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Response to mowing of coastal brackish meadow plant communities along an elevational gradient
Author(s) -
Vestergaard Peter
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
nordic journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1756-1051
pISSN - 0107-055X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1051.1994.tb00652.x
Subject(s) - phragmites , festuca rubra , biology , agrostis , agrostis stolonifera , agronomy , resistance (ecology) , species evenness , vegetation (pathology) , scirpus , ecological succession , elymus , brackish water , botany , ecology , wetland , species diversity , poaceae , salinity , medicine , pathology
Over a six year period, 1979–1985, eight stands of till then ungrazed and unmown brackish meadow plant communities were treated by mowing once a year (August), in order to detect the response of the vegetation. The stands were distributed along a local elevation gradient, which was found to influence the composition of the vegetation through a complex‐gradient, composed by unidirectional gradients in inundation, in ground water level and in Na as per cent of Ca+Mg+Na+K. The mowing was carried out within 5 ×5 m treatment plots and the effect was indicated by quantitative analysis of the vegetation. A natural succession progressing at the locality, most distinctly manifested by expansion of Phragmites australis , was traced during the study period by means of unmown control plots. The mowing caused increase in species diversity in all stands, mainly due to increase in evenness among the species. The resistance of the stands to the mowing was found to differ in relation to elevation and to the initial composition of the vegetation. In upper geolittoral Festuca rubra stands the resistance was high and the mowing did not affect presence or colonisation of Phragmites . In upper‐middle Festuca rubra stands resistance was lower, mainly indicated by suppression of Phragmites . Low elevation Scirpus maritimus reed beds on waterlogged soil was rather resistant, but four additional years of mowing led to a change into Agrostis stolonifera‐Puccinellia maritima meadow. The resistance of low elevation Phragmites reed bed was low, as the mowing within a few years changed the reed bed into Agrostis stolonifera meadow. The results were discussed in relation to the use of mowing as a nature conservation management tool in salt meadows.