Many invasive plant species use interactions with their anthropic environment as a propagation factor and benefit from climate changes, which have become accentuated in the last decade. The way such species interact with climate changes, as well as their high specific ecological plasticity, gives them a consistent advantage over native plant species. This work aims to demonstrate through a simple calculation the quantification of the productive potential of a wet meadow on which populations of an invasive plant species grew. The loss of productive potential induced by Reynoutria japonica Houtt on a mountain meadow in Ciocănești village, Romania, was the main objective. In the case of the productive potential of the meadows, a method for the general calculation of such losses was shown. The degree of anthropization of the studied area was also evaluated, correlating the degree of anthropization with the invasive species’ potential for spreading and affecting the mountain area.

This paper contributes to the ecotoxicological risk assessment of the Actellic 50 EC insecticide (with 50% pirimiphos-methyl as the active substance) tested on non-target organisms. The insecticide concentrations tested were the same for all organisms (0.1, 0.01, and 0.001 mg L⁻¹ of Actellic 50 EC), with an exposure of 3–5–21 days for plants and 4–5–14 days for animals. The non-target organisms tested were both plants (wheat and two ferns) and animals (the Prussian carp and marsh frog tadpoles). The tested insecticide significantly inhibited the growth of roots in wheat, a result that was also confirmed by a microbiotest application (62% root growth inhibition in sorghum and 100% germination inhibition in white mustard and garden cress). In ferns, even for the lowest concentration, the percentage of germinated spores was inhibited by 40% for Asplenium scolopendrium. The recorded toxicological effects of Actellic 50 EC upon the Prussian carp included a decrease in the respiratory rate and oxygen consumption, an increase in the number of erythrocytes and leukocytes, and an increase in blood glucose levels. The highest concentration (0.1 mg L⁻¹ of Actellic 50 EC) caused a 50% decrease in the survival rate of marsh frog tadpoles after 5 days of exposure, negatively affecting body volume and length. Given the high degree of toxicity of the insecticide Actellic 50 EC, we recommend continuing investigations on non-target species, including both plants and animals, as the sub-chronic effects are quite little known in the scientific literature.

This study is essential for medium- and long-term land-use management, as land-use patterns directly influence local economic and social development. Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques are fundamental tools for analyzing a wide range of geomorphological processes, including relief fragmentation density, relief energy, soil texture, slope gradient, and slope orientation. The present research focuses on the Pesceana river basin in the Southern Carpathians, Romania. It addresses three main objectives: (1) to analyze land-use dynamics derived from CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data between 1990 and 2018, along with the long-term distribution of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the period 2000–2025; (2) to evaluate the basin’s natural potential byintegrating topographic data (contour lines and profiles) with relief fragmentation density, relief energy, vegetation cover, soil texture, slope gradient, aspect, the Stream Power Index (SPI), and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI); and (3) to assess the spatial distribution of habitat types, characteristic plant associations, and soil properties obtained through field investigations. For the first two research objectives, ArcGIS v. 10.7.2 served as the main tool for geospatial processing. For the third, field data were essential for geolocating soil samples and defining vegetation types across the entire 247 km² area. The spatiotemporal analysis from 1990 to 2018 reveals a landscape in which deciduous forests clearly dominate; they expanded from an initial area of 80 km² in 1990 to over 90 km² in 2012–2018. This increase, together with agricultural expansion, is reflected in the NDVI values after 2000, which show a sharp increase in vegetation density. Interestingly, other categories—such as water bodies, natural grasslands, and industrial areas—barely changed, each consistently representing less than 1 km² throughout the study period. These findings emphasize the importance of land-use/land-cover (LULC) data within the applied GIS model, which enhances the spatial characterization of geomorphological processes—such as vegetation distribution, soil texture, slope morphology, and relief fragmentation density. This integration allows a realistic assessment of the physical–geographic, landscape, and pedological conditions of the river basin.

There are few reports related to the presence of Spiranthes spiralis in the Oltenia region in southern Romania. This study develops the information concerning the presence of this type of orchid in Gorj County. The studies on the populations of this orchid species have been conducted in the Natura 2000 site of the Community ROSCI0045 Jiului Corridor. In the researched territory, during the investigations, twelve populations of Spiranthes spiralis were sampled for the first time. In 2022–2023, we studied the distribution of this species and assessed its population densities. Our observations indicate that it is a relatively widespread species in the studied area and its populations are more abundant in meadows, in the Medicagini minimae–Festucetum valesiacae plant community.