Restoration of European habitats in mainland Portugal, using commercial seed mixtures. Considerations for its management and conservation

Abstract

Permanent mountain pastures include meadows and other perennial pastures of high ecological, economic, cultural and scenic value. Increasing desertification limits the maintenance and conservation of its biodiversity and the associated landscape mosaic. A restoration experiment in permanent high altitude grasslands in Beira Alta (Centre East (CE) mainland Portugal) was made, by sowing adequate cultivars of existing grass and legume species. The main objectives addressed were: (1) comparison of floristic composition between reference communities included in the previous habitats and the improved communities; (2) evaluation of the success of sowing adequate cultivars of autochthonous species; (3) evaluation of the establishment of target species in terms of the maintenance of floristic composition of reference. The experiment was carried out in 2014 on nine farms situated in Beira Alta (Guarda District) and the phytosociological method was applied in the floristic surveys. The sown species with highest percentage of soil cover were Trifolium subterraneum, Lolium multiflorum, Ornithopus sativus and Trifolium vesiculosum. In the priority habitat 6220 it was observed a re-establishment of many species in their original composition and a high cover of several cultivars of Trifolium subterraneum. These results highlight the importance of using cultivars of autochthonous species in the improvement of altitude pastures.