THE INFLUENCE OF THE HABITATS AND ANTHROPOGENIC PRESSURE ON BIRDS, OBSERVED DURING FEBRUARY 2013 – JANUARY 2014 ON THE DAM RESERVOIRS FROM THE ARGEŞ RIVER BETWEEN VÂLCELE AND GOLEŞTI

Current Trends in Natural Sciences Vol. 5, Issue 9, pp. 18-27, 2016 Current Trends in Natural Sciences (on-line) ISSN: 2284-953X ISSN-L: 2284-9521 Current Trends in Natural Sciences (CD-Rom) ISSN: 2284-9521 ISSN-L: 2284-9521 THE INFLUENCE OF THE HABITATS AND ANTHROPOGENIC PRESSURE ON BIRDS, OBSERVED DURING FEBRUARY 2013 – JANUARY 2014 ON THE DAM RESERVOIRS FROM THE ARGEŞ RIVER BETWEEN VÂLCELE AND GOLEŞTI Adrian Mestecăneanu*, Radu Gava** * The Argeş County Museum, Armand Călinescu, 44, 110047, Piteşti, Argeş, Romania E-mail: ** University of Piteşti, Târgu din Vale, 1, 110040, Piteşti, Argeş, Romania E-mail: Abstract The habitats and the anthropogenic pressure are two major causes that affect the presence of birds in every place where they live. The species from the dam reservoirs from the Argeş River do not constitute an exception, the more so as these water bodies are created by people and are situated in an area with a dense network of human settlements. Even if the aspects were discussed with other occasions, we propound here another approaching. Some considerations regarding the main forms of anthropogenic pressure (the hydrotechnical factor, the anthropogenic disturb, the pollution with rubbish, the fishing and the nautical sporting activities) exercised on the birds from the area are made. The anthropogenic disturb appeared to be the most important factor on the general scale, in opposition with the fishing and the nautical sporting activities, which, although have strong impact at local level, seem to be the least significant ones. Of the five accumulation lakes taken into consideration (Vâlcele, Budeasa, Bascov, Piteşti and Goleşti), Budeasa is the best affected and Goleşti, the least one. The habitats have a considerable importance, regarding the land cover, and a smaller one, from a phytocoenologic perspective. Keywords: anthropogenic pressure, birds, Natura 2000. 1. INTRODUCTION The study of the birds’ fauna from the dam reservoirs from the upper and middle course of the Argeş River started immediately after the ending of their construction (Mătieş, 1969; Munteanu and Mătieş, 1983). It was continued until now (Gava, 1997; Mestecăneanu et al., 2003; Conete and Mestecăneanu, 2004; Gava et al., 2004a; Gava et al., 2004b; Conete et al., 2005; Gava et al., 2007; Mestecăneanu et al., 2010; Conete, 2011; Gava et al., 2011; Mestecăneanu et al., 2013; Mestecăneanu and Gava, 2013; Mestecăneanu and Gava, 2014a, etc.). These works refers, especially, to the dynamics of the birds along the ecological seasons or of the whole year, while others were focused on the species breeding in the area (Mestecăneanu et al., 2004; Conete, 2010; Conete et al., 2011; Conete, 2015) and others were interest in the birds protection and the human impact on the species that populate these places (Conete et al., 2006; Conete and Mestecăneanu, 2008; Conete et al., 2008; Gava et al., 2008; Mestecăneanu et al., 2008; Mestecăneanu and Gava, 2014b). In this paper, we propose another manner of data interpretation, which refers to the influence of the habitats and anthropogenic pressure on the birds observed in the area. 18 http://www.natsci.upit.ro Current Trends in Natural Sciences Vol. 5, Issue 9, pp. 18-27, 2016 Current Trends in Natural Sciences (on-line) ISSN: 2284-953X ISSN-L: 2284-9521 Current Trends in Natural Sciences (CD-Rom) ISSN: 2284-9521 ISSN-L: 2284-9521 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS The dam reservoirs (Vâlcele – 640 ha, Budeasa – 643 ha, Bascov – 140 ha, Piteşti – 150 ha, and Goleşti – 680 ha), where the research study was conducted, belong to a series of accumulation lakes that were built on the course of the Argeş River after 1965 (cf. http://www.baraje.ro). They are situated in the south of the Făgăraş and Iezer – Păpuşa Mountains, between Argeş Platform in the North, Cotmeana Platform in the West, Cândeşti Platform in the East, and Piteşti High Plain in the South, and are components of the protected area ROSPA0062 Lacurile de acumulare de pe Argeş, included in the Natura 2000 network (Figure 1). The vegetation is typical of wetland areas from the southern part of Romania. From a N phytocoenology viewpoint there were identified nine plant associations (Stancu, Vâlcele Basin 2014): Lemnetum minoris Müller et Görs 1960, Potamo – Ceratophylletum submersi Pop 1962, Juncetum bufonii Felföldy 1942, Phragmitetum Budeasa Basin australis Schmale 1939, Typhetum angustifoliae Pignatti 1953, Typhetum latifoliae Lang 1973, Polygono hydropiper-Bidentetum Lohm. 1950, Hordeetum murini Libbert 1932 Bascov Basin em Passarge 1964 and Conietum maculati I. Pop 1968. They represent habitats for the birds, they occupy variable surfaces and generally, they are situated upstream and in the median Piteşti Basin parts of each reservoir, along the banks. The terrain from the area has different functions (by CORINE Land Cover 2012 Goleşti Basin CLC 2012, cf. http://land.copernicus.eu/): 112 – discontinuous urban fabric, 121 – industrial Figure 1. The map of the area or commercial units, 122 – road and rail (by http://biodiversitate.mmediu.ro, modified) networks and associated lands, 142 – sport and leisure facilities, 211 – non-irrigated arable land, 222 – fruit trees and berry plantations, 242 – complex cultivation patterns, 243 – land principally occupied by agriculture, with significant areas of natural vegetation, 311 – broad leaved forest, 321 – natural grasslands, 324 – transitional woodland-shrub, 331 – beach, dunes, sands, 511 – water courses, 512 – water bodies, etc. (Figure 2). Because of the geographic accuracy of the product (25 ha minimum mapping unit, 100 m minimum mapping width, 100 m positional accuracy, >85% thematic accuracy), some disaccords from reality appeared (i.e. the lack of land covers: 312 – coniferous forest and 142 – sport and leisure facilities, in the area of the Bascov Basin, or 121 – industrial or commercial units and 512 – water bodies, in the area of the Piteşti Basin). The continental climate with hilly traits is characteristic to the area: in the north there are mountain influences, in the south there are plain influences. The water has 9 0C average annual temperatures at Piteşti; it is few degrees colder upstream and 1 0C warmer downstream. In winters (mainly in January) a bridge of ice is formed when the temperature decreases for a longer period of time below 0 0C (Barco and Nedelcu, 1974). The birds were observed through the itinerary method, combined to that of the fixed point of observations (where the field conditions were inadequate) between February 2013 and January 2014. One day field trip was accomplished on all dam reservoirs from 10 to 20 of each month and the same 19 http://www.natsci.upit.ro Current Trends in Natural Sciences Vol. 5, Issue 9, pp. 18-27, 2016 Current Trends in Natural Sciences (on-line) ISSN: 2284-953X ISSN-L: 2284-9521 Current Trends in Natural Sciences (CD-Rom) ISSN: 2284-9521 ISSN-L: 2284-9521 path (the most favorable for (...truncated)