Long‐term sustainability of wood‐pasture separation processes—A matter of seed mixtures and management

Abstract

AbstractWe studied the performance of different seed mixtures and the influence of liming on the establishment of a montane pasture under acidic site conditions during a wood‐pasture separation process from 1998 to 2001 in Styria, Austria. Two treatments (with and without liming) were established, each with four seeding treatments (without seeding, commercial, site‐adapted and site‐specific mixtures), and all plots were regularly fertilized from 1998 to 2002. Vegetation surveys and forage analyses regarding development of vegetation cover, seeded species persistence, quality and yield parameters were conducted again in 2014 and 2016; soil samples were taken in 2015. After cessation of regular fertilization, the analysed soil parameters declined to levels that were sufficient or low for grasslands. pH decreased again over time, but still was significantly higher (p = .0034) in the liming treatment. The single liming during experimental set‐up also caused better long‐term performance for nearly all vegetation, quality and yield parameters. The site‐specific seed mixture performed best regarding most analysed parameters, under both liming treatments. Concerning seeded species, the habitat‐typical species Agrostis capillaris, Festuca rubra agg. and Trifolium repens persisted best with and without liming. All analysed vegetation and yield parameters stayed far behind their results of 2001 and their potential. The use of site‐specific seed mixtures supports the establishment of productive grassland on specific locations. The long‐term results also illustrated that even low‐input management like liming in multi‐annual intervals can help to improve acidic site and growing conditions significantly and thereby increases the sustainability of cost‐intensive wood‐pasture separation processes under similar conditions.