Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok IV. - Natura Somogyiensis 15. / Miscellanea 4. (Kaposvár, 2009)
Ortmanné Ajkai Andrienne - Horváth Ferenc: Külső-Somogytól a Mecsekig: DNX Magyarország három dombvidékének vegetációja
Natura Somogyiensis 15 15-26 Kaposvár, 2009 From Külső-Somogy to Mecsek Hills: Vegetation of three hilly landscape regions of SW Hungary Adrienne Ortmann-né Ajkai1 & Ferenc Horváth2 'University of Pécs, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Dept, of General and Applied Ecology H-7635 Pécs, Ifjúság utca 6., Hungary, e-mail: aadrienn@gamma.ttk.pte.hu ^Institute of Ecology and Botany of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences H-2163 Vácrátót, Alkotmány utca 4., Hungary, e-mail: horvfe@botanika.hu Ortmann-né Ajkai, A. & Horváth, F.: From Külső-Somogy to Mecsek Hills: Vegetation of three hilly landscape regions of SW Hungary. Abstract: Landscape-level GIS analysis of actual vegetation of Baranyai-hegyhát, Völgység and Tolnaihegyhát was performed on the base of Landscape Ecological Vegetation Database and Map of Hungary (META). Natural and semi-natural vegetation covers 34% in Baranyai-hegyhát, closest to Mecsek hills, and about 10% in the other regions. 45 habitat types occur, 53% of all Hungarian ones. Patterns of mesophilous and dry and semi-dry grasslands and forests, according to climatic data, shows,a distinct SW-NE gradient from mesophilous beech and hornbeam-oak forests to turkey oak-pedunculate oak and closed steppe oak forests and from colline hay meadows to xero-mesophilous grasslands and closed steppes. Our results support Hungary’s new vegetation-based landscape regions. Keywords: landscape-level vegetation patterns, actual natural and semi-natural vegetation, continentality gradient, grid-based analysis, habitat database (META) Introduction Tolna-Baranya hills (Tolnai-hegyhát, Völgység and Baranyai-hegyhát regions) are situated south of Külső-Somogy, north of Mecsek Hills. The three regions are adjacent to each other in a southwest-northeast sequence. Völgység, in the middle, is transitionary between the two other ones. Regarding its geomorphology and land-use (stronger anthropogenic effect) it resembles to Tolnai-hegyhát, but regarding e.g. its climate it stands closer to Baranyai-hegyhát. This is why it is interesting to present analyse these three regions in the same paper. As a consequence of their similar character and their gradual transition, their classification is uncertain: according to vegetation-based landscape regions of Hungary (Molnár et al. 2008) Völgység and Baranyai-hegyhát are grouped together with Mecsek hills, only Tolnai-hegyhát preserved its autonomy. Research results are sparse from each of the three regions. Some sporadic floristic results, mostly by-products of study of neighbouring regions (Mecsek, Mezőföld) are published in Kevey (1989, 1993, 1995, 2001,2004), Kevey & Horváth (2000), Tóth (1998, 2000, 2002), Király (1998). MÉTA Survey, a country-wide research project collecting habitat data according to a strict protocol for building Landscape Ecological
