Anna Kujawa

Impact of Land-Use and Climate on Biodiversity in an Agricultural Landscape

The term “biodiversity” was used for the first time by wildlife scientist and conservationist [1] in a lay book advocating nature conservation. The term was not adopted by more then decade. In 1980 use of the term by Thomas Lovejoy in the Foreword to the book “Conservation Biology” [2] credited with launching the field of conservation biology introduced the term to the scientific community. There are many definitions of biodiversity. One of them, formulated in Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [3] reads: ” Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems”. Biodiversity forms the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem services that critically contribute to human well-being. Biodiversity is important in human-managed as well as natural ecosystems. Decisions humans make that influence biodiversity affect the well-being of themselves and others [3].

Greenhouses of botanical gardens as a habitat of alien and native macrofungi: a case study in Poland

In 2010, 16 macrofungi species were found in greenhouses of the Botanical Garden in Warsaw-Powsin. These included 8 species of lepiotaceous fungi and a few species known from warmer areas. For 3 species identified, which are new to Poland (Agaricus subrufescens, Leucocoprinus heinemannii, Marasmius teplicensis), a description is given, with drawings of their microscopic features and photographs. Species composition of macrofungi is compared in 5 complexes of greenhouses (Bayreuth, Graz, Jena, Paskov, Warsaw) in 4 countries from Central Europe. The total number of species in these 5 studies is 206, including 27 (13.2%) lepiotaceous fungi. The smallest number of species identified was in Warsaw (16). More than twice this number was recorded in Jena (33) and Graz (34), while the richest fungal biotas were in Bayreuth (79) and Paskov (88). Of the 16 species found in Warsaw, 8 were also found in other greenhouses. In the group of 33 species recorded in at least two complexes of greenhouses, the most abundant were the lepiotaceous fungi (39.4%) and mycenaceous fungi (15.1%). Leucocoprinus cepistipes and L. straminellus were recorded most often, in 4 of the 5 studied greenhouse complexes. CCA analysis demonstrated that the highest impact on species diversity is the area of greenhouses.