Seeding and Overseeding Native Hayseed Support Plant and Soil Arthropod Communities in Agriculture Areas

Abstract

Using native seed mixtures to create or recover grassland habitats in rotation to crops or in strips surrounding fields is considered a cost-effective practice to enhance ecosystem resilience and agro-biodiversity. The aim of this research was to assess the effects of native hayseed mixtures on plant and microarthropod communities in an agricultural area of Northern Italy. Three different experimental treatments were set up. The first was a control (C) (i.e., non-seeded plots left to spontaneous vegetation succession after ploughing no deeper than 15 cm). The second, hayseed seeded (Hs) after ploughing no deeper than 15 cm. The third experimental treatment was hayseed overseeded (Ov) on the resident plant community after only a superficial harrowing. Ov plots exhibited the preeminent positive effects on the total productivity and quality of the grassland in terms of total vegetation cover, cover and richness of typical grassland species (i.e., Molinio-Arrhenatheretea species), and cover of legumes, grasses and perennial species. Moreover, Ov sites exhibited the highest abundance of microarthropod taxa and soil biological quality (QBS-ar) but only in spring, when the disturbance of ploughing negatively affected Hs and C plots. On the other hand, Hs sites showed a great reduction of invasive alien (i.e., Ambrosia artemisiifolia and Artemisia verlotiorum) and segetal weed species (i.e., Capsella bursa-pastoris and Spergula arvensis) in terms of cover. This study provides valuable indication on using hayseed mixtures to create grassland habitats as reservoir of native flora and soil biodiversity in agriculture areas.

Conservation possibilities of Isophya costata (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) based on frequency, population size, and habitats

“…This may be related to the fact that overseeding is usually done with grass species, leading to the decline of dicotyledonous plant species cover (Blackmore and Goulson 2014). Also, the soil surface is regularly damaged by overseeding (e.g., harrowing, ploughing) (Cardarelli et al 2020), which is fatal in terms of the reproduction of I. costata, which lays its eggs in the upper-most layers of the soil (Nagy and Rácz 2014). Intensive mowing of the whole plot is also pervasive, which can lead to a further reduction of the cover of dicotyledonous plant species to a level that is no longer able to meet the dicotyledonous nutritional requirements of I. costata (Orci et al 2007); in this situation, the grasslands become unsuitable for maintaining the species' populations (Kenyeres et al 2004).…”