Ferenc Balazs

* Zólyom, June 9, 1913 – ? 2012 / botanist, flora researcher ; ; He obtained a degree in biology from the University of Budapest, and then worked as a colleague of Rezső Soó at the University of Debrecen on the endemic plant species of the Carpathians and the meadow-pasture plant communities. One of his important studies on this subject was published in 1939 in the 3rd issue of the journal Tisia (pp. 1–61) under the title The endemic plant species of the Carpathians. He developed an estimation procedure for evaluating the mass ratios of the species forming the plant community, which, in addition to expressing the average cover values in %, also takes into account the “thickness” of the plant cover (Balázs’s two- and three-dimensional survey method). His methodologically sound line of thought and "research program package" is suitable for the comparative evaluation of the coenological composition of grasslands (meadows, pastures, grassland plantations) as well as their yield and quality (hay value). He renewed the research on arable crops, fallow lands, grassland and wastelands, and energy crops. He was the first to notice (in 1963) the decreasing number of species of grasslands, which is a consequence of environmental effects and climate change.