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Hortobágy in NE Hungary is the largest contiguous salt-affected landscape in Central Europe. Because of its relatively low fertility it is characterized by extensive land use, mainly cattle and sheep grazing. Many elements of the formerly more diverse biome, which extincted from the majority of the intensively used Great Hungarian Plain, survived here. To save these elements as well as the traditional land use, Hungary's first national park was established on part of the Hortobágy two decades ago.

The soil and vegetation of Hortobágy has been intensively studied (cf. MAGYAR, 1928; SZABOLCS, 1989; BODROGKöZY, 1965: RAJKAI et al., 1988; TóTH and RAJKAI, 1994). The salt-affected landscape is highly sensitive to changes in the climatic and hydrological conditions both in space and time. As was mentioned above, the formation of the landscape, specifically of the soil, is the resultant of several, partly local …