TY  - JOUR
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Fischer, Markus
T1  - Low-intensity management promotes bryophyte diversity in grasslands
JF  - Tuexenia : Mitteilungen der Floristisch-Soziologischen Arbeitsgemeinschaft
N2  - Bryophytes constitute an important and permanent component of the grassland flora and diversity in Europe. As most bryophyte species are sensitive to habitat change, their diversity is likely to decline following land-use intensification. Most previous studies on bryophyte diversity focused on specific habitats of high bryophyte diversity, such as bogs, montane grasslands, or calcareous dry grasslands. In contrast, mesic grasslands are rarely studied, although they are the most common grassland habitat in Europe. They are secondary vegetation, maintained by agricultural use and thus, are influenced by different forms of land use. We studied bryophyte species richness in three regions in Germany, in 707 plots of 16 m(2) representing different land-use types and environmental conditions. Our study is one of the few to inspect the relationships between bryophyte richness and land use across contrasting regions and using a high number of replicates. Among the managed grasslands, pastures harboured 2.5 times more bryophyte species than meadows and mown pastures. Similarly, bryophyte cover was about twice as high in fallows and pastures than in meadows and mown pastures. Among the pastures, bryophyte species richness was about three times higher in sheep grazed plots than in the ones grazed by cattle or horses. In general, bryophyte species richness and cover was more than 50% lower in fertilized than in unfertilized plots. Moreover, the amount of suitable substrates was linked to bryophyte diversity. Species richness of bryophytes growing on stones increased with stone cover, and the one of bryophytes growing on bark and deadwood increased with larger values of woody plant species and deadwood cover. Our findings highlight the importance of low-intensity land use and high structural heterogeneity for bryophyte conservation. They also caution against an intensification of traditionally managed pastures. In the light of our results, we recommend to maintain low-intensity sheep grazing on sites with low productivity, such as slopes on shallow soils.
T2  - Extensive Landnutzung fördert die Moosdiversität im Grünland
KW  - biodiversity exploratories
KW  - competition
KW  - dry and mesic grasslands
KW  - grazing
KW  - fertilization
KW  - land use
KW  - liverwort
KW  - meadow
KW  - moss
KW  - pasture
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.14471/2018.38.014
SN  - 0722-494X
IS  - 38
SP  - 311
EP  - 328
PB  - Floristisch-Soziologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft
CY  - Göttingen
ER  -