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- Title
Restoration of species-rich grassland on arable land: assessing the limiting processes using a multi-site experiment.
- Authors
Pywell, Richard F; Bullock, James M; Hopkins, Alan; Walker, Kevin J; Sparks, Tim H; Burke, Mike J.W; Peel, Steve
- Abstract
Summary 1.Agricultural intensification has resulted in the reduction and fragmentation of species-rich grasslands across much of western Europe. 2.We examined the key ecological processes that limit the creation of diverse grassland communities on ex-arable land in a multi-site experiment over a wide variety of soil types and locations throughout lowland Britain. 3.The results showed it was possible to create and maintain these communities successfully under a hay-cutting and grazing management regime. Furthermore, there was a high degree of repeatability of the treatment effects across the sites. 4.Lack of seed of desirable species was the key factor limiting the assembly of diverse grassland communities. Sowing a species-rich seed mixture of ecologically adapted grassland plants was an effective means of overcoming this limitation. Community assembly by natural colonization from the seed bank and seed rain was a slow and unreliable process. However, there was no evidence to suggest that sowing a species-poor grass-dominated seed mixture made the vegetation any less susceptible to colonization by desirable species than allowing natural regeneration to take place. 5.Deep cultivation caused significant reductions in soil P and K concentrations across the sites. This had a significant beneficial effect on the establishment and persistence of sown forbs in all years. It also resulted in a significant reduction in the number of unsown weedy grasses. However, for both variables these differences were very small after 4 years. 6.Sowing a nurse crop significantly reduced the number of unsown grass species, but had no beneficial effect on the establishment of desirable species. 7.Treatments sown with the species-rich seed mixture following deep cultivation corresponded most closely to the specified target communities defined by the UK National Vegetation Classification. Natural regeneration and treatments sown with the species-poor seed mixture were much less similar to...
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; GRASSLANDS; BIOTIC communities; APPLIED ecology
- Publication
Journal of Applied Ecology, 2002, Vol 39, Issue 2, p294
- ISSN
0021-8901
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1046/j.1365-2664.2002.00718.x