A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Naturalia 5. (Szeged, 2009)

Summary

infertile Hungarian pusztas with thinly sown plants. At present this area is covered by agricultural growings and forests. High and medium mounds of sand In Csongrád county the most beautiful, almost untouched sandy grass areas were saved by completely thinned forest steppe-like patches (Kiss Ferenc Memorial Forest) and by bigger forest clearings (The Süveg-Magyari forest's high mounded isolated parts). Their dominant grass community is the perennial calciphilous turf (Festucetum vaginatae danubiale). The level of low sandmounds Low mounds of sand These areas are rather mosaic-like habitats, whose certain parts can be considered sand pusztas. On the vast marshes as a result of overgrazing there are mainly moorlands (Succisio-Molinietum hungaricae) which become overgrown with weeds or sedge and grass communities which are the signs of salinification flourish. Wetland ranges The wetland ranges take up the wetter parts between the mounds of sand. Simplifying a little they can be divided into three sections; "upper" section, which is not so saline, "middle" section, which is moderately saline and the "bottom" section which is markedly saline. The attention was drown to their existence by one of the biggest botanists of Szeged, Béla Lányi (1915). The increased salinification of the little basins in the south-eastern direction is a result of several factors. The next ones worth mentioning: The chemical composition of the soils in the watershed area, the increased hindrance of drainage and (in close connection with all these factors) the change of the configurations of the terrain. Before the irrigation canals were built permanent water surface appeared in the middle of the area. According to the contemporary maps (in case of farflung dips between the mounds of sand) the whole range consisted of some smaller and bigger ponds. The former wetland habitats were connected by an arterial drainage, which was built between the end of the 19th century and the 1930's. Lakes (wetland habitats) Some of the lakes which can be found here now were also on the section of the First Military Survey (1783. Coll. XVII. Sect. 32). These (for example Lake Nagyszéksós, Lake Madarász and Lake Bilisics which is completely dried out) can be classified as natron lakes. The other lakes (the lakes of the Atokháza