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The role of competition and rarity in the restoration of a dry grassland in Finland
Author(s) -
Tikka Päivi M.,
Heikkilä Tuula,
Heiskanen Mira,
Kuitunen Markku
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
applied vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.096
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1654-109X
pISSN - 1402-2001
DOI - 10.1111/j.1654-109x.2001.tb00244.x
Subject(s) - grassland , competition (biology) , arable land , habitat , agroforestry , ecology , growing season , biology , geography , agronomy , agriculture
. Semi‐natural grasslands have become scarce throughout Europe. Preservation of their plant species requires either the maintenance of the existing grasslands or the creation of new ones. To study the establishment and regeneration ability of plant species typical of dry grasslands we laid out an experiment on a former arable field in central Finland. We compared the success of 13 grassland species both in a theoretical situation with minimal competition and in competition with weeds. More than half of the species used were regionally rare. As a group, grassland plants reached the highest cover in the experimental plots in which outside competition was minimised by weeding. However, the total cover achieved by their sward remained as low as 60% in the third growing season. The ability of grassland plants to regenerate and disperse on a small scale was therefore considered to be moderately poor. The short‐living species that were rare in the region where the study took place also had the greatest difficulties in establishment and survival in the experimental field. The preservation of rare species ‐ i.e. those species in the most urgent need of protection ‐ therefore appears to be difficult to achieve by habitat creation. Efforts should primarily be directed towards the maintenance of those habitats into which they have spread and become established naturally.