Conservation value, management and restoration of Europe's semi-natural open landscapes
Keywords:
agri-environmental scheme, biodiversity, ecosystem service, grassland, heathland, land-use change, Palaearctic, succession, wood pasture.Abstract
Most semi-natural open habitats in Europe have been traditionally maintained by anthropogenic activities, such as grazing or mowing, preventing the establishment of woody vegetation. These habitats harbour a remarkably rich biodiversity in terms of both plant and animal species, but are also highly threatened, mainly by agricultural intensification and land abandonment. With this Editorial we introduce a Special Issue initiated by the European Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) at the Open Landscapes Conference (Hildesheim, 2013) and the 11th European Dry Grassland Meeting (Kulikovo Pole, 2014). We aim to give a short introduction to the current conservation status, significance and research of semi-natural open habitats in Europe and present the collected articles of the Special Issue. These papers cover a wide range of different semi-natural open habitats, including wood-pastures, heathlands, steppes, semi-dry and dry grasslands across the Palearctic region and address issues related to the assessment methods, threats, management and restoration of these habitats. We conclude that, in order to ensure their conservation and to monitor the changes in open habitats, integrative approaches are needed that take into account not only vegetation records, but also multiple animal taxa, abiotic factors, management practices, ecosystem services and modelling simulations for anticipating possible future scenarios. We also recommend that decision-makers should support actions to conserve open habitats in Europe by addressing such major challenges as the encroachment of woody vegetation. We are convinced that the present Special Issue will contribute to a better understanding of ecosystem functions and support the biodiversity conservation and management of semi-natural open habitats.Downloads
References
Albert, Á.-J., Kelemen, A., Valkó, O., Miglécz, T., Csecserits, A., Rédei, T., Deák, B., Tóthmérész, B. & Török, P. 2014: Secondary succession in sandy old fields: a promising example of spontaneous grassland recovery. Applied Vegetation Science 17: 214–224.
Apostolova, I., Dengler, J., Di Pietro, R., Gavilán, R. & Tsiripidis, I. 2014: Dry grasslands of Southern Europe: syntaxonomy, management and conservation. Hacquetia 13: 5–18.
Bartha, S., Szentes, S., Horváth, A., Házi, J., Zimmermann, Z., Molnár, C., Dancza, I., Margóczi, K., Pál, R. W., Purger, D., Schmidt, D., Óvári, M., Komoly, C., Sutyinszki, Z., Szabó, G., Csathó, A. I., Juhász, M., Penksza, K. & Molnár, Z. 2014: Impact of mid-successional dominant species on the diversity and progress of succession in regenerating temperate grasslands. Applied Vegetation Science 17: 201–213.
Batáry, P., Báldi, A. & Erdős, S. 2007a: Grassland versus non-grassland bird abundance and diversity in managed grasslands: local, landscape and regional scale effects. Biodiversity and Conservation 16: 871–881.
Batáry, P., Orci, K. M., Báldi, A., Kleijn, D., Kisbenedek, T. & Erdős, S. 2007b: Effects of local and landscape scale and cattle grazing intensity on Orthoptera assemblages of the Hungarian Great Plain. Basic and Applied Ecology 8: 280–290.
Baumbach, H. & Pfützenreuter, S. (eds.) 2013: Steppenlebensräume Europas – Gefährdung, Erhaltungsmaßnahmen und Schutz. Thüringer Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, Forsten, Umwelt und Naturschutz, Erfurt, 456 pp.
Bobbink, R., Hicks, K., Galloway, J. Spranger, T. Alkemade, R., Ashmore, M., Bustamante, M., Cinderby, S., Davidson, S., Dentener, F., Emmett, B., Erisman, J.-W., Fenn, M., Gilliam, F., Nordin, A., Pardo, L. & WallisDeVries, M. 2010: Global assessment of nitrogen deposition effects on terrestrial plant diversity: a synthesis. Ecological Applications 20: 30–59.
Britton, A. J., Pakeman, R. J., Carey, P. D. & Marrs, R. H. 2001: Impacts of climate, management and nitrogen deposition on the dynamics of lowland heathland. Journal of Vegetation Science 12: 797–806.
Brockway, D. G., Gatewood, R. G. & Paris, R. B. 2002: Restoring fire as an ecological process in shortgrass prairie ecosystems: initial effects of prescribed burning during the dormant and growing seasons. Journal of Environmental Management 65: 135–152.
Caldwell, B. A. 2006: Effects of invasive scotch broom on soil properties in a Pacific coastal prairie soil. Applied Soil Ecology 32: 149–152.
Carroll, J. A., Caporn, S. J. M., Johnson, D., Morecroft, M. D. & Lee, J. A. 2003: The interactions between plant growth, vegetation structure and soil processes in semi-natural acidic and calcareous grasslands receiving long-term inputs of simulated pollutant nitrogen deposition. Environmental Pollution 121: 363–376.
