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Research article2017Peer reviewedOpen access

The biodiversity cost of reducing management intensity in species-rich grasslands: Mowing annually vs. every third year

Milberg, Per; Talle, Malin; Fogelfors, Hakan; Westerberg, Lars

Abstract

Mowing is an important management method for species-rich semi-natural grasslands in Europe. Since mowing is costly, it is important to find a balance between mowing frequency and conservation benefits. We compared vegetation data from eleven field trials situated in southern Sweden that involved two mowing regimes, annually and every third year, as well as a no-management control. After approximately 14 years, mowing every third year showed (i) a drop in species richness and Shannon and GiniSimpson diversity indices, (ii) an increase in woody species, and (iii) increases in tall-grown species. However, there were no apparent changes in (iv) species that were indicative of poor management, nor (v) those indicating good management. For one of the trials, data after 38 years were also evaluated. Compared with annual mowing, there were strong negative changes in the number of species in the untreated control, while the results were conflicting for mowing every third year. In conclusion, the expected loss of conservation values from reduced mowing intensity was 5060% of the loss after abandonment. The outcomes, however, varied among the eleven sites. (C) 2017 Gesellschaft fur Okologie. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Cutting; Indicators; Meta-analysis; Mowing; Odds ratio; Response ratio; Semi-natural grassland; Sweden

Published in

Basic and Applied Ecology
2017, Volume: 22, pages: 61-74 Publisher: ELSEVIER GMBH, URBAN & FISCHER VERLAG

      Sustainable Development Goals

      SDG15 Life on land

      UKÄ Subject classification

      Ecology

      More information

      Correction in: Basic and Applied Ecology, 2017, Volume: 22, 61-74, DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2018.02.005

      Publication identifier

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2017.07.004

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/93125