Restoring plant biodiversity in riverine grasslands of Central Germany.

The loss of plant diversity in floodplain grasslands along Saale and Elbe river has been well documented in conservation literature. The decline is predominantly the result of land use changes, hydrological factors are of minor importance. Particularly, the intensification of grassland management including conversion to arable use during the 1970s and 1980s has contributed to this development. Following the political change and subsequent integration of the former GDR into EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), agri-environmental schemes were implemented at the beginning of the 1990s to restore original species richness of riverine grasslands. These schemes have only been successful where remnant populations of target species had survived the period of Restoring plant biodiversity in riverine grasslands of Central Germany Armin Bischoff (1), Guido Warthemann (2) & Nadja Winter (3) (1) University of Halle, Institute of Biology/Geobotany, Am Kirchtor 1, D-06108 Halle, Germany* (2) LPR Landschafstplanung Dr. Reichhoff GbR, Zur Großen Halle 15, D-06844 Dessau, Germany (3) Hochschule Anhalt (FH), Fachbereich 1 (LOEL), Strenzfelder Allee 28, D-06406 Bernburg, Germany The loss of plant diversity in floodplain grasslands along Saale and Elbe river has been well documented in conservation literature. The decline is predominantly the result of land use changes, hydrological factors are of minor importance. Particularly, the intensification of grassland management including conversion to arable use during the 1970s and 1980s has contributed to this development. Following the political change and subsequent integration of the former GDR into EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), agri-environmental schemes were implemented at the beginning of the 1990s to restore original species richness of riverine grasslands. These schemes have only been successful where remnant populations of target species had survived the period of intensive management. Dispersal limitation and low establishment rates in the dense grassland swards have prevented the re-colonisation at many sites. We initiated a long-term study to quantify the speed of colonisation processes in floodplains. We established transects from remnant species-rich target communities into restoration sites that had been re-converted from intensive management after 1989, and we observed subsequent changes in target species abundance along transects. Additionally, we started an experiment to test the efficiency of hay transfer methods in artificially introducing target species at restoration sites. Seed transfer rates were