Dengler, J., Bergmeier, E., Willner, W. & Chytrý, M. 2013: Towards a consistent classification of European grasslands. Applied Vegetation Science 16: 518–520.
Dengler, J., Janišová, M., Török, P. & Wellstein, C. 2014: Biodiversity of Palaearctic grasslands: a synthesis. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 182: 1–14.
Dostálek, J. & Frantík, T. 2008: Dry grassland plant diversity conservation using low-intensity sheep and goat grazing management: case study in Prague (Czech Republic). Biodiversity and Conservation 17: 1439–1454.
Dostálek, J. & Frantík, T. 2015: Dry heathland restoration in the Zlatnice Nature Reserve (Czech Republic): an assessment of the effectiveness of grazing and sod-cutting. Hacquetia 14: 113–121.
Dover, J. W., Spencer, S., Collins, S., Hadjigeorgiou, I. & Rescia, A. 2011: Grassland butterflies and low intensity farming in Europe. Journal of Insect Conservation 15: 129–137.
Ellenberg, H. & Leuschner, C. 2010: Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen in ökologischer, dynamischer und historischer Sicht. 6th ed. Ulmer, Stuttgart, 1333 pp.
European Commission (ed.) 2013: Forest resources in the EU. URL: http://europa.eu/rapid/ press-release_MEMO-13-806_en.htm (accessed 22 June 2015).
Giarrizzo, E., Burrascano, S., Zavattero, L. & Blasi, C. 2015: New methodological insights for the assessment of temporal changes in seminatural dry grasslands plant species composition based on field data from N Apennines. Hacquetia 14: 19–32.
Habel, J. C., Dengler, J., Janišová, M., Török, P., Wellstein, C. & Wiezik, M. 2013: European grassland ecosystems: Threatened hotspots of biodiversity. Biodiversity and Conservation 22: 2131–2138.
Härdtle, W., Niemeyer, M., Niemeyer, T., Assmann, T. & Fottner, S. 2006: Can management compensate for atmospheric nutrient deposition in heathland ecosystems? Journal of Applied Ecology 43: 759–96.
Härdtle, W., von Oheimb, G., Niemeyer, M., Niemeyer, T., Assmann, T. & Meyer, H. 2007: Nutrient leaching in dry heathland ecosystems: effects of atmospheric deposition and management. Biogeochemistry 86: 201–215.
Hartel, T. & Pleininger, T. (eds.) 2014: European wood-pastures in transition: a social-ecological approach. Earthscan/Routledge, Abingdon, 303 pp.
Isermann, M., Diekmann, M. & Heeman, S. 2007: Effects of the expansion by Hippophae rhamnoides on plant species richness in coastal dunes. Applied Vegetation Science 10: 33–42.
Janišová, M., Bartha, S., Kiehl, K. & Dengler, J. 2011: Advances in the conservation of dry grasslands – introduction to contributions from the 7th European Dry Grassland Meeting. Plant Biosystems 145: 507–513.
Janišová, M., Boch, S., Ruprecht, E., Reitalu, T. & Becker, T. 2014: Continental dry grasslands from range margin to range centre – Editorial to the 9th Dry Grassland Special Feature. Tuexenia 34: 347–353.
Jírová, A., Klaudisová, A. & Prach, K. 2012: Spontaneous restoration of target vegetation in old-fields in a central European landscape: a repeated analysis after three decades. Applied Vegetation Science 15: 245–252.
Johnston, F. H, Henderson, S. B., Chen, Y., Randerson, J. T., Marlier, M., DeFries, R. S., Kinney, P., Bowman, D. M. J. S. & Brauer, M. 2012: Estimated global mortality attributable to smoke from landscape fires. Environmental Health Perspectives 120: 695–701.
Ketner-Oostra, R. & Sýkora, K. V. 2004: Decline of lichen diversity in calcium poor coastal dune vegetation since the 1970s, related to grass encroachment. Phytocoenologia 35: 521–549.
Kirby, K. J. 2015: What might a sustainable population of trees in wood-pasture sites look like? Hacquetia 14: 43–52.
Klötzli, F., Dietl, W., Marti, K., Schubiger-Bossard, C. & Walther, G.-R. 2010: Vegetation Europas. Das Offenland im vegetationskundlich-ökologischen Überblick unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Schweiz. Ott, Bern, 1190 pp.
Labadessa, R., Forte, L. & Mairota, P. 2015: Exploring life forms for linking orthopteran assemblage and grassland plant community. Hacquetia 14: 33–42.
Losey, J. E. & Vaughan, M. 2006: The economic value of ecological services provided by insects. Bioscience 56: 311–323.
