Urban meadows as an alternative to short mown grassland: effects of composition and height on biodiversity

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dc.contributor.authorNorton, Briony A.
dc.contributor.authorBending, Gary D.
dc.contributor.authorRachel Clark, Rachel
dc.contributor.authorCorstanje, Ronald
dc.contributor.authorDunnett, Nigel
dc.contributor.authorEvans, Karl L.
dc.contributor.authorGrafius, Darren R.
dc.contributor.authorGravestock, Emily
dc.contributor.authorGrice, Samuel M.
dc.contributor.authorHarris, Jim A.
dc.contributor.authorHilton, Sally
dc.contributor.authorHoyle, Helen
dc.contributor.authorLim, Edward
dc.contributor.authorMercer, Theresa G.
dc.contributor.authorPawlett, Mark
dc.contributor.authorPescott, Oliver L.
dc.contributor.authorRichards, J. Paul
dc.contributor.authorSouthon, Georgina E.
dc.contributor.authorWarren, Philip H.
dc.date.accessioned2019-08-09T09:55:45Z
dc.date.available2019-08-09T09:55:45Z
dc.date.issued2019-07-22
dc.description.abstractThere are increasing calls to provide greenspace in urban areas, yet the ecological quality, as well as quantity, of greenspace is important. Short mown grassland designed for recreational use is the dominant form of urban greenspace in temperate regions but requires considerable maintenance and typically provides limited habitat value for most taxa. Alternatives are increasingly proposed, but the biodiversity potential of these is not well understood. In a replicated experiment across six public urban greenspaces we used nine different perennial meadow plantings to quantify the relative roles of floristic diversity and height of sown meadows on the richness and composition of three taxonomic groups – plants, invertebrates and soil microbes. We found that all meadow treatments were colonised by plant species not sown in the plots, suggesting that establishing sown meadows does not preclude further locally determined grassland development if management is appropriate. Colonising species were rarer in taller and more diverse plots, indicating competition may limit invasion rates. Urban meadow treatments contained invertebrate and microbial communities that differed from mown grassland. Invertebrate taxa responded to changes in both height and richness of meadow vegetation, but most orders were more abundant where vegetation height was longer than mown grassland. Order richness also increased in longer vegetation and Coleoptera family richness increased with plant diversity in summer. Microbial community composition seems sensitive to plant species composition at the soil surface (0–10 cm), but in deeper soils (11–20 cm) community variation was most responsive to plant height, with bacteria and fungi responding differently. In addition to improving local residents’ satisfaction, native perennial meadow plantings can produce biologically diverse grasslands that support richer and more abundant invertebrate communities, and restructured plant, invertebrate and soil microbial communities compared with short mown grassland. Our results suggest that diversification of urban greenspace by planting urban meadows in place of some mown amenity grassland is likely to generate substantial biodiversity benefits, with a mosaic of meadow types likely to maximise such benefits.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationNorton BA, Bending GD, Clark R, et al., (2019) Urban meadows as an alternative to short mown grassland: effects of composition and height on biodiversity. Ecological Applications, Volume 29, Issue 6, September 2019, Article Number e01946en_UK
dc.identifier.cris23588612
dc.identifier.issn1051-0761
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1946
dc.identifier.urihttp://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/14419
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherEcological Society of Americaen_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjecturban ecologyen_UK
dc.subjecturban parksen_UK
dc.subjectmicrobial diversityen_UK
dc.subjectbeetlesen_UK
dc.subjectnitrogenen_UK
dc.subjectcarbonen_UK
dc.subjectconservation planningen_UK
dc.subjectoverwinteringen_UK
dc.subjectgreen infrastructureen_UK
dc.subjectinsectsen_UK
dc.subjectplant richnessen_UK
dc.titleUrban meadows as an alternative to short mown grassland: effects of composition and height on biodiversityen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

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