Mixed-species vegetation, such as that in semi-natural meadows, is increasingly adopted in urban green infrastructure to enhance habitat quality and aesthetic value; however, little is known regarding the consequences of using meadow mixes in river revetments. In the present study, 20 herbaceous species that naturally occur in habitats with infrequent and periodic inundation were mix-planted in hydrology-induced and disturbed revetments along the mainstream of the Yangtze River in the typical mountain city of Chongqing, China. The experimental meadow communities exhibited persistence under the constraints imposed by the prevailing hydrological conditions and disturbances, such as the extremely high soil wetness variability between periodical inundation on seedlings, the drought during the summer, and the transition between runoff washout and quick drainage. All planted species survived under the changing hydrological conditions, while the semi-natural meadow maintained good growth and visual landscape quality. Meadow mixes were significantly superior in species richness, abundance and structural diversity over the existing homogeneous community dominated by invasive liana Humulus scandens. Community data suggest that species richness has increased by more than 60% in the meadow mix over the existing vegetation. The meadow communities resisted invasion by indigenous weeds and colonising species that spread through wind-dispersal and hydrochorous transport from the upstream catchment. We therefore recommend prioritising taxonomically diverse meadows for river revetments wherever possible. This study provides a valid framework that can be used to inform future vegetation restoration schemes in river revetments affected by complex hydrological variation and disturbances. The methodology is applicable to a broad range of vegetative revetment structures.

城市绿色基础设施中越来越多地采用混合物种的植被，例如半天然草甸的植被，以提高栖息地的质量和美学价值；然而，对于在河岸护岸中使用草地混合料的后果知之甚少。在本研究中，在典型的山区城市重庆，在长江干流沿岸水文诱发和扰动的护岸中，混合种植了自然生境中很少出现和周期性淹没的20种草本物种。实验性草甸群落在普遍的水文条件和干扰条件下表现出持久性，例如周期性地淹没幼苗之间的极高土壤湿度变异性，夏季的干旱，以及径流冲刷和快速排水之间的过渡。所有种植的物种都在不断变化的水文条件下生存，而半天然草甸保持了良好的生长和视觉景观质量。草甸混种在物种丰富度，丰度和结构多样性方面明显优于以入侵性藤本植物为主的现有同质群落草。社区数据表明，与现有植被相比，草甸混合地的物种丰富度增加了60％以上。草甸群落抵抗了本地杂草和定居物种的入侵，这些定居物种通过来自上游集水区的风扩散和水力运输而传播。因此，我们建议在可能的情况下优先考虑分类学多样的草甸，以进行河道护岸。这项研究提供了一个有效的框架，可用于为受复杂水文变化和干​​扰影响的河流护岸的未来植被恢复计划提供信息。该方法适用于多种植被护岸结构。