One of the last field trips of this season traditionally led to the Cep II sand pit - specifically to "the Klara's island" and "the Chessboard", where we have established permanent plots for monitoring of restoration of dry grasslands by biomass transfer. After five years, the island was ungrazed this year, thus the expansive grass Calamagrostis epigejos began to spread again in some plots. Trees also grew significantly. On the other hand, the expansively behaving Lotus corniculatus withdrew quite surprisingly even without grazing. Many plots, especially those with transferred biomass from sand dunes, still looked very nice, and the target species clearly predominated.
On the Chessboard, it seems that the type of substrate (clay vs. sand) does not play a big role. It is more important whether biomass has been transferred to the plot or not. Even a small amount of biomass can direct the succession to the target state (e.i. dry grasslands) very well. However, in case that organic material covers the plot, the succession will approach towards more nutritious stands, and woody species will also play a significant role.