Mantilla-Contreras, J., Schirmel, J. & Zerbe, S. 2012: Influence of soil and microclimate on species composition and grass encroachment in heath succession. Journal of Plant Ecology 5: 249–259.
Mohamed, A., Härdtle, W., Jirjahn, B., Niemeyer, T. & von Oheimb, G. 2007: Effects of prescribed burning on plant available nutrients in dry heathland ecosystems. Plant Ecology 189: 279–289.
Morgan, J. W. 1999: Defining grassland fire events and the response of perennial plants to annual fire in temperate grasslands of south-eastern Australia. Plant Ecology 144: 127–144.
Niemeyer, M., Niemeyer, T., Fottner, S., Härdtle, W. & Mohamed, A. 2007: Impact of sod-cutting and choppering on nutrients budgets of dry heathlands. Biological Conservation 134: 344–353.
Olsson, E. G. A., Austrheim, G. & Grenne, S. N. 2000: Landscape change patterns in mountains, land use and environmental diversity, mid-Norway 1960–1993. Landscape Ecology 15: 155–170.
Paracchini, M. L., Petersen, J.-E., Hoogeveen, Y., Bamps, C., Burfield, I. & van Swaay, C. 2008: High Nature Value Farmland in Europe: An estimate of the distribution patterns on the basis of land cover and biodiversity data. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 87 pp.
Pauw, A. 2007: Collapse of a pollination web in small conservation areas. Ecology 88: 1759–1769.
Piessens, K., Honnay, O. & Hermy, M. 2005: The role of fragment area and isolation in the conservation of heathland species. Biological Conservation 122: 61–69.
Pietzsch, D., Ochsner, S., Mantilla-Contreras, J. & Hampicke, U. 2013: Low-intensity husbandry as a cost efficient way to preserve dry grasslands. Landscape Research 38: 523–539.
Polchaninova, N. 2015: Recovery of spider communities after a spontaneous summer fire in the forb-bunchgrass steppe of eastern Ukraine. Hacquetia 14: 79–96.
Potts, S. G., Biesmeijer, J. C., Kremen, C., Neumann, P., Schweiger, O. & Kunin, W. E. 2010: Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 345–353.
Prach, K. & Hobbs, R. J. 2008: Spontaneous succession versus technical reclamation in the restoration of disturbed sites. Restoration Ecology 16: 363–366.
Prach, K., Řehounková, K., Lencová, K., Jírová, A., Konvalinková, P., Mudrák, O., Študent, V., Vaněček, Z., Tichý, L., Petřík, P., Šmilauer, P. & Pyšek, P. 2014: Vegetation succession in restoration of disturbed sites in Central Europe: the direction of succession and species richness across 19 seres. Applied Vegetation Science 17: 193–200.
Prevosto, B., Kuiters, L., Bernhardt-Romermann, M., Dolle, M., Schmidt, W., Hoffmann, M., Van Uytvanck, J., Bohner, A., Kreiner, D., Stadler, J., Klotz, S. & Brandl, R. 2011: Impacts of land abandonment on vegetation:
Successional pathways in European habitats. Folia Geobotanica 46: 303–325.
Rühs, M. & Hampicke, U. 2010: The economics of large-scale livestock grazing in the German low mountain ranges. In: Plachter, H. & Hampicke, U. (eds.): Large-scale livestock grazing – a management tool for nature conservation. Springer, Berlin, pp. 349–342.
Santoro, R., Jucker, T., Prisco, I., Carboni, M., Battisti, C. & Acosta, A. 2012: Effects of trampling limitation on coastal dune plant communities. Environmental Management 49: 534–542.
Sengl, P., Wagner, V. & Magnes, M. 2015: Semidry grass land restoration in the SE Alpine foreland of Austria – a study of early spontaneous colonisation patterns. Hacquetia 14: 97–112.
Southwood, T. R. E., Brown, V. K. & Reader, P. M. 1979: The relationships of plant and insect diversities in succession. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 12: 327–348.
Stampfli, A. & Zeiter, M. 1999: Plant species decline due to abandonment of meadows cannot easily be reversed by mowing. A case study from the southern Alps. Journal of Vegetation Science 10: 151–164.
Sutcliffe, L. Akeroyd, J., Page, N. & Popa, R. 2015: Combining approaches to support High Nature Value farmland in Southern Transylvania, Romania. Hacquetia 14: 53–64.
Tasser, E., Walde, J., Tappeiner, U., Teutsch, A. & Noggler, W. 2007: Land-use changes andnatural reforestation in the Eastern Central Alps. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 118: 115–129.
Thomas, J. A., Telfer, M. G., Roy, D. B., Preston, C. D., Greenwood, J. J. D., Asher, J., Fox, R., Clarke, R. T. & Lawton, J. H. 2004: Comparative losses of British butterflies, birds, and plants and global extinction crisis. Science 303: 1879–1881.
