Dry Grasslands in the Slovenský Kras MTS (Slovakia) and the Aggteleki-karszt MTS (Hungary) — A Comparison of Two Classification Approaches

The paper brings numerical classification of 48 new phytosociological relevés of dry grassland vegetation from the Slovenský kras Mts and the Aggteleki-karszt Mts located on the border between Slovakia and Hungary (Central Europe). We performed a comparison of two classification approaches (an unsupervised method - modified TWINSPAN, and a supervised approach - electronic expert system based on formal definitions of associations), which were applied on the same dataset. Four associations were distinguished: Campanulo divergentiformis-Festucetum pallentis Zólyomi (1936) 1966, Poo badensis-Caricetum humilis (Dostál 1933) Soó ex Michálková in Janišová et al. 2007, Alysso heterophylli-Festucetum valesiacae (Dostál 1933) Kliment in Kliment et al. 2000 and Festuco rupicolae-Caricetum humilis Klika 1939. A newly recorded stand of the rare Stipetum tirsae Meusel 1938 association is characterised. What is more, we established a neotype of the Alysso heterophylli-Festucetum valesiacae association.