The formation and landscape history of the Koppánymonostor Island

Abstract

19^th century regulation works on the River Danube played significant role in the formation of the present shapes of its islands. Since then, river branches have become slow-flowing caused by their separation from main stream and are affected by continuous silting. This process has been speeding up successional changes and giving ways to invasive alien species.
This had happened also to the Island of Koppánymonostor, situated near Komarom town. Military maps of the 1780’s represent one big and three small islands, all of them covered by forests. Forests on two islands were cut down later and meadows appeared with some smaller swamp patches. Most significant changes of the island occurred in the second half of the 19^th century, when its bank has been stoned, its branch was separated by dams and the smaller islands were connected to the bigger one. During that time, vegetation of the island was dominated by natural alluvial forests, except for its central part where mowed meadows and two orchards were situated.
The Danube had shaped its bank itself dynamically in the part of Koppánymonostor. After a meander turn, the basis of the island was silted caused by the slower flowing and this bank had been continuously changing till the river regulation works in the second half of the 19^th century. After the stoning of the riverside (for better navigation), some of the transformation processes like the successional changings were speeding up. Because of these events the creation of new Danube islands became impossible, so the conservation of habitats on the existing islands is priority assessment of nature conservation.