Plant species decline due to abandonment of meadows cannot easily be reversed by mowing. A case study from the southern Alps.

Published source details Stampfli A. & Zeiter M. (1999) Plant species decline due to abandonment of meadows cannot easily be reversed by mowing. A case study from the southern Alps.. Journal of Vegetation Science, 10, 151-164.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

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	Restore/create species-rich, semi-natural grassland Action Link

Restore/create species-rich, semi-natural grassland

Two trials on Monte Generoso, Switzerland (Stampfli & Zeiter 1999) investigated the effects of different plant establishment techniques on an abandoned grassland. The controlled trial found that introducing mowing to an abandoned grassland increased the number of plant species after ten years, but the response was slow. The replicated controlled trial found that when 12 native grassland species were sown, fewer seedlings emerged in burned plots (average 5.6 seedlings/species/plot after one year) than in plots mown with litter removal before sowing (average 8 seedlings/species/plot). Plots mown without litter removal were intermediate (6.1 seedlings/species/plot). Mown grassland plots were still dominated by tor grass Brachypodium pinnatum at the end of the experiment. Mown plots increased from a total of 46 plant species in 1989 to 68 species in total by 1996-1997. The total frequencies of all species other than tor grass stayed low for six years, and increased strongly in the final four years of the experiment. The replicated controlled study also found common rockrose Helianthemum nummularium had the lowest seedling emergence (0-0.8 seedlings/plot after one year) and rough hawkbit Leontodon hispidus had the highest (17-24 seedlings/plot after one year). After two years, ten of the sown species survived, with the grasses having the highest survival rates (27-36% of seeds germinated). No bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus or meadow clary Salvia pratensis seedlings survived. In the controlled study, mowing was resumed in the abandoned grassland in two 100 m² plots. From 1988, one plot was mown twice a year (July and September-October), one was mown in early July only. A control plot was not mown. Plant species composition was monitored in September-October at 456 point quadrat samples/plot over ten years, from 1988 to 1997. In July 1989 and 1995, percentage cover across each whole plot was estimated for plant species. In the replicated controlled study, forty-five seeds of each species, hand-collected from a nearby meadow were sown into twenty-four 60 x 60 cm subplots in October 1995. Each plot was subject to one of three treatments before sowing (six replicates of each): mowing with removal of mown vegetation, burning or mowing with complete removal of litter. For each treatment, a control 60 x 60 cm plot was treated the same but not sown. Seedling emergence was recorded every one to five months for the following two years. Plots were mown twice in 1996 and 1997.