national Biodiversity Act. Some of the most representative localities of this habitat type are included in sites of the European Ecological Network NATURA 2000.

Conservation measures needed. Monitoring of the state of the meadows; proclamation of the most representative ones (e.g. along Palakaria river) as protected areas; restoration of the water regime of some other meadows; correct management of the meadows through hay making and restriction of grazing.

References. Drazheva-Geranlieva 1986; Ganchev et al. 1964.

Authors: Rossen Tzonev, Veska Roussakova


Lowland hay meadows (distribution map)