Vegetation und Vegetationsentwicklung auf Weinbergsbrachen im Oberen Elbtal (Freistaat Sachsen)

Abstract

ZöPHEL, B.; MAHN, E.-G.: Vegetation and succession ofabandoned vineyards in the upper Eibe valley (Saxony). - Hercynia N.F. 33 (2000): 63- 98. The wine growing region between Pillnitz and Diesbar-Seußlitz (Eibe valtey near Dresden, Saxony) is one of the northernmost in Europe. lt is characterized by small wine growing areas and a very dynamic alternation of cultivation and abandonment. In this study the vegetation structure of the abandoned vineyards at the steep sites was investigated. The vegetation units are described considering their attachement to specific site conditions (such as soil, exposition, steepness, hillside location) and human influences as weil as their place in the succession process. The main direction ofsuccession Ieads from the Setario-Galinsogetum parviflorae (R.Tx. et Becker 42) R. Tx. 50, the weed community of vineyards, to secondary dry and thermophilaus oak-woods or oak-hornbeam-beech-woods. Plant communities dominated by Arrhenatherum elatius, Rubus-shrubs and other shrub-communities (Rbamno-Prunetea and Urtico-Sambucetea) are vegetation types of great spatial and temporal importance. During the early successional phases the vegetation communities are mainly determined by human influences and differ from each other e. g. according to the intensity of former cultivation and the speed at which the land was abandoned. In later successional phases (older grass-communities, shrubs, woods) natural ecological site factors (such as aridity, bedrock and soil type, exposure and steepness) become more significant. A successional scheme summarizes the main development possibilities of the vegetation units. The succession is similar to that which is known from abandoned vineyards on acid soil-forming rocks in southwestern Germany. 352 species ( excluding Rubus) were found, under them 36 vulnerable species of the flora of Saxony, most of them from xerothermic plant communities. Because of this fact and its richness in vegetation structures the entire complex of abandoned vineyards should be protected. Keywords: abandoned vineyards, succession, phytosociology, Saxon Eibe valley