Conservation monitoring on the Prague City Circle Road

No. 514 Lahovice – Slivenec Road is a part of the Prague City Circle Road. Together with other roads, namely No. 513 Vestec – Lahovice, No. 512 D1 Highway Jesenice – Vesec and No. 515 Slivenec – Třebonice, it forms a south-western part of the whole circle road which linked the D5 Highway towards Plzeň/Pilsen to D1 Highway towards Brno. 

   

After finishing field testing a length of No. 514 Lahovice - Slivenec road during the trial period in June 2012, Natura Servis Ltd. begin again monitoring of the selected wild plant and animal taxa/groups important from a point of view of nature conservation along. In particular, habitats important from a point of view of the occurrence of threatened plant, amphibian, reptile, bird and mammal species. 

Within the study area, 320 vascular plant species, particularly grassland, forest and nitrophilous ones, were found, including one Specially Protected species. Of them, 16 are listed on the Red List of Threatened Plant Species of the Czech Republic. Among them, the Bastard balm (Mellitis melissophyllum) and the Downy woundwort (Stachys germanica) should be mentioned. Moreover, habitats in close proximity have been significantly ruderalized, affected not only by intensive agricultural production and building the four-lane road. At the disturbed sites, ruderal and segetal species have been spreading. Thus, the Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and the Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) invaded the area. Along the Berounka River, the Himalayan balsam (Impatines glandulifera) and the Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) have been colonising new sites. 

The monitoring and review of the past records revealed that in total, 9 herp species specially protected under the Czech Republic´s Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on nature conservation and landscape protection, as amended later, and Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic Decree No. 395/1992 Gazette, as amended later, have been found along the respective length of No. 514 Lahovice – Slivenec. They include four amphibian species (the Marsh frog Pelophylax ridibundus, Common water frog Pelophylax kl. esculenta, Common toad Bufo bufo and the Fire salamander Salamandra salamandra) and five reptile species (the Sand lizard Lacerta agilis, Slow worm Anguis fragilis, Grass snake Natrix natrix, Smooth snake Coronella austriaca and the Dice snake Natrix tessellata). During the activities carried out by NaturaServis Ltd., 48 bird species were found there, of them 16 species are either specially protected under the national nature conservation legislation or listed in the Red Loist of Threatened Vertebrate Species of the Czech Republic. In addition, one bird species is included into Annex I to the European Union´s Birds Directive. At least four small mammal species were trapped in the study area, namely Eurasian field mice (Apodemus spp.), Common vole (Microtus arvalis), Bank vole (Myodes glareolus) and the Lesser white-toothed shrew (Crocidura suaveolens). The previous mammalogical survey carried out along the length of No. 514 road confirmed the occurrence of other four representatives belonging to the order Eulipotyphla, formerly known as Insectivora (Eurasian hedges Erinaceus spp., the Common shrew Sorex araneus, Eurasian pygmy shrew Sorex minutus and the Common mole Talpa europaea) as well as 10 larger mammalian species (the Red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris, Muskrat Ondatra zibethicus, Red fox Vulpes vulpes, European badger Meles meles, Stoat Mustela erminea, American mink Neoviosn vison, martens Martes spp., Wild boar Sus scrofa, European roe deer Capreolus capreolus and the European mouflon Ovis orientalis musimon). Monitoring of species richness and the target wild plant and animal taxa/groups in the vicinity of the Prague City Circle Road, particularly along No. 514 road, have been continuing.