Urban wildflower meadow planting for biodiversity, climate and society: An evaluation at King's College, Cambridge

Marshall, Cicely A. M.; Wilkinson, Matthew T.; Hadfield, Peter M.; Rogers, Stephen M.; Shanklin, Jonathan D.; Eversham, Brian C.; Healey, Roberta; Kranse, Olaf P.; Preston, Chris D.; Coghill, Steven J.; McGonigle, Karris L.; Moggridge, Geoffrey D.; Pilbeam, Peter G.; Marza, Ana C.; Szigecsan, Darinka; Mitchell, Jill; Hicks, Marcus A.; Wallis, Sky M.; Xu, Zhifan; Toccaceli, Francesca; McLennan, Calum M.; Eves‐van den Akker, Sebastian

doi:10.1002/2688-8319.12243

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Our findings also support changes in management practices for herbaceous vegetation in cities, favoring extensive management practices such as late mowing. Such practices, which are becoming increasingly common in cities (Watson et al, 2020;Marshall et al, 2023), should be promoted. More generally, the importance of urban grasslands in contributing to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services has been neglected (Klaus, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Both management practices and landscape influence plant communities in urban grasslands

Gros,

Bulot,

Aviron

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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The development of urban areas now requires the integration of biodiversity issues, and this leads to better consideration of their seminatural habitats. Among these habitats, urban grasslands subjected to mowing management practices are commonly promoted over lawns to enhance biodiversity in cities. Despite their ecological value, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of urban grassland management regimes or the landscape contexts of these habitats in terms of biodiversity. This study aims to investigate the effects of mowing practices and the landscape context of urban grasslands on species diversity and composition and the ecological strategies of plant communities. In this study, 66 sites (mown grasslands) were selected in the Angers and Rennes conurbations of western France according to their management practices (regarding mowing) and landscape gradient (more or less urbanized). The results show that mowing practices and landscape composition did not affect the richness or diversity of plant species but significantly influenced the composition of communities. Partitioning analysis showed that landscape composition explained twice as much of the variance in plant species composition as mowing practices did. Landscape composition favors plant species according to their strategies, preferential habitats, and life spans. Furthermore, diversification of management practices limits the establishment of nonnative species and induces a wider range of functional strategies, as late mowing favors competitors and disfavors stress-tolerant species. Nevertheless, management practices need to be put into perspective in the context of urban grasslands. Thus, this research brings new perspectives to recommendations for the management of urban green spaces.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Both management practices and landscape influence plant communities in urban grasslands

Gros,

Bulot,

Aviron

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Reducing the conventional turfgrass lawn management has been proved to enhance the abundance, richness and diversity of plants and arthropods (Venn and Kotze, 2014;Watson et al, 2020); thus these passively created urban grasslands can have a positive effect on biodiversity. An alternative approach to creating more environmentally friendly and heterogeneous urban grasslands consists of substituting or modifying part of the lawnscape from the short, monocultural, homogeneous setting of grass species into meadows, a flowering setting with extensive management and possible active incorporation of forbs (Southon et al, 2017;Lane et al, 2019;Norton et al, 2019;Bretzel et al, 2020;Marshall et al, 2023). This practice is becoming increasingly common as more cities and other communities look for ways to create sustainable and low-maintenance green space (Smith et al, 2015;Unterweger et al, 2017;Norton et al, 2019;Ignatieva et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lawns and meadows in urban green space – a comparison from perspectives of greenhouse gases, drought resilience and plant functional types

Trémeau,

Olascoaga,

Backman

et al. 2024

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Today, city planners design urban futures by considering environmental degradation and climate mitigation. Here, we studied the greenhouse gas fluxes of urban lawns and meadows and linked the observations with plant functional types and soil properties. In eight lawns and eight meadows in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes were measured using manual chambers, and plant functional types were recorded. Four of these sites, i.e. an irrigated lawn, an old mesic meadow, a non-irrigated lawn and a young dry meadow, were more intensively studied in 2021–2022. The process-based ecosystem model JSBACH was utilized together with the momentary observations collected approximately every second week on CO2 exchange to quantify the annual carbon (C) balance of these sites. On the remaining sites, we studied the initial dynamics of conversion from lawns to meadows by transforming parts of lawns to meadows in late 2020 and conducting measurements from 2020 to 2022. The mean photosynthetic production (GPP) of the irrigated lawn and mesic meadow was the highest in this study, whereas the dry meadow had the lowest GPP. The studied lawns were stronger C sinks compared to the meadows. However, the net exchange values were uncertain as the soils were not in equilibrium with the vegetation at all sites, which is common for urban habitats, and modelling the heterotrophic emissions was therefore challenging. The conversion from a lawn to a meadow did not affect the fluxes of CH4 and N2O. Moreover, the mesic meadow was more resistant to drought events than the non-irrigated lawn. Lastly, the proportion of herbaceous flowering plants other than grasses was higher in meadows than in lawns. Even though social and economic aspects also steer urban development, these results can guide planning when considering environmentally friendlier green spaces and carbon smartness.

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“…Planting wildflower meadows creates visual continuity with the landscape of the surrounding countryside. and ecological connectivity by constituting corridors and stepping stones for arthropods, small fauna and birds (Marshall et al, 2023). The low-input management respects the nature and functionality of the soil, and the reduction in mowing allows vegetation to grow tall and capture pollutants (Przybysz et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing wildflower meadows in anthropogenic landscapes

Bretzel,

Vannucchi,

Pezzarossa

et al. 2024

Front. Hortic.

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In anthropized sites, the establishment and management of sustainable and nature-based wildflower meadow solutions exclude fertilization, weeding, and watering, and reduce the frequency of mowing. Once such inputs have been reduced, the ecosystem services generated by the vegetation result in an increase in biodiversity in terms of plant and animal species, an improvement in soil quality and biota, the mitigation of air pollutants and carbon sequestration, as well as a reduction in soil temperature. Environmental education and citizen science are also some of the benefits of this type of vegetation, especially in urban areas. Herbaceous meadow-like communities, which are composed of forbs only or a combination of graminoid and forb species, are usually established by sowing. The seeds are available for purchase from specialized seed producers as single species or in a mix, some companies offer mixes composed of garden species with botanical species. Donor meadows are the sources of the genetic material and the template to reproduce the meadow herbaceous community at different sites through seed harvest, hay harvest, and the displacement of soil with its seed bank. Management techniques, such as soil preparation, determining the appropriate sowing and mowing time, can help in establishing and maintaining the most desirable species. The suspension of urban turf mowing allows the growth of the natural seed bank, which in unproductive soils facilitates the appearance of many pollinator-friendly herbaceous species. With the appropriate pedological conditions and management, the natural urban herbaceous vegetation thus provides beautiful and rich plant communities, which are also easy to maintain. This review identifies the best practices through a qualitative selection of case studies related to the various methods to establish wildflower meadows in the urban infrastructure and the main constraints such as the lack of a suitable seed market.

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Urban wildflower meadow planting for biodiversity, climate and society: An evaluation at King's College, Cambridge

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 5 publications

References 58 publications

Both management practices and landscape influence plant communities in urban grasslands

Both management practices and landscape influence plant communities in urban grasslands

Lawns and meadows in urban green space – a comparison from perspectives of greenhouse gases, drought resilience and plant functional types

Establishing wildflower meadows in anthropogenic landscapes

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