Rapid change in forms of inorganic nitrogen in soil and moderate weed invasion following translocation of wet meadows to reclaimed post‐industrial land

Abstract

Anthropogenic expansion and loss of natural environments calls for the more sustainable use of resources, including land. To combine the conservation of highly valuable meadow habitat with reclamation of post‐industrial land, 1.3 ha of turf were translocated from an urban area to basins constructed near an abandoned quarry. In contrast to the usual method of choosing similar habitats as salvage sites, the selected quarry possessed different environmental properties to the meadows, challenging their acclimatisation. To evaluate the project, we monitored three meadows (Molinion caeruleae alliance) for three seasons: immediately before the transfer and for 2 years afterwards. We recorded vegetation composition in tandem with 27 physico‐chemical properties of the soil. In the first year following translocation, enrichment of soil in total calcium, potassium, sodium, and sulphur was noted. The contents of available phosphorus, nitrogen, and magnesium, as well as soil pH, were lower in the second year. The domination of ammonia over nitrate, which is characteristic of wetlands, decreased markedly. Water holding capacity slowly decreased as well, suggesting humus decomposition. The plant communities maintained their high level of diversity, and the dominance of characteristic meadow species continued. However, an increase in the number of weeds was observed, along with the replacement of some meadow plant species by others. We conclude that if a receptor site does not resemble a habitat type of a donor site, the ecosystem becomes more human‐dependent and requires site‐specific aftercare. In this case, the active control of competitive and ruderal species invasion and moisture management is required.

Varied response of underground and aboveground plant matter: functional diversity of three different vegetational types after translocation to reclaimed postindustrial land

“…In the vegetation plots placed in artificial basins, with the increasing nutrient availability, the stress factors decrease and the community tend to be more mature in successionally advanced phases growing in more fertile habitat. As we found (additional analysis, unpublished), the Ellenberg's indicator values for nutrients increase considerably (ANOVA results: F = 8.39, p < .01), and the available N also increases (Chmolowska et al, ), probably because of the location of the Botanical Garden in the city and visits of the inhabitants (approximately 25,000 per year). It was found that in urbanized, anthropogenic habitats neighbored by intensively cultivated fields, the fertility and nutrient availability go up (Prokof'eva & Poputnikov, ).…”

“…In fertilized plots, rosette growth forms; species with small leaves and short lateral spread and reproduced by seed and early flowering should decrease in abundance (Lepik, Liira, & Zobel, ). These facts were proved in the experiment basins (Chmolowska et al, ; Nowak et al, ; own observations regarding rosette taxa). However, in this case, the SLA should increase, not decrease, as we found measuring their CWM.…”

“…As every plot of well‐developed patch of wet meadow, fen, or heath vegetation in Central Europe is of the highest value for biodiversity conservation, financially demanding measures were also applied to protect the most valuable ecosystems. One of these methods recommended for such emergency cases is turf translocation (Chmolowska et al, ; Nowak et al, ). Turf transfer was found to be an effective method for grasslands or dwarf‐shrub vegetation (Jaunatre, Buisson, & Dutoit, ).…”

Slight dependence of temperate-forest herbaceous plants, Geum urbanum and Senecio ovatus, on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) enables them to colonise soils with a low level of AMF abundance

“…The soils were collected to the depth of 20 cm, mixed and sieved, using mesh (2 cm). Three randomly chosen samples of each soil were passed through mesh (2 mm) and then analysed for physical and chemical properties, as specified in [ 23 ]. The properties of these soils are presented in Table 1 .…”

Effect of tree species identity and related habitat parameters on understorey bryophytes – interrelationships between bryophyte, soil and tree factors in a 50-year-old experimental forest

“…Certified reference materials were used for quality assurance of available/exchangeable element concentration analysis: ISE-859, ISE-912, and ISE-995 (WEPAL). For calibration purposes, Six Cation Standard II and Seven Anion Standard II (Dionex) were used (Chmolowska et al 2019;Stefanowicz et al 2017Stefanowicz et al , 2018Stefanowicz et al , 2021.…”