Abstract Traditional land-use cessation allows the spread of invasive tall-grass species and thus leads to a reduction in grassland biodiversity. We hypothesized that long-term multi-year mowing of invaded grassland fosters the recovery of its taxonomic diversity and functional composition by reducing the dominance of the tall grass species Brachypodium rupestre, and that this change increases the pasture feed value. In 2010, we fenced part of a grassland, abandoned for about 30 years, invaded by Brachypodium rupestre (1 ha) in the central Apennine ridge (1,000–1,300 m a.s.l.), and cut it twice a year for six years; another area (1 ha) was fenced and left unmown. Before the experiment started, we recorded species cover in 30 random sampling units (0.5 × 0.5 m) in the experimental area and in the unmown area. The sampling was repeated for the experimental area, every year for six years, except 2013, while it was done for the unmown area only at the end of the six years. We investigated the effect of the reduction of Brachypodium rupestre over time on taxonomic diversity indices, functional traits and pastoral value, using species accumulation curves and generalized linear mixed-effect modelling. Twice-yearly mowing was effective in reducing the abundance of B. rupestre (mean cover 50.7 ± 19.8 % Standard deviation to 9.0 ± 7.2 %), and in increasing significantly species richness (16.6 ± 3.0–26.8 ± 3.2), exponential Shannon (8.8 ± 2.8–14.4 ± 2.7), but not Shannon evenness (0.53 ± 0.1 to 0.54 ± 0.1). At the end of the treatment quite stable richness and diversity values were reached. Reduction of B. rupestre cover increased the pastoral value of the system (39 ± 12 %–64 ± 8 % of pabular species relative cover) and promoted the presence of species without vegetative propagation (17.8 ± 12.3–28.2 ± 10.9), with pleiocorms (25.4 ± 14.3–49.6 ± 17.9), rosettes (5.6 ± 5.6–16.6 ± 12.7) and hemirosettes (32.1 ± 15.8–47.7 ± 13.6), but caused a decrease in species whose clonal growth organs have prevalent vertical spread (123.9 ± 25.7–97.0 ± 23.3), reptant (60.3 ± 20.9–20.2 ± 10.4), and late flowering species (67.4 ± 19.9–46.3 ± 17.2). The decrease of B. rupestre and the increase in mowing frequency reduced the abundance of species with clonal growth organs with prevalent horizontal spread (66.0 ± 19.5–17.9 ± 10.7), caespitose species (96.7 ± 20.9–43.6 ± 21.9), and grasses (94.0 ± 19.5–43.3 ± 22.0). Recurrent twice-yearly mowing seems to be appropriate in the restoration of sub-Mediterranean grasslands invaded by competitive species, facilitating the re-introduction of traditional grazing.

中文翻译：

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传统牲畜放牧停止后，割草如何恢复山地地中海草原

摘要 传统的土地使用停止允许入侵的高草物种的传播，从而导致草地生物多样性的减少。我们假设入侵草原的长期多年割草通过减少高草物种 Brachypodium rupestre 的优势来促进其分类多样性和功能组成的恢复，并且这种变化增加了牧场饲料价值。2010 年，我们在亚平宁山脊中部（海拔 1,000-1,300 米）将一片荒废了约 30 年、被 Brachypodium rupestre（1 公顷）入侵的草地用栅栏围起来，并在六年内每年砍伐两次；另一个区域（1 公顷）被围起来，没有修剪。在实验开始前，我们在实验区和未割草区的 30 个随机抽样单位（0.5 × 0.5 m）中记录了物种覆盖。除2013年外，试验区每年重复抽样，连续6年，未割草区仅在6年末抽样。我们使用物种积累曲线和广义线性混合效应模型研究了随着时间的推移 Brachypodium rupestre 减少对分类多样性指数、功能性状和牧区价值的影响。每年两次割草可有效降低 B. rupestre 的丰度（平均覆盖率 50.7 ± 19.8 % 标准偏差至 9.0 ± 7.2 %），并显着增加物种丰富度 (16.6 ± 3.0–26.8 ± 3.2)，指数香农 (8.8 ± 2.8–14.4 ± 2.7)，但不是香农均匀度（0.53 ± 0.1 到 0.54 ± 0.1）。在处理结束时，达到了相当稳定的丰富度和多样性值。减少 B. rupestre 覆盖增加了系统的牧区价值（39 ± 12 %–64 ± 8 % 的树栖物种相对覆盖）并促进了没有营养繁殖的物种的存在（17.8 ± 12.3–28.2 ± 10.9），具有多球茎（25.4 ± 14.3） –49.6 ± 17.9)、玫瑰花结 (5.6 ± 5.6–16.6 ± 12.7) 和半花结 (32.1 ± 15.8–47.7 ± 13.6)，但导致克隆生长器官普遍垂直传播的物种数量减少 (123.9 ± 25.3 ± 12.7–239) )、爬虫 (60.3 ± 20.9–20.2 ± 10.4) 和晚花物种 (67.4 ± 19.9–46.3 ± 17.2)。B. rupestre 的减少和割草频率的增加降低了具有普遍水平传播的克隆生长器官（66.0 ± 19.5–17.9 ± 10.7）、丛生物种（96.7 ± 20.9–43.6 ± 21.9）和草（ 94.0 ± 19.5–43.3 ± 22.0）。