COMMUNITY BOUNDARIES AND EDAPHIC FACTORS IN SALINESODIC
GRASSLAND COMMUNITIES ALONG AN ELEVATION
GRADIENT

M. Zalatnai, L. Körmöczi and T. Tóth

Abstract. In the characteristic saline-sodic grassland of Miklapuszta a 15 m transect with 30 cm
elevation difference was delineated. After the survey of 150×6 micro-quadrates and soil sampling
in each 10 cm interval, the vegetation boundaries and soil-plant relationships were studied with
moving split window (MSW) and correlation techniques.
Our objective was to test how precisely can the visible boundaries of the community patches
distinguished during field observation coincide with the boundaries determined by MSW from the
vegetation and soil data. Data showed that the best coincidence of the boundaries was in the
depression, the most saline and sodic part of the transect. The interpreation of the data supported
the hypothesis, that the higher the soil salinity and sodicity, the better is the coincidence of the
vegetation and soil section boundaries.

Keywords: moving split window, environmental gradient, soil parameters, solonchak-solonetzic
soil