Abstract
Semi-natural grasslands have the highest species-richness in the rural landscape. Today they are managed as isolated entities, with no consideration of the functional connectivity for exchange of seeds and pollen. However, without a broad-scale perspective there is a risk of depletion of biodiversity in the future. As many typical grasslands species are dispersal-limited the present management is not sustainble, despite management intensity. Despite that past land use has been identified as being important for biodiverttisy today, there is little research on where and how past land use have influence plant dispersal. The aim is to analyse land use in the landscape and how this have, and will affect dispersal of grassland species. The results will lead to recommendation for managing rural landscape not only grasslands. Methods are: 1. historical sources (manor archives and farm diaries) and maps to analyse past land use, 2. species richness will be investigated in different landscapes, including small remant habitats and grassland succession stages, and 3. seed sowing experiments will be conducted to establish the quality of habitats. Geographical information systems (GIS) will be used to analyse landscape and diversity data. These results will then be used in a digital simulation to model species dispersal in the past and present landscape. Finally, scenarios will be used to explore plant dispersal using different management strategies.
Sweden