Tongqian, Z., Zhiyun, O., Liangqing, J. & Hua, Z. 2004: Ecosystem services and their valuation of China grassland. Acta Ecologica Sinica 24: 1101–1110.
Török, P., Vida, E., Deák, B., Lengyel, S. & Tóthmérész, B. 2011: Grassland restoration on former croplands in Europe: an assessment of applicability of techniques and costs. Biodiversity and Conservation 20: 2311–2332.
Tscharntke, T., Klein, A. M., Kruess, A., Steffan-Dewenter, I. & Thies, C. 2005: Landscape perspectives on agricultural intensification and biodiversity – ecosystem service management. Ecology Letters 8: 857–874.
Valderrábano, J. & Torrano, L. 2000: The potential for using goats to control Genista scorpius shrubs in European black pine stands. Forest Ecology and Management 126: 377–383.
Valkó, O., Török, P., Matus, G. & Tóthmérész, B. 2012: Is regular mowing the most appropriate and cost-effective management maintaining diversity and biomass of target forbs in mountain hay meadows? Flora 207: 303–309.
Valkó, O., Török, P., Deák, B. & Tóthmérész, B. 2013: Prospects and limitations of prescribed burning as a management tool in European grasslands. Basic and Applied Ecology 15: 26–33.
Vanteeva, J. V. & Solodyankina, S. V. 2015: Ecosystem functions of steppe landscapes near Lake Baikal. Hacquetia 14: 65–78.
Vassilev, K., Pedashenko, H., Nikolov, S.C., Apostolova, I. & Dengler, J. 2011: Effect of land abandonment on the vegetation of upland semi-natural grasslands in the Western Balkan Mts., Bulgaria. Plant Biosystems 145: 654–665.
Veer, M. A. C. & Kooijman, A. M. 1997: Effects of grass-encroachment on vegetation and soil in Dutch dry dune grasslands. Plants and Soil 192: 119–128.
Venn, S. J., Kotze, D. J., Lassila, T. & Niemelä, J. K. 2013: Urban dry meadows provide valuable habitat for granivorous and xerophylic carabid beetles. Journal of Insect Conservation 17: 747–764.
Verhagen, R., Klooker, J., Bakker, J. P. & van Diggelen, R. 2001: Restoration success of lowproduction plant communities on former agricultural soils after top-soil removal. Applied Vegetation Science 4: 75–82.
Vickery, J. A., Tallowin, J. R., Feber, R. E., Asteraki, E. J., Atkinson, P. W., Fuller, R. J. & Brown, V. K. 2001: The management of lowland neutral grasslands in Britain: effects of agricultural practices on birds and their food resources. Journal of Applied Ecology 38: 647–664.
Vrahnakis, M. S., Janišová, M., Rusina, S., Török, P., Venn, S. & Dengler, J. 2013: The European Dry Grassland Group (EDGG): stewarding Europe’s most diverse habitat type. In: Baumbach, H. & Pfützenreuter, S. (eds.): Steppenlebensräume Europas – Gefährdung, Erhaltungsmaßnahmen und Schutz. Thüringer Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, Forsten, Umwelt und Naturschutz, Erfurt, pp. 417–434.
WallisDeVries, M. F. & van Swaay, C. A. M. 2009: Grasslands as habitats for butterflies in Europe. In: Veen, P., Jefferson, R., de Smidt, J. & van der Straaten, J. (eds.): Grasslands in Europe of high nature value. KNNV Publishing, Zeist, pp. 27–34.
Weiss, N., Zucchi, H. & Hochkirch, A. 2013: The effects of grassland management and aspect on Orthoptera diversity and abundance: site conditions are as important as management. Biodiversity and Conservation 22: 2167–2178.
Whiles, M. R. & Charlton, R. E. 2006: The ecological significance of tallgrass prairie arthropods. Annual Review of Entomology 51: 387–412.
Wilson, J. B., Peet, R. K., Dengler, J. & Pärtel, M. 2012: Plant species richness: the world records. Journal of Vegetation Science 23: 796–802.
Zerbe, S. & Wiegleb, G. (eds.) 2009: Renaturierung von Ökosystemen in Mitteleuropa. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, 498 pp.
Zulka, K. P., Abensperg-Traun, M., Milasowszky, N., Bieringer, G., Gereben-Krenn, B.-A., Holzinger, W., Hölzler, G., Rabitsch, W., Reischütz, A., Querner, P., Sauberer, N., Schmitzberger, I., Willner, W., Wrbka, T. & Zechmeister, H. 2014: Species richness in dry grassland patches in eastern Austria: a multitaxon study on the role of local, landscape and habitat quality variables. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 182: 25–36.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
More in: Submission chapter
