Road Verges: Potential Refuges for Declining Grassland Species Despite Remnant Vegetation Dynamics

Auestad, Inger; Rydgren, Knut; Austad, I.

doi:10.5735/085.048.0401

Cited by 43 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Thus, by applying a landscape perspective, one may maintain features of the old cultural landscapes even within a modern landscape matrix [78,98]. (2) Road verges and other constructed linear grassland landscape elements, if properly managed, may harbor plant species otherwise dependent on semi-natural grasslands and grassland-forest mosaics [99] and enhance the dispersal of these species [84]. Such linear grasslands have also been found favorable for butterflies [45,100].…”

Section: New Landscapes Mimicking Features Of Old Cultural Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical and Current Niche Construction in an Anthropogenic Biome: Old Cultural Landscapes in Southern Scandinavia

Eriksson

2016

Land

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Conceptual advances in niche construction theory provide new perspectives and a tool-box for studies of human-environment interactions mediating what is termed anthropogenic biomes. This theory is useful also for studies on how anthropogenic biomes are perceived and valued. This paper addresses these topics using an example: "old cultural landscapes" in Scandinavia, i.e., landscapes formed by a long, dynamic and continuously changing history of management. Today, remnant habitats of this management history, such as wooded pastures and meadows, are the focus of conservation programs, due to their rich biodiversity and cultural and aesthetic values. After a review of historical niche construction processes, the paper examines current niche construction affecting these old cultural landscapes. Features produced by historical niche construction, e.g., landscape composition and species richness, are in the modern society reinterpreted to become values associated with beauty and heritage and species' intrinsic values. These non-utilitarian motivators now become drivers of new niche construction dynamics, manifested as conservation programs. The paper also examines the possibility to maintain and create new habitats, potentially associated with values emanating from historical landscapes, but in transformed and urbanized landscapes.

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Section: New Landscapes Mimicking Features Of Old Cultural Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical and Current Niche Construction in an Anthropogenic Biome: Old Cultural Landscapes in Southern Scandinavia

Eriksson

2016

Land

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“…Current recommendations for roadside management to promote conservation values are largely based on botanical research on meadows, pastures and other semi-natural grasslands [1]. The effects on biodiversity of grazing and mowing of such grasslands are well studied [19].…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental Evidence *Correspondence: claes.bernes@eviem.se 1 Mistra Council for Evidence-Based Environmental Management, Stockholm Environment Institute, Box 24218, 104 51 Stockholm, Sweden Full list of author information is available at the end of the article are currently declining globally [7,8]. In particular, seminatural grasslands (created by low-intensity, traditional management) are well known for their high biodiversity [9,10] but have declined rapidly during the last century, especially in Europe [11].…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, roadsides are presented as offering opportunities for grassland species [1,15]. Managing grassland habitats for biodiversity usually requires removing vegetation and reversing latesuccessional vegetation stages, e.g.…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Roadside management has come to be regarded as an important part of overall landscape management for biological conservation [1]. Marginal habitats like roadsides may sustain biodiversity by functioning as refugia [2,3] or by facilitating dispersal [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How does roadside vegetation management affect the diversity of vascular plants and invertebrates? A systematic review protocol

Jakobsson¹,

Bernes²,

Bullock³

et al. 2017

Environ Evid

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Background: Roadsides have been acknowledged as potential substitutes for semi-natural grasslands and other open habitats with high biodiversity, many of which are now declining. Current recommendations for roadside management to promote conservation of biodiversity are largely based on studies of plants in meadows or pastures, although such areas often differ from roadsides in terms of environmental conditions and disturbance regimes. Stakeholders in Sweden have emphasised the need for more targeted guidelines for roadside management, based on actual roadside studies. We recently performed a systematic mapping of the evidence on how roadside management affects biodiversity and the dispersal of species. Through this process, we found 98 studies on how the richness or abundance of species on roadsides is affected by management such as regular mowing, burning, grazing or selective mechanical removal of plants. Since all of these interventions entail removal of plant biomass, they are comparable. Most of the studies recorded management effects on vascular plants, but there were 14 investigations of insects and other invertebrates. We now intend to proceed with a full systematic review of how maintenance or restoration of roadsides based on non-chemical vegetation removal affects the diversity of vascular plants and invertebrates.Methods: Most of the evidence on which the proposed systematic review is to be based will be selected from the systematic map. To identify more recently published literature on the topic of the review, we will perform a search update using a subset of the search terms applied for the systematic map. The criteria for inclusion of studies will be the same as for the map, except that interventions and outcomes will be restricted to those relevant to the review. Relevant studies will be subject to critical appraisal and categorised as having high or low validity for the review. Studies with low validity will be excluded from the review. Utilisable data on outcomes, interventions and other potential effect modifiers will be extracted from included articles. A narrative synthesis will describe the validity and findings of all studies in the review. Where a sufficient number of studies report similar outcome types, meta-analysis will be conducted.

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The contribution of alternative habitats for conservation of plant species associated with threatened semi‐natural grasslands

Johansen

Henriksen

Wehn

2022

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Conservation of species associated with semi‐natural grasslands, a threatened habitat, is dependent on their ability to disperse between the few and fragmented patches remaining in the landscape. To maintain metapopulations dynamics and reduce the risk of regional extinction, it is essential to know whether other, more widespread, habitats can act as alternative habitat for the biodiversity associated with threatened habitats. Here, we study how four widespread habitat types in boreal landscapes—forest, permanent grassland, abandoned grassland and road verge—can contribute to the conservation of plant species found in semi‐natural grasslands which is a species‐rich ecosystem important for plant and pollinator diversity that has experienced extensive reduction, fragmentation and isolation. We compare richness of all vascular plants, insect‐pollinated plants and semi‐natural grassland specialists among habitat types in two regions is Norway where semi‐natural grasslands are few and fragmented. Based on overlap in community composition and local species richness, road verges were the most promising alternative habitat for both insect‐pollinated plants and semi‐natural grasslands specialists. Several habitat specialist species were, however, only found in semi‐natural grasslands and, for these species, no other habitat can be considered suitable as alternative habitat. Our results highlight that a holistic management perspective is needed to maintain biodiversity associated with semi‐natural grasslands. Thus, both the protection of remaining patches of the primary, threatened habitats as well as management of widespread, alternative habitats in the landscape should be prioritized.

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Road Verges: Potential Refuges for Declining Grassland Species Despite Remnant Vegetation Dynamics

Cited by 43 publications

References 45 publications

Historical and Current Niche Construction in an Anthropogenic Biome: Old Cultural Landscapes in Southern Scandinavia

Historical and Current Niche Construction in an Anthropogenic Biome: Old Cultural Landscapes in Southern Scandinavia

How does roadside vegetation management affect the diversity of vascular plants and invertebrates? A systematic review protocol

The contribution of alternative habitats for conservation of plant species associated with threatened semi‐natural grasslands

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