Restoration of species‐rich flood‐plain meadows from abandoned arable fields in NE France

Abstract

Attempts to restore species-rich flood-plain meadows from abandoned arable fields in the valley of the river Meuse, NE France, were studied. The study area was sown with a commercial seed mixture, composed of Phleum pratense, Festuca pratensis, Lolium perenne and Trifolium repens. The above-ground vegetation in the study area 1, 2 and 3 yr after restoration was compared to (1) the vegetation present during the previous 5-yr fallow stage and (2) target flood-plain meadows. Before restoration, the above-ground fallow vegetation was dominated by ruderal and annual species, while only very few meadow species were present. Sowing led to tall, dense vegetation, mainly dominated by the sown species. Ruderal and annual species had decreased 3 yr after restoration, but target species were still poorly represented. Species richness was significantly lower in the sown site than in the seminatural target meadows and the vegetation had a different composition. Analysis of the soil seed bank of the restored meadow showed that only a few meadow species were present and that it was dominated by a few ruderal species.Three years after sowing, the vegetation of our experimental site is moving slowly towards the target communities but impoverished seed sources seem to limit the success of this restoration operation and will lead to under-saturated communities.

Grassland restoration on former croplands in Europe: an assessment of applicability of techniques and costs

“…For example, both Stevenson et al (1995) and Lawson et al (2004) reported very poor establishment of the sown species. The establishment of sown species is often delayed until after year 1 following restoration (Vécrin et al 2002). In other cases, establishment was highly successful even in year 1 (Manchester et al 1999).…”

A conservation paradox for riparian habitats and river corridor species

“…However, the hydrological, geomorphological and biological heterogeneity and variability of river-floodplain systems, both temporally and spatially, can complicate the restoration schemes (Amoros et al, 1987). The role of gradients in hydrological and soil nutrient conditions, determined by the flood regime, together with aspects of ARTICLE IN PRESS spatial and temporal disturbance and connectivity patterns in the river system was already documented for the floodplain grassland biodiversity conservation of the River Meuse (Geilen et al, 2004;Grevilliot et al, 1999;Grevilliot & Muller, 2002;Van Looy et al, 2006;Vécrin et al, 2002). Although the river corridor plants benefit from floods, flooding also bears the risk of local destruction of habitat and populations.…”

Restoration of wetland vegetation using soil seed banks: lessons from a project in Lake Kasumigaura, Japan

“…Generally, the species composition and degree of coverage of recovered vegetation profoundly affect wetland ecosystem functions and habitat quality of the animals. Furthermore, Ó International Consortium of Landscape and Ecological Engineering and Springer-Verlag Tokyo 2006 initial species composition of the restored vegetation can fundamentally affect the site vegetation for a long time (Vé crin et al 2002;Bissel et al 2004). Therefore, the revegetation methodology, i.e., how and what species should be introduced to the site, is an important factor in achieving ecologically sound wetland restoration.…”

“…Nowadays, restoration projects of a wide variety of wetland types have been implemented or planned, including floodplain wetlands converted for agricultural use (Vé crin et al 2002;Middleton 2003), abandoned peatlands (Rochefort et al 2003;Cobbaert et al 2004), and hydrologically altered wet meadows (Galatowitsch and van der Valk 1996;Smith et al 2002;Nakamura et al 2003). The restoration or rehabilitation of wetlands around rivers and lakes has also been growing rapidly since the early 1990s in Japan (Nakamura et al 2006).…”

“…Several methods for introducing plants to restoration sites have been used, including transplanting, sowing hand-collected or commercially available propagules (Reinartz and Warne 1993;Vé crin et al 2002;Rochefort et al 2003;Bissel et al 2004), transferring freshly mown plant material (Hö lzel and Otte 2003), whole turf translocation (Good et al 1999), and spreading soil that contains wetland-plant seed banks or propagule banks (Stauffer and Brooks 1997;Bruelheide and Flintrop 2000;Vé crin and Muller 2003;Cobbaert et al 2004;McKinstry and Anderson 2005) (hereafter, 'seed bank' implies propagule bank). The use of soil seed banks is thought to be advantageous in conserving and restoring biodiversity because the seed banks of past and present wetlands may be expected to contain a variety of species and genetically diverse individuals (Levin 1990;van der Valk et al 1992).…”