Abstract
The sword lily Gladiolus palustris Gaudin is protected on European level and listed in Annexes II and IV of the EC Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC. It grows in nutrient-poor, calcareous meadows in central and eastern Europe. Tree encroachment in montane meadows of the European Alps as a result of recent land use changes and the abandonment of traditional farming practices threaten the survival of this species. Conservation-driven mowing is considered a feasible conservation measure for maintaining high species diversity in abandoned semi-natural grasslands. To assess the effects of ten years of biennial mowing on a grassland community in the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park, Italy (Site of Community Importance, Natura 2000 network), ten 25 m2 plots were established whereby four plots were placed in the mowed area, four in the non-mowed area and two in a small non-mowed patch of grassland inside the mowed area. In each plot the following variables were recorded, total percentage of plant cover, percentage cover of woody species, percentage cover of herbaceous species, percentage cover and number of flowering ramets of G. palustris and a complete list of species and their percentage abundance. Mowed plots showed a higher species richness than non-mowed plots. The number of G. palustris flowering ramets and percentage cover increased manifold in mowed plots compared to non-mowed plots. The resumption of mowing for conservation purposes undertaken by the managing authority halted the process of tree encroachment and avoided a drastic change in plant composition. Periodic mowing (every second or third year) was demonstrated to be a cost-effective conservation measure in non-productive grasslands to keep grasses at bay in favour of forbs of high conversation value.
Highlights
Low productive grasslands in mountain areas are mowed once a year (Middleton et al 2006)
The impact of mowing on single plant species performance may differ across the vegetation structure, and beneficial effects might occur for some species or groups of species but might have negative effects on other species (Valkó et al 2012)
We asked the following three questions, 1) is plant diversity higher in mowed than in non-mowed areas? 2) does G. palustris perform better in terms of abundance and number of flowering ramets in mowed than in non-mowed areas? 3) do other relevant species benefit from conservationdriven mowing intended to conserve G. palustris? We hypothesised a general increase in plant diversity and a higher abundance of G. palustris and other species of conservation interest in mowed areas compared to non-mowed areas
Summary
Low productive grasslands in mountain areas are mowed once a year (Middleton et al 2006). Conservation-driven mowing is an effective practice to maintain high species diversity in abandoned semi-natural grasslands, because it simulates traditional land management practices (Horak and Safarova 2015). It avoids the dominance of grasses and other graminoids and the often irreversible encroachment of shrubs and trees into open areas (Agnoletti 2007; Halada et al 2011). G. palustris is listed in the European ‘Habitat’ Directive 92/43/EEC (Annex II and IV) As such, it provokes the designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), the application of ad hoc feasible conservation measures and periodical monitoring of its conservation status in all EU Member States (Ostermann 1998). This is why the results presented here may have relevance for the conservation management in all 146 designated SACs (Special Areas of Conservation) located in 13 EU Member States where G. palustris naturally occurs (European Environmental Agency 2019)
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