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

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Abstract

The management regime may have a significant impact on the productivity and dynamics of grasslands, but the causal relationships influencing grassland conservation value are still not completely understood. Changes of selected community characteristics, such as standing crop, proportion of forbs in the standing crop, litter amount, litter decomposition and seedling recruitment, were investigated in a 4 year manipulative experiment in a mountain grassland in Slovakia. The aim of the research was to compare changes in newly abandoned sites and sites where restoration measures were applied after 20 years of abandonment. The sites were located in areas containing two vegetation types of the Arrhenatherion alliance (wet Poo-Trisetetum and dry Anthoxantho–Agrostietum) with different moisture regimes. The expected increase of the standing crop after abandonment was rather slow, and more pronounced towards the end of the experiment, and in the wet meadow type (~30% increase). The restoration mowing promoted forb proportions in the biomass, but it did not decrease the standing biomass in the restored grasslands. Strong litter accumulation after abandonment was observed in subsequent years after abandonment, when the amount of litter increased about 100% in abandoned plots. Decrease in litter was also significant after the start of restoration mowing (a decrease from 258 to 159 g m−2 in wet type and from 287 to 147 g m−2 in dry type was noted). Accumulated litter was negatively correlated to seedling recruitment (r = −0.63 at the end of the experiment). The litterbag experiment showed that the wet type has a higher rate of decomposition, with 20% more biomass decomposed during the litter-bag experiment. The experiment confirmed a negative role of litter accumulation on seedling recruitment, with the number of seedlings per m2 decreasing from 413 to 321 individuals in the abandoned wet-type site. This may lead to a decrease in species richness. Mowing along with raking of mowed biomass may be a useful tool to restore degraded mountain grasslands and to remove accumulated litter from the stands.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank A. Dobošová, J. Galvánková, †V. Gavlas, S. Gavlasová, B. Immerová, Z. Imrichová, M. Kramárová, Ž. Šípková, A. Viceníková for the assistance with data sampling and biomass sorting and R. Lasák for help with mowing of the experimental plots and help with data storage and evaluation. We also appreciate the comments of Ján Šeffer and other colleagues on experimental design and data evaluation. Special thanks are to be given to local farmer Ján Matúš and his family for their kind hospitality during the field work and for providing the land for the experiments. The research was supported by the World Bank/Global Environmental Facility Project 'Central European Grasslands—Conservation and Sustainable Use'. The preparation of the article was supported by the grant SK0115 through the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism. Funding was also received from the state budget of the Slovak Republic. Participation of JL was enabled by the grants MSMT 600-766-5801 and GAČR 206/09/1471.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DAPHNE—Institute of Applied Ecology, Podunajská 24, SK-821 06, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Dobromil Galvánek

  2. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, CZ-370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Jan Lepš

  3. Institute of Entomology of Biological Centre CAS, Branišovská 31, CZ-370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Jan Lepš

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  1. Dobromil Galvánek
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Correspondence to Dobromil Galvánek.

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Galvánek, D., Lepš, J. The effect of management on productivity, litter accumulation and seedling recruitment in a Carpathian mountain grassland. Plant Ecol 213, 523–533 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-011-9999-7

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