THE EVOLUTION OF SOME VEGETATION INDICES ON PERMANENT GRASSLANDS IN TIMIS COUNTY (WESTERN ROMANIA)

Abstract

The areas occupied by permanent grasslands constitute one of the most important ecosystems of the Earth, occupying almost half of it. The use of land covered by grasslands and climate changes are the main stressors of grass communities and implicitly of grassland ecosystems. Its multifunctionality (food source for ruminants, insect habitat, means of soil and water conservation, as well as outdoor activities, etc.) is gradually affected, thus diminishing the mentioned functions. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of some indices characterizing permanent grasslands over a three-year period 2020-2023. Observations were made for three years on two permanent grasslands located in the vicinity of Hitia? and Capat (belonging to the same UAT Racovi?a). The monitored indices were the agronomic ones, namely the pastoral value (PV), the grazing capacity (GC), as well as the ecological ones (the Shannon-Weaver and Simpson indices). For each analyzed permanent grassland, three analysis points were taken and the resulting data represent the average. The analysis methods were the linear one to study the vegetation and the indices, and correlation analysis was used for the statistics. Thus, it may be concluded that there are differences from one year to the next in the structure of the vegetation and in grassland communities. This aspect is also reflected in the agricultural fodder potential of the studied grasslands. The results of this study enable starting points for urgent measures to improve these permanent grasslands