Case study:Marsh protection in Egyek–Pusztakócs
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Project overview
| Status | Complete |
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| Project web site | |
| Themes | |
| Country | Hungary |
| Main contact forename | János, Judit, János |
| Main contact surname | Fehér, Gáspár, Tamás |
| Main contact user ID | |
| Contact organisation | GWP Eastern Europe |
| Contact organisation web site | http://https://www.gwp.org/en/GWP-CEE/ |
| Partner organisations | |
| Parent multi-site project | |
| This is a parent project encompassing the following projects |
No |
Project summary
Since its foundation in 1973, the Hortobágy National Park has aimed to restore and rehabilitate the Great Plain
landscapes that has been transformed for centuries by human activities.
The first habitat rehabilitation programme in Hungary was initiated in the Hortobágy region. The landscape level rehabilitation programme of the Egyek – Pusztakócs marsh system stand out of all similar restorations. The first phase of this programme (1976–1997) involved the rehabilitation of the marshes and meadows after the hydrological reconstruction of the water supply system. The second phase, which is still on going, focuses on the restoration of grasslands and on the management and protection of the already revitalised marshes.
The Egyek–Pusztakócs marsh system that used to be regularly flooded by the river Tisza has been drained gradually since the early 19th century. However, the regulation of the river Tisza, which has occurred since the 1860s terminated the most important source of water supply to the marsh system. The construction of the system to drain inland waters, which started in the 1900s and accelerated between 1930 and 1950, has drained most marshes, and led to the sinking of the ground water table and to the emergence of a general water deficit in the habitats. Canal constructions, done as part of the Egyek area melioration programme in the 1980s, have led to a near-fatal drought, and an almost irreversible degradation of the marsh system.
As a result of river regulation, flood control and drainage works, the sources of natural water supply have almost vanished. The drying was mainly caused by theses changes, and was only exacerbated by the extremely long low-precipitation period between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Most of the natural water catchments of the marshes were ploughed and the connections between the marshes were terminated by filling upof the former natural depressions which connected the marshes.
Parallel to the drying of the area, ploughing broke up an increasing amount of grasslands and meadows, and the proportion of arable lands have gradually increased. In addition to the reduction of wetland habitats, characteristic edge habitats and zonal transitions (e.g. dry grassland-wet meadow-tussock meadow-marsh) have disappeared. In many areas, patches of homogeneous habitats separated by sharp, sudden, non-transitional edges have appeared.
The aim of the rehabilitation was to construct and operate a water supply system that could mimic the flooding that had been characteristic to the area before river regulation, and to achieve a hydrological reconstruction and revitalisation of the marshes. The construction of the water supply system was started with Fekete-rét (1976) and continued with Kis-Jusztus, Bőgő and Meggyes marshes, and was completed in 1997 with Hagymás and Csattag marshes. The canal system has brought the water of river Tisza back to the marshes.
The habitat-level changes following the hydrological reconstruction have caused a regeneration and revitalisation of the marsh habitats. In a few years, the areal extent of marshes has approached the level estimated before human activities had started to transform the area (Fig. 2). Today the marsh system is characterised by a mosaic-like landscape structure, the most im-portant elements of which are the ancient riverbeds running mostly from N to S, the loess covered higher grounds between the marshes, the meadows in the edges of marshes, the alkali grasslands and pastures, and the small pockets of woodlands, tree lines and dry loess grassland fragments.
Monitoring surveys and results
The success of the hydrological reconstruction was seen by the very rapid changes in the bird fauna. In the years
after the reconstruction, rare and valuable species of birds such as the Pied Avocet (Reeurvirostra avosetta),
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) and Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanoeephalus) appeared
in unprecedented numbers in the marsh system. A decelerating stabilisation process, during which bird
assemblages became more characteristic to stagnant waters, followed the initial re-colonisation, and species
less typical in Hortobágy marshes disappeared.
Today reed beds, interspersed with stands of Broad-leaved and Narrow-leaved Bulrush, Softstem Bulrush and Common Clubrush, cover most of the marshes. The re-colonisation of the once extensive submersed vegetation has been extremely fast and White Waterlily, Yellow Waterlily, Yellow Floating-heart, Water Chestnut and Floating Fern cover increasingly larger areas.
The marshes see a limited number of fish, whereas the Grass Snake and European Pond Turtle are abundant. Among mammals, the Eurasian Otter is worthy of mentioning, which lives in great numbers in the canals and nearby fishponds.
Lessons learnt
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Catchment and subcatchment
Site
Project background
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Reasons for river restoration
Measures
MonitoringHydromorphological quality elements
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Supplementary InformationEdit Supplementary Information
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