Do you know a literature reference that determines from which number of species on you can talk about species-rich grassland in Middle Europe? We have a general idea but we are looking for a reference to cite on that matter. Thank you!
Hi Sarah
For management purposes it's usually the types of plant community present, plus some other key organisms supported (usually birds (corncrake for example) and mammals) that are usually considered important, at least here in Scotland when defining species-rich grasslands (see link as an example):
www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/biodiversity/grassland%20guide.pdf
However of course alpha-diversity of the plant community is also an important criterion. I doubt if you could pin it down to a single figure for all grassland communities but if you have a look at Rodwell's series of books on British Plant Communities you'd get some idea (calcareous grasslands such as chalk and machair are some of the richest in the UK and 10 - 20 species per square metre would be quite normal there).
This link gives an idea of how farmers in Scotland are encouraged to manage to enhance species-richness in their grassland:
www.gov.scot/Topics/farmingrural/SRDP/RuralPriorities/Packages/SpeciesRichGrassland
Bob Marrs is a good source of info on this topic, with many relevant papers, e.g:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/000632079090104W
I'm sure there will be equivalent info for Middle European grasslands, but that's outside my field!
All the best
Kevin
Dear Arvind and Kevin,
Thank you so much for your help!
All the best,
Sarah
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