This paper focuses on the persistence of seeds in the seed bank of a formerly fertilized flood-meadow into which seeds from an original Alopecur-us praterisis-Sanguisor-bu officinalis community have been introduced. The longevity of seeds in the seed bank of the original community is also estimated. The established vegetation was compared with the seed bank, as divided into two layers (0 -5 cm and 5 -10 cm); this allowed a classification of species into three groups, with (1) transient, ( 2 ) short-term persistent and (3) long-term persistent seed bank. The majority of the species of the unfertilized flood-meadow community have a transient or short-term persistent seed bank with seeds showing a large variance in shape i.e. flattened or elongate. Because of this, the characteristic flood-meadow species will disappear soon after the beginning of fertilizer application and will not re-establish from the seed bank, once the fertilizer application is ceased. The formerly fertilized flood-meadow contains many ruderal and arable weed species, the seeds of which tend to be compact or round. Significantly more seeds were found in the seed bank of the formerly fertilized flood-meadow under cattle-grazing than under sheep-grazing and no grazing.

Summary1. The recreation of species-rich grassland represents a key EU agri-environment policy initiative intended to maintain native biodiversity and to support the provision of ecosystem services. Understanding the long-term potential for recreation success is crucial to the evaluation of such schemes. 2. We use a single-site long-term data set (22 years) to test the consequences of grazing recreation management in re-establishing plant community composition and functional trait structure as assessed relative to pristine examples of target floodplain meadows. 3. Following a July hay cut, late summer grazing of the re-growth by either sheep or cattle resulted in an increase in the similarity of plants species composition to the target floodplain meadows, but only in terms of what species had colonized, not in terms of their relative frequencies. 4. Where grazing in late summer was applied, the functional traits of the meadows undergoing recreation became similar to those of the target floodplain meadows only where grazing management was used. When plant traits were divided into subcategories (e.g. regeneration, seed biology, life-form, environmental associations), only those traits linked with plant phenology failed to show evidence of a temporal shift towards the functional trait structure of floodplain meadows. 5. Synthesis and applications: Under typical grazing management colonization by the majority of species that characterize the target habitat type is predicted to take over 150 years. In contrast, recreation of functional trait structure can occur over a considerably shorter time-scale (>70 years). The potential to provide functionally equivalent grasslands that deliver analogous ecosystem services to those of the target habitat type is therefore a more realistic goal for recreation. We suggest that the time-scale needed to recreate grasslands puts into question the benefits of compensation schemes that allow grasslands to be lost to development (i.e. gravel extraction) in exchange for future recreation at other sites.

No abstract

. In 1985 an opportunity arose to make use of an area (referred to as Somerford Mead) which had recently been used for intensive grass or cereal production but which originally had been a permanent hay‐meadow. Situated on circum‐ neutral alluvial soils over limestone gravel, it is in close proximity to the River Thames and to species‐rich flood meadows, including Oxey Mead (Fig. 1). This paper describes the early stages of an experiment to recreate a ‘typical’ flood‐meadow community using seed harvested from Oxey Mead. Before sowing the seed, soil samples were taken and seedling emergence suggested that little of the original flood‐meadow seed bank survived. Although Oxey Mead was known to contain at least 57 species, germination of samples of the sown seed in the glasshouse was confined to 12 species. All except Bromus commutatus and Trisetum flavescens and an additional nine Oxey Mead species were recorded in the field, together with 24 arable weed/ruderal species. Soil‐nutrient contents (N, P and K) were high; so the restoration of this flood‐meadow using only management techniques (hay cutting at the end of June and aftermath grazing) and the local seed bank would take a long time. The use of Alopecuros pratensis‐Sanguisorba officinalis seed mixture was justified by the accelerated succession on Somerford Mead towards the parent community.

Abstract. The study site, Somerford Mead, is located on the river Thames floodplain and was a species‐rich flood‐meadow in the 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s it was subjected to intensive grassland management with regular NPK additions and occasional herbicide treatment. In 1981 Somerford Mead was ploughed for the first time and converted to arable land. Seeds of an Alopecuruspratensis‐Sanguisorba officinalis flood‐meadow community (MG4; Rodwell 1992) were sown onto prepared soil in the autumn of 1986, and botanical records were made from 1985 to 1999. From 1989 to 1999, three replicates of three treatments: cow‐grazing, sheep‐grazing and no‐grazing were introduced after hay‐cutting. Analysis successfully separated the establishment phase from the experimental phase and showed a significant difference between the grazed and ungrazed treatments. Abiotic and biotic factors which might contribute to successional trends are discussed. A convoluted pattern for each treatment could be attributed in part to intrinsic‘cycles’of perennial hemicryptophytes behaving as short‐lived species and in part to the percentage frequency of many species which was reduced in 1990 and 1995/1996, years of drought. After the initial inoculation of MG4 seed and the disappearance of arable therophytes, recruitment of new species was very slow. Coefficients for Somerford Mead matched against MG4 (Rodwell 1992) produced an equilibrium within three years. It subsequently fluctuated over a 10‐yr period well below the level of Oxey Mead, the donor site. Land managers should ensure that their proposed site has the right soils and hydrology for MG4 grassland and that traditional management of hay‐cutting and aftermath grazing is practised. Only one cut a year in July could lead to a reduction in percentage frequency of most species except Arrhenatherum elatius.