Question: What is the contribution of a rise in groundwater level to vegetation restoration of degraded peat meadows compared to abandonment only?
Location: Abandoned peat meadows in the central part of The Netherlands.
Methods: Comparison of species composition and species abundance of vegetation and seed banks of reference and rewetted peat meadows, using plant trait and seed bank analysis.
Results: Vegetation of rewetted meadows shared on average only 27% of their species with the reference meadow, while this was 50% on average for species in the seed bank. Rewetted meadows had a lower total number of species and a lower number of wet grassland and fen species present in the vegetation, but had higher species richness per m2, although evenness was not affected. Rewetting increased the dominance of species of fertile and near neutral habitats, but did not result in an increase of species of wet or waterlogged habitats. Rewetted meadows were dominated by species relying mainly on vegetative reproduction and species with a low average seed longevity compared to the reference meadow.
Conclusion: Rewetting was not effective as a restoration measure to increase plant species diversity or the number of wet grassland and fen species in the vegetation. If no additional restoration management is applied, the seed bank will be depleted of seeds of species of wet grassland or fen habitats, further reducing the chances of successful vegetation restoration.
Nomenclature: van der Meijden (1990).
