Team members from Plant Science and Biodversity Cente SAS have started monitoring vegetation in Čiližské močiare and Istragov. At both of these sites, we plan to bring in livestock in the near future to help with suppression of invasive plant species.
The Čiližké močiare used to be a wetland, which – like many others – has been partially drained by humans and converted into agricultural land. However, due to the high water levels it could not be intensively exploited. The result is a wet meadow, now heavily overgrown with invasive plants. Botanists have set up a permanent 100×100 metre research area on the very spot where cows and water buffalo will be arriving in a few weeks’ time. In it, they recorded the cover of invasive species in individual 10×10 meter quadrats.
Istragov has always been a wetland, but in recent decades the water has not been coming in. Within the LIFE Microtus II project, canals have been created to bring water here again. Within the LIFE Resistance project we want to improve the condition of Istragov even further. By introducing grazing, we will suppress invasive species and create an example of a traditionally managed floodplain landscape. Here, we used a precision GPS to delineate 100 10×10 m plots, within which we surveyed invasive plant species cover and species composition. In 5 plots of 5×5 m we recorded the pre-grazing condition.
Monitoring will be repeated annually and we hope that the cover of invasive species will gradually decrease.