Potential for the restoration of lowland and wet grassland upon ex-arable land
type: CreativeWork
description: Concerns about the impacts of intensive agriculture in the 20th century led to the introduction of policy initiatives intended to halt environmental deterioration and reverse biodiversity losses. In England, agri-environment schemes have enabled deintensification of agricultural land management and active promotion of habitat types of conservation value within the farmed landscape. One such habitat, lowland wet grassland, is represented within several Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs), including the Upper Thames Tributaries (UTI) ESA. Current UK agri-environment schemes provide the policy context for this study. An investigation to determine whether soil seed banks of former, and extant, floodplain grasslands could contribute to the restoration of floristic diversity concluded that propagule availability was likely to be a major constraint on restoration and recreation of wet grassland as seed banks are too depauperate for restoration of all species. At the beginning of the study, there was some doubt as to the efficacy of ESA prescriptions for reversion of arable land to wet grassland, which involved sowing a limited range of grass species only. Site-specific floristic targets for wet grassland recreation at an ex-arable site in the UTT ESA were derived using a reference habitat. Several treatments, based on the re-introduction of species as seed, were formulated to test whether sowing a wider range of species would be more effective in generating the type of species-rich grassland aimed for under the ESA scheme. The effectiveness of the seed treatments, including the ESA scheme's recommendation, at re-establishing species-rich wet grassland on ex-arable land was assessed in a field experiment which tested the site-specific targets developed and evaluation criteria. Results concurred with those of the seed bank investigation: restoration of diversity requires the introduction of increased numbers of species. The evaluation criteria developed enable progress to…
abstract: Concerns about the impacts of intensive agriculture in the 20th century led to the introduction of policy initiatives intended to halt environmental deterioration and reverse biodiversity losses. In England, agri-environment schemes have enabled deintensification of agricultural land management and active promotion of habitat types of conservation value within the farmed landscape. One such habitat, lowland wet grassland, is represented within several Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs), including the Upper Thames Tributaries (UTI) ESA. Current UK agri-environment schemes provide the policy context for this study. An investigation to determine whether soil seed banks of former, and extant, floodplain grasslands could contribute to the restoration of floristic diversity concluded that propagule availability was likely to be a major constraint on restoration and recreation of wet grassland as seed banks are too depauperate for restoration of all species. At the beginning of the study, there was some doubt as to the efficacy of ESA prescriptions for reversion of arable land to wet grassland, which involved sowing a limited range of grass species only. Site-specific floristic targets for wet grassland recreation at an ex-arable site in the UTT ESA were derived using a reference habitat. Several treatments, based on the re-introduction of species as seed, were formulated to test whether sowing a wider range of species would be more effective in generating the type of species-rich grassland aimed for under the ESA scheme. The effectiveness of the seed treatments, including the ESA scheme's recommendation, at re-establishing species-rich wet grassland on ex-arable land was assessed in a field experiment which tested the site-specific targets developed and evaluation criteria. Results concurred with those of the seed bank investigation: restoration of diversity requires the introduction of increased numbers of species. The evaluation criteria developed enable progress to…
author: Manchester, Sarah J.
language: en
date published: 2002
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:44:41Z
provider: Oxford Brookes University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Oxford Brookes University