Restoration of species-rich grassland on arable land: assessing the limiting processes using a multi-site experiment

1. Agricultural intensification has resulted in the reduction and fragmentation of species-rich grasslands across much of western Europe. 2. We examined the key ecological processes that limit the creation of diverse grassland communities on ex-arable land in a multi-site experiment over a wide variety of soil types and locations throughout lowland Britain. 3. The results showed it was possible to create and maintain these communities successfully under a hay-cutting and grazing management regime. Furthermore, there was a high degree of repeatability of the treatment effects across the sites. 4. Lack of seed of desirable species was the key factor limiting the assembly of diverse grassland communities. Sowing a species-rich seed mixture of ecologically adapted grassland plants was an effective means of overcoming this limitation. Community assembly by natural colonization from the seed bank and seed rain was a slow and unreliable process. However, there was no evidence to suggest that sowing a species-poor grass-dominated seed mixture made the vegetation any less susceptible to colonization by desirable species than allowing natural regeneration to take place. 5. Deep cultivation caused significant reductions in soil P and K concentrations across the sites. This had a significant beneficial effect on the establishment and persistence of sown forbs in all years. It also resulted in a significant reduction in the number of unsown weedy grasses. However, for both variables these differences were very small after 4 years. 6. Sowing a nurse crop significantly reduced the number of unsown grass species, but had no beneficial effect on the establishment of desirable species. 7. Treatments sown with the species-rich seed mixture following deep cultivation corresponded most closely to the specified target communities defined by the UK National Vegetation Classification. Natural regeneration and treatments sown with the species-poor seed mixture were much less similar to the target. The sites on circum-neutral soils achieved the greatest degree of similarity to the target. Those on calcareous and acid soils failed to achieve their targets and most closely resembled the target for neutral soils. This reflected the poor performance of the sown preferential species for these communities.