Assessment of the Effects of Autonomous Mowers on Plant Biodiversity in Urban Lawns

Abstract

Gaining information on the impact of lawn management with autonomous mowers on the floristic composition is crucial to improve their plant biodiversity. In this study, an autonomous mower with a reduced mowing frequency and a more sporadic mowing management system with a ride-on rotary mower were compared in terms of the effect on three dicotyledonous species (Phyla nodiflora, Lotus corniculatus and Sulla coronaria) transplanted onto stands of Bermuda and Manila grass. Regardless of the management system, P. nodiflora achieved the best results in terms of survival for both lawns (74.92 and 58.57% in Manila and Bermuda grass, respectively). In Bermuda grass, a higher percentage of surviving individuals was observed for the ordinary mower management system (42.59%), rather than with the autonomous mower (9.10%), while no differences emerged on Manila grass. On both Manila and Bermuda grass, a higher average percentage of coverage for single individual was observed for the ordinary mower management system (1.60 and 0.37%, respectively) compared to the autonomous mower system (0.55 and 0.08%, respectively). P. nodiflora had a higher percentage of individuals with flowers with the ordinary management system rather than with autonomous mower system both on Manila (60.73% and 33.90%, respectively) and Bermuda grass (48.66 and 3.32%, respectively). Despite a lower impact on the planted species being observed for the ordinary mower management system, encouraging results were obtained with the autonomous mower, for instance regarding the percentage of surviving individuals for P. nodiflora (33.95%) and L. corniculatus (22.08%) on Bermuda grass and the percentage of individuals with flowers for the same two species (33.90 and 13.59%, respectively) on Manila grass. Furthermore, the autonomous mower management system’s primary energy consumption over the year was lower compared to that of the ordinary system both on Manila (200.4 and 614.97 kWh ha−1 year−1, respectively) and Bermuda grass (177.82 and 510.99 kWh ha−1 year−1, respectively).