Against a background of increasing land use intensification on favorable agricultural areas and land abandonment on less arable areas in the Alps, the aim of this investigation was to detect whether and how 10 differently used types of grassland can be distinguished by site factors, plant species composition, and biodiversity. By using a very large number of vegetation surveys (936) that were widely distributed in the Central Alps, site parameters and species composition of the different land use types were compared by discriminant analyses and various biodiversity indices. Results showed that land use is a significant factor affecting the development of different grassland communities with site factors playing a subordinate, yet important role. The 10 land use types studied can be clearly differentiated from one another by single species as well as by species composition. Our study found that the number of plant communities along with the number of species decreases constantly and significantly with increasing land use intensity and on abandoned land. For example, on average, extensively used meadows have more than three times as many species as intensively used meadows. Further, the most even distribution of species (Evenness index) is reached in intensively used meadows, whereas on pastures and abandoned land, some species become dominant forcing other species to recede. The results confirm that due to current trends in agriculture, such as land abandonment and land use intensification, plant diversity in the Alps is decreasing considerably.

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The Sieversio montanae-Nardetum strictae is one of the most widespread plant communities in (sub-) alpine regions of the Alps. Our study examines the composition, ecology and distribution of this plant community in the Eastern Alps and addresses the issue of how the community is to be classified in the phytosociological system of Nardusrich grasslands. Therefore, 357 vegetation relevés were taken from the literature and 115 from our own inventories were recorded from 2005 to 2007 in Western Austria (mostly Tyrol) and Northern Italy (mostly South Tyrol). Additionally, indicator values of Ellenberg and land-use information were used to help better interpret the ecological site conditions of the subgroups. The HCA revealed there the existence of four groups of the Sieversio montanae-Nardetum strictae, which were classified to subassociations: (1) typicum, (2) vaccinietosum, (3) trifolietosum pratensis, and (4) seslerietosum albicantis. Besides the specific plant composition, altitude specifies the first, land-use intensity the second and third, and the pH of the topsoil the fourth subassociation. For the Eastern Alps, the plant community of the Sieversio montanaeNardetum strictae should now be reclassified in the order of Nardetalia and the class of Calluno-Ulicetea. Finally, this plant community can be further classified by using the four above-mentioned subassociations.

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