Mollashahi Hassanali, Szymura Tomasz H, Szymura Magdalena
Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Institute of Agroecology and Plant Production, Wrocław, Poland.
University of Wrocław. Botanical Garden, Wrocław, Poland.
Heliyon. 2024 Mar 13;10(6):e27810. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27810. eCollection 2024 Mar 30.
Urban grasslands (UG) are among the most common types of urban green areas. They are usually species poor, and spontaneous plant migration, which can increase biodiversity, is limited. To improve the range of ecosystem services provided by UG, various seed mixtures are applied during the establishment and restoration of UG. These mixtures vary in content, quality, and cost. High-quality seed mixtures are expensive and are usually only available in small amounts. Meanwhile, alternative methods of seed introduction (e.g., fresh hay application, seeds harvested by brush) have not been well studied in UG restoration, and inexpensive commercial mixtures could have low quality and lead to poor restoration outcomes. Here, we tested the effectiveness of different seed sources to create high-quality UG at two study sites. Based on the results, all seed addition methods increased the species richness of restored grasslands. The outcome of seed addition was satisfactory regardless of differences in residual vegetation species composition and soil properties between the sites. The species richness on plots that received a commercial mixture of flower meadow plants dedicated to pollinators decreased after overwintering. The alternative seed sources (fresh hay and seed incidentally collected during mowing) yielded grassland quality that was comparable to that on plots that received high-quality mixtures with known seed origin (a seminatural meadow mixture and a mixture with the addition of grasses).
城市草地（UG）是最常见的城市绿地类型之一。它们通常物种较少，而能增加生物多样性的自发植物迁移也很有限。为了提高城市草地提供的生态系统服务范围，在城市草地的建立和恢复过程中会使用各种种子混合物。这些混合物在成分、质量和成本上各不相同。高质量的种子混合物价格昂贵，而且通常数量有限。与此同时，在城市草地恢复中，种子引入的替代方法（如施用新鲜干草、用刷子收集种子）尚未得到充分研究，廉价的商业混合物可能质量较低，导致恢复效果不佳。在这里，我们在两个研究地点测试了不同种子来源创建高质量城市草地的有效性。基于这些结果，所有种子添加方法都增加了恢复草地的物种丰富度。无论各地点残留植被物种组成和土壤性质存在差异，种子添加的结果都令人满意。使用专门为传粉者准备的花卉草甸植物商业混合物的地块上的物种丰富度在越冬后有所下降。替代种子来源（新鲜干草和割草时偶然收集的种子）产生的草地质量与那些使用已知种子来源的高质量混合物（半天然草甸混合物和添加了草的混合物）的地块相当。
