Search for optimal mowing regime — slow community change in a restoration trial in northern Finland

Mowing is frequently used for restoring plant communities in abandoned meadows which were previously managed by cattle grazing and mowing. The aim of this study was to search for the most optimal mowing treatment maximising plant species richness in a dry-mesic meadow in northern Finland. In an earl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annales botanici fennici 2006, Vol.43 (5), p.338-348
Main Authors: Hellström, Kalle, Huhta, Ari-Pekka, Rautio, Pasi, Tuomi, Juha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chalk grasslands
Geranium
Grazing
Herbs
Meadows
Mowing
Natural grasslands
Plants
Seeds
Seminatural ecosystems
Vegetation
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Summary:Mowing is frequently used for restoring plant communities in abandoned meadows which were previously managed by cattle grazing and mowing. The aim of this study was to search for the most optimal mowing treatment maximising plant species richness in a dry-mesic meadow in northern Finland. In an earlier restoration attempt at the same study site, traditional mowing in mid to late August was applied for five years (1993—1997). Because this first attempt had negligible effects on plant community structure, a new five-year experiment was conducted (1998—2003) in order to test for the effects of different mowing regimes (early mowing in June, late mowing in August, late mowing + soil disturbance in August, and untreated control plots). In spite of considerable species turnover at the level of individual plots, the treatments had no statistically significant effect on species turnover and species richness per plot. Mowing did not suppress the cover of tall herbs. Late mowing even favoured the early flowering Geranium sylvaticum. Restorative mowing is ineffective against tall competitors if the propagule input from the neighbourhood remains high. Early mowing and late mowing + soil disturbance, which most strongly decreased vegetation height, tended to favour competitively inferior small herbs. A reason for a slow response in species richness may lie in seed limitation as only one new species appeared during the study. To enhance species richness, mowing could be combined with propagule addition in cases where the local species pools of meadow species have been exhausted.
ISSN:0003-3847
1797-2442