Smith Barbara Maria, Diaz Anita, Winder Linton
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, United Kingdom.
Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Fordingbridge, United Kingdom.
PeerJ. 2017 Nov 14;5:e3942. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3942. eCollection 2017.
Habitat restoration projects are often conducted when prior use or extraction of natural resources results in land degradation. The success of restoration programmes, however, is variable, and studies that provide evidence of long term outcomes are valuable for evaluation purposes. This study focused on the restoration of vegetation within a limestone quarry in Dorset, UK between 1997 and 2014. Using a randomised block design, the effect of seed mix and seed rate on the development of community assemblage was investigated in comparison to a nearby target calcareous grassland site. We hypothesised that seed mix composition and sowing rate would influence both the trajectory of the grassland assemblage and final community composition. We found that species composition (in relation to both richness and community assemblage) was strongly influenced by time and to some extent by seed rate and seed mix. However, no treatments achieved strong resemblance to the calcareous grassland target vegetation; rather they resembled mesotrophic communities. We conclude that (as with previous studies) there is no "quick fix" for the establishment of a grassland community; long-term monitoring provides useful information on the trajectory of community development; sowing gets you something (in our case mesotrophic grassland), but, it may not be the target vegetation (e.g., calcicolous grassland) you want that is difficult to establish and regenerate; it is important to sow a diverse mix as subsequent recruitment opportunities are probably limited; post-establishment management should be explored further and carefully considered as part of a restoration project.
当先前对自然资源的利用或开采导致土地退化时，通常会开展栖息地恢复项目。然而，恢复计划的成效参差不齐，能提供长期成果证据的研究对于评估而言很有价值。本研究聚焦于1997年至2014年间英国多塞特郡一个石灰岩采石场内植被的恢复情况。采用随机区组设计，将种子混合物和播种量对群落组合发展的影响与附近一个目标钙质草地进行对比研究。我们假设种子混合物的组成和播种量会影响草地组合的发展轨迹以及最终的群落组成。我们发现物种组成（在丰富度和群落组合方面）受时间的强烈影响，在一定程度上也受播种量和种子混合物的影响。然而，没有任何处理方式能与钙质草地目标植被高度相似；相反，它们类似于中营养群落。我们得出结论，（与之前的研究一样）建立草地群落没有“快速解决办法”；长期监测能提供有关群落发展轨迹的有用信息；播种能带来一些成果（在我们的案例中是中营养草地），但可能不是你想要的目标植被（如钙质草地），而目标植被难以建立和再生；播种多样化的混合物很重要，因为后续的补充机会可能有限；作为恢复项目的一部分，应进一步探索并谨慎考虑建立后的管理措施。
