Hay meadows, which are managed using a low-intensity regime, are characterized by highly diverse vegetation but have declined significantly since the mid twentieth century. Remaining species-rich meadows are often protected by statutory designations and conservation management agreements. However, long-term studies of change in the composition of meadow vegetation, and investigations of the success of conservation over the long-term are rare. Fourteen sites, which had a long history of being managed for field dried hay, were resurveyed after 25 years and redundancy analysis was undertaken to investigate changes in community composition. Investigations of the effect of soil conditions, site size and spatial distribution of the meadow sites were carried out. Although overall community composition had changed significantly, the suite of species representative of the meadow community had been maintained, and species usually associated with more intensively managed grasslands had declined. However, there were losses of particular species of conservation importance such as Alchemilla glabra and Conopodium majus, and losses and gains of species varied from site to site. There was a significant increase in the homogeneity of the meadow vegetation between the two survey years. Comparisons of indicators of soil conditions suggested that there had been no significant change for the community as a whole but analyses of the species showing the most change indicated a decrease in soil fertility. Low-intensity management has been successful in maintaining the meadow community but consideration of changes in key species and losses at the site level is needed. More research is needed to establish whether fragmentation is starting to have an impact on diversity.

中文翻译：

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尽管当地规模的物种更替，长期干草草甸管理仍能维持目标社区

使用低强度制度管理的干草草地的特点是植被高度多样化，但自 20 世纪中叶以来已显着减少。剩余物种丰富的草地通常受到法定名称和保护管理协议的保护。然而，对草甸植被组成变化的长期研究以及对长期保护成功的调查很少见。14 个有着长期管理田间干草的场地在 25 年后进行了重新调查，并进行了冗余分析以调查群落组成的变化。对草甸场地的土壤条件、场地大小和空间分布的影响进行了调查。尽管整体社区构成发生了显着变化，代表草甸群落的一系列物种得到了保留，通常与更集约管理的草原相关的物种已经减少。但是，具有保护重要性的特定物种（例如 Alchemilla glabra 和 Conopodium majus）有所损失，物种的损失和收益因地点而异。两个调查年间草甸植被的同质性显着增加。土壤条件指标的比较表明，整个群落没有显着变化，但对变化最大的物种的分析表明土壤肥力下降。低强度管理在维持草甸群落方面取得了成功，但需要考虑关键物种的变化和场地层面的损失。