DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jq2bvq88q
title: Post-restoration grassland management overrides the effects of restoration methods in propagule-rich landscapes

description: Grassland restoration is gaining momentum worldwide to tackle the loss of
 biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Restoration methods and
 their effects on ecological community reassembly have been extensively
 studied across various grassland types, while the importance of
 post-restoration management has so far received less attention. Grassland
 management is an important surrogate for natural disturbances, which most
 ancient grasslands have co-evolved with. Thus, without the reintroduction
 of management-related disturbance, restoration targets are unlikely to be
 achieved in restored grasslands. In this study, we aimed to explore how 20
 years of management by mowing once a year or light cattle grazing, affects
 restoration success in Palearctic meadow-steppe grasslands restored by
 either sowing native grasses (‘sown sites’), applying Medicago sativa as a
 nurse plant (‘Medicago sites’), or allowing spontaneous succession
 (‘spontaneous sites’). We found that following mowing, sown sites
 maintained long-lasting establishment limitation, while Medicago sites
 seemed to have experienced a delay in succession. These limitations
 resulted in low total and target species richness, low functional
 redundancy and distinct species and functional composition compared to
 reference data from ancient grasslands. Spontaneous sites that were mowed
 reached a more advanced successional stage, although they did not reach
 reference levels regarding most vegetation descriptors. Sown and Medicago
 sites that were grazed had higher total and target species richness than
 those that were mowed, and showed restoration success similar to that of
 spontaneous sites, on which grazing had only moderate further positive
 effects. Grazed sites, irrespective of the restoration method, were
 uniformly species rich, functionally diverse and functionally redundant,
 and thus became important biodiverse habitats with considerable
 resilience. We conclude that an optimally chosen post-restoration
 management may have an impact on long-term community reassembly comparable
 to the choice of restoration method. Restoration planners may, therefore,
 need to put more emphasis on future management than on the initial
 restoration method. However, our findings also imply that if local
 constraints, such as potentially high invasive propagule pressure,
 necessitate the application of restoration methods that could also hinder
 the establishment of target species, the long-term recovery of the
 grassland can still be ensured by wisely chosen post-restoration
 management.
description: Relevé files contain 2m x 2m botanical relevés (site x species
 matrix with species abundances as records). The first two columns are the
 main site parameters (restoration method and management), while the third
 column identifies the parcel (used as a random factor in the
 calculations). The first row is to mark specialist target
 species. Trait files contain the trait values we used
 for calculations; see our paper for source databases.