Establishment gaps in species-poor grasslands: artificial biodiversity hotspots to support the colonization of target species

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F21%3A43904225" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/21:43904225 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.13135" target="_blank" >https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.13135</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rec.13135" target="_blank" >10.1111/rec.13135</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Establishment gaps in species-poor grasslands: artificial biodiversity hotspots to support the colonization of target species

Original language description

Sowing of grass seed mixtures is a feasible and cost-effective method for landscape-scale grassland restoration. However, sowing only grasses usually leads to species-poor and dense swards, where the establishment of target forbs is hampered by microsite and propagule limitation. To overcome these limitations and increase the diversity of species-poor sown grasslands, we developed a novel method by creating &quot;establishment gaps.&quot;. We used tillage to open gaps of 1-, 4-, and 16-m(2) size in the dense grass sward of six species-poor restored grasslands in the Great Hungarian Plain. We sowed high-diversity seed mixtures of 35 native species into all gaps. We analyzed vegetation development during the first 5 years after setting up the trial. We also studied the colonization dynamics of the sown species along four 20-m transects around each gap, resulting in a total of 1440 plots of 1-m(2) size that were studied. Our results indicated that most of the sown species were able to establish permanently in the gaps. The total cover and the cover of perennial sown species increased and the cover of short-lived sown species decreased independent of gap size. There was only a moderate level of weed abundance in the gaps, and weed cover decreased over the years. The sown target species started to colonize the species-poor grasslands surrounding the gaps within 5 years. The highest number of species and individuals dispersed from the 4-m(2) gaps, as they had a more stable development than smaller gaps and were exposed to lower grazing pressure than large ones.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Restoration Ecology

ISSN

1061-2971

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

29

Issue of the periodical within the volume

Supplement 1

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

8

Pages from-to

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UT code for WoS article

000516806400001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85080122940