Abstract
Hedgerow plant communities, including herbaceous species growing in the hedge base, are important conservation indicators of hedgerow habitat condition. The effects of management have the potential to alter the species richness and composition of hedgerow plant communities, but this has not previously been tested experimentally. A novel field experiment was used to test the effects of hedgerow management on hedgerow basal flora. Hedgerow cutting treatments, including relaxed cutting regimes funded under agri-environment schemes, were applied in replicated blocks at four sites in lowland UK. After 6 years of experimental cutting treatments the hedgerow plant communities were surveyed, both directly under the woody hedgerow vegetation and immediately adjacent to the hedges. For hedgerow plots cut in autumn, a reduced intensity cutting regime (incremental cutting) resulted in an average reduction of one species and a small shift towards plants typical of less fertile conditions, compared to cutting back to a standard height and width. Hedgerow plots cut in late winter had a plant community typical of slightly shadier conditions, compared with those cut in autumn. Hedgerow cutting management can thus alter the richness and composition of plant communities, over relatively short timescales. These results are discussed in the context of longer term trends in hedgerow plant communities across northern Europe, and conservation management funded under agri-environment schemes.
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modified from Staley et al. (2018), Fig. 1, with permission of John Wiley and Sons. b Example placement and dimensions of the four inner and outer quadrats (dashed grey outlines) used to survey hedgerow flora, on each side of an experimental hedgerow plots (solid grey outline). Width of the hedge varied with site and cutting treatments, so overhang of woody foliage into quadrats differed between hedgerow plots. Each of the quadrats surveyed in a hedgerow plot was 1 m wide, 10 m long and 0.8 m tall
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Data Availability
Raw data from this study are available at https://doi.org/10.5285/cfeceb7e-b6b5-4f40-a1bc-c25f38deeb9f.
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to all the landowners who allowed hedgerow management experiments on their land for several years. Without their voluntary participation this research would not have been possible. Thank you to all the hedgerow contractors who patiently applied management treatments to experimental hedgerow sections. Thanks to Dr Jonathan Mitchley for advice and input. Two anonymous referees’ comments helped improve an earlier version of this paper, thank you to them. Costs for running the hedgerow experiment were funded by Defra grant BD2114, and survey expenses for DS partly funded by the University of Reading.
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Communicated by Daniel Sanchez Mata.
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Stanbury, D.P.B., Pescott, O.L. & Staley, J.T. Hedgerow management experiment relevant to agri-environment schemes: cutting regime impacts species richness of basal flora and Ellenberg indicator profiles. Biodivers Conserv 29, 2575–2587 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-01989-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-01989-5