Dr. Fűköh Levente szerk.: Malakológiai Tájékoztató 15. (Eger, 1986.)
P. SÓLYMOS.: Ecological and biogeographical investigation of the recent mollusc fauna of Szársomlyó (S Hungary), southern side
MALAKOLÓGIAI TÁJÉKOZTATÓ 1996 MALACOLOGICAL NEWSLETTER 15: 61-67 Ecological and biogeographical investigation of the recent mollusc fauna of Szársomlyó (S Hungary), southern side R Sólymos Abstract. The recent mollusc fauna of Szársomlyó (S Hungary), S side, is presented on 24 volumetrically equal soil samples. The malacological material was evaluated ecologically and zoogeographically on the basis of the connection between mollusc fauna elements and vegetational covering. Introduction In terms of location and geology Szársomlyó provides a sub-mediterranean character, reflected in climate, vegetation and mollusc fauna. Previous works (Gebhardt, A. 1958, Kovács, Gy .-Richnovszky, A. 1989) to survey Szársomlyó has been accurate, although whitout considering the variety of mosaic-like biotopes of the S side. This paper presents the first results of a study to investigate the connection between mollusc fauna elements and vegetational covering on the area. Study area Szársomlyó is a 3.5 km long, 1.7 km wide mount with 4.4 km 2 basic area, situated in Villány Mountains (S Hungary), about 10 km N of the Hungarian-Croatian border. The climate of this region has a strong sub-mediterranean character. This is expressed in the annual temperature (10.9 C) and in the ammount of precipitation (676-697 mm yr" 1 ) that has two maximums (Marosi, S.-Somogyi, S. 1990). The mount is built of Cretaceous limestone on the W part and Jurassic limestone on the E part. Limestones are quite the same in chemical quality but physical quality, which causes dissimilarity in soil and flora of these two areas. The vegetation is rocky grassland (Sedo sopianae-Festucetum dalmaticae) on the W slope and kast shrubforest (Inulo spiraeifoliaeQuercetum pubescentis) on the E slope. The vegetation of Pleistocene loesses on the W ridge and all the foot of the hill is steppe grassland (Cleistogeni-Festucetum rupicolae baranyaense) (Dénes, A. 1994, Lehmann, A. 1975). Szársomlyó has been a territory of nature conservation since 1944. The flora of the mount, for example, includes several species that are rare or unique to Hungary (Colchicum humgaricum, Orobanche nana, Trigonella gladiata, Medicago orbicularis, Festuca dalmatica ssp. pannonica). Materials and methods The investigation was carried out in July and September, 1996. The malacological material were collected from 6 areas: W ridge, steppe grassland on Pleistocene loess (1); W slope, rocky grassland on Cretaceous limestone (2); middle ridge, dense karst shrubforest on Jurassic limestone (3); middle slope, karst shrubforest and grassland mosaic on Jurassic limestone (4); E ridge, rocky karst shrubforest and grassland mosaic on Jurassic limestone (5); E slope, rocky grassland on Jurassic limestone (6). 4 volumetrically equal soil samples (20 cm x 20 cm x 5 cm per quadrat where it was possible) from each areas, 2 other not equal samples from the 2 caves on the ridge and numerous specimens using thin-out method were taken.
