EN
The investigations were done in the piotrkowskie province on grasslands in three mineral habitats: fertile, average and poor. The following characteristics were assessed: soil type, level of moisture and biological soil activity, hay yields and botanical composition. A big shortage of water occurred all the examined habitats, especially in the poor one where it caused periodical or even complete drying of plants in that habitat and the creation of poor xerothermic communities. The water shortage in the fertile and average meadows was smaller but still it caused big yield fluctuations and growing similarity of communities, which hampered habitat differentiation. Similar reaction of these habitats to fertilization adoptionally hindered their differentiation. The characteristics which allowed to differentiate these habitats were thus accumulation horizon thickness and biological soil activity, especially the content of soil dehydrogenases.