Use of sheep grazing in the restoration of semi‐natural meadows in northern Finland

Abstract

Abstract. The biodiversity of species‐rich semi‐natural meadows is declining across Europe due to ceased management. In this study we aimed to find out how successfully the local species richness of an overgrown semi‐natural mesic meadow could be restored by sheep grazing after a long period of abandonment. The cover of vascular plant species in grazed plots and ungrazed exclosures was studied for five years and the responses of different functional plant groups were followed (herbs vs grasses, tall vs short species, species differing in flowering time, species representing different Grime's CSR strategies and species indicative of rich vs poor soil). Grazing increased species number by nearly 30%. On grazed plots the litter cover practically disappeared, favouring small herbs such as Rhinanthus minor, Ranunculus acris, Trifolium pratense and the grass Agrostis capillaris. Grazing decreased the cover of the late flowering tall herb Epilobium angustifolium but had no effect on the abundance of the early flowering tall herbs Anthriscus sylvestris or Geranium sylvaticum. We suggest that to succeed in restoration it is useful to determine the responses of different functional plant groups to grazing. Grassland managers need this information to optimize the methods and timing of management used in restoration. Additional management practices, such as mowing, may be needed in mesic meadows to decrease the dominance of tall species. The availability of propagules seemed to restrict further increase of species richness in our study area.

The effect of management on productivity, litter accumulation and seedling recruitment in a Carpathian mountain grassland

“…Huhta et al 2001;Hellström et al 2003). Our correlation analyses support the assumption that litter accumulation has a negative effect on seedling recruitment and consequently restoration mowing and removal of litter by raking may promote seedling recruitment.…”

Threatened inland sand vegetation in the temperate zone under different types of abiotic and biotic disturbances during a ten-year period

“…In accordance with our hypothesis 1 we assume that these sites can maintain their structure due to positively related disturbance effects, which are in particular grazing and trampling in moderate intensities. Hellström et al (2003) observed in a study with sheep-grazed (formerly abandoned) and ungrazed plots in semi-natural grasslands in Finland an increase of species numbers by nearly 30% in case of sheep grazing. Our findings suggest that this may apply only if ungrazed areas are grazed and if there are no further, stronger disturbance effects like high rabbit densities in the community, which are able to counteract the positive impact of sheep grazing.…”

Seed introduction and gap creation facilitate restoration of meadow species richness

“…Thus, due to impoverishment of species pools attributable to habitat loss and dispersal limitation, the results of restoration by merely using reintroduced management have often been relatively modest (Hellström et al 2003;Huhta et al 2001;Walker et al 2004). Therefore, the introduction of species belonging to regional species pools has lately been increasingly favoured as an effective restoration tool.…”