Is regular mowing the most appropriate and cost-effective management maintaining diversity and biomass of target forbs in mountain hay meadows?

Valkó, Orsolya; Török, Péter; Matus, Gábor; Tóthmérész, Béla

doi:10.1016/j.flora.2012.02.003

Cited by 150 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…In these studies, however, there was no single factor as strong as altitude above sea level determining the species composition of plant communities. Semi-natural grasslands in a forest zone were created by human activities and their existence depends entirely on their current management (Valkó et al, 2012;Pavlů et al, 2016;Kulik, 2014). Hence, abandonment of farming practices is a more important than the way of land use in the past.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Past Land-Use and Environmental Factors on Grassland Species Diversity

Zarzycki¹

2017

Appl. Ecol. Env. Res.

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Zarzycki -Bedla: The influence of past land-use and environmental factors on grassland species diversity -267 - Abstract. Mountain grasslands are among the most species-rich plant communities in Europe. This is due to the large variability of abiotic conditions and ways of management. However, a significant change in the rural economy has taken place in recent decades. Some grasslands have become forested, while others have been overgrown as a result of succession. Fodder for domestic animals is produced on grasslands created on former arable land. The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of topographic factors (altitude, slope, exposure) and land use (grassland, arable land) in the mid-nineteenth century and the 1930s on the present biodiversity of mountain grasslands. The study was carried out in the basin of the Łomniczanka and Wierchomlanka Rivers in the Beskid Sądecki (Polish Carpathians). A total of 73 phytosociological relevés in an altitude gradient ranging from 660 to 1,060 m a.s.l were made. Past land use was determined on the basis of archival cadastral and topographic maps. The altitude above sea level was the main factor influencing the botanical composition of vegetation. No difference was observed in species composition depending on past land use. The results show the crucial role of altitude in determining the species composition of mountain meadows.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Past Land-Use and Environmental Factors on Grassland Species Diversity

Zarzycki¹

2017

Appl. Ecol. Env. Res.

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“…These structures are threatened in Europe by intense mowing (e.g. Unterweger and Unterweger 1989, Diacon et al 2011. In these experiments, the authors tried to consider hibernating species from a variety of insect orders and did not focus on keystone species or species with a special environmental status during the growing season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These results confirm the high quality of shelter that autumnally unmown meadows offer to insects compared with mown meadows. Autumnal mowing is usually applied in agricultural grassland cultivation to attain additional harvest, to prevent felting (Unterweger and Unterweger 1989) and infestation or simply due to aesthetic aspects on margins, waysides and other green spaces.…”

Section: Insect Hibernation -The Impact Of Autumnal Mowingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect hibernation on urban green land: a winter-adapted mowing regime as a management tool for insect conservation

Unterweger¹,

Klammer²,

Unger³

et al. 2018

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Citation: Unterweger PA, Klammer J, Unger M, Betz O (2018) Insect hibernation on urban green land: a winter-adapted mowing regime as a management tool for insect conservation. BioRisk 13: 1-29. https://doi.org/10.3897/biorisk.13.22316 AbstractInsect conservation is challenging on various ecological scales. One largely neglected aspect is the quality of undisturbed hibernation sites. This study aims to fill a lack of knowledge concerning insect hibernation on uncut meadows persisting in urban green spaces during the winter season in a middle-sized town in south Germany. During two years of sampling, 13,511 insect specimens of the orders Heteroptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera were caught from their winter stands. The specimens were assigned to 120 families and 140 taxonomic species were determined from the orders Heteroptera, Coleoptera and Diptera and 324 morphotypes from the orders Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera. The data indicate the importance of winter fallows for insect hibernation. Unmown meadows offer additional plant structures in winter (flower heads, stems, tufts and leaves) that are absent from mown ones. This increased structural diversity results in both higher species diversity and numbers of insect individuals during spring emergence. The results of this study thus emphasise the value of unmown structures for insect conservation and suggest a mosaic-like cutting maintenance of meadows, way-and river-sides and other green infrastructure in both the urban area and the open landscape.

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“…A study of hay meadows by Valkó et al (2012) found that mowing was needed to limit graminoid biomass but that some species were supressed by mowing. These species included Achillea ptarmica, which was only present in the first survey and was one of the most influential species in the RDA when analysed by presence-absence.…”

Section: Turnover In Target Meadow Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term hay meadow management maintains the target community despite local-scale species turnover

2018

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Hay meadows, which are managed using a low-intensity regime, are characterized by highly diverse vegetation but have declined significantly since the mid twentieth century. Remaining species-rich meadows are often protected by statutory designations and conservation management agreements. However, long-term studies of change in the composition of meadow vegetation, and investigations of the success of conservation over the long-term are rare. Fourteen sites, which had a long history of being managed for field dried hay, were resurveyed after 25 years and redundancy analysis was undertaken to investigate changes in community composition. Investigations of the effect of soil conditions, site size and spatial distribution of the meadow sites were carried out. Although overall community composition had changed significantly, the suite of species representative of the meadow community had been maintained, and species usually associated with more intensively managed grasslands had declined. However, there were losses of particular species of conservation importance such as Alchemilla glabra and Conopodium majus, and losses and gains of species varied from site to site. There was a significant increase in the homogeneity of the meadow vegetation between the two survey years. Comparisons of indicators of soil conditions suggested that there had been no significant change for the community as a whole but analyses of the species showing the most change indicated a decrease in soil fertility. Low-intensity management has been successful in maintaining the meadow community but consideration of changes in key species and losses at the site level is needed. More research is needed to establish whether fragmentation is starting to have an impact on diversity.

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Is regular mowing the most appropriate and cost-effective management maintaining diversity and biomass of target forbs in mountain hay meadows?

Cited by 150 publications

References 45 publications

The Influence of Past Land-Use and Environmental Factors on Grassland Species Diversity

The Influence of Past Land-Use and Environmental Factors on Grassland Species Diversity

Insect hibernation on urban green land: a winter-adapted mowing regime as a management tool for insect conservation

Long-term hay meadow management maintains the target community despite local-scale species turnover

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