Nineteenth-century land use shapes the current occurrence of some plant species, but weakly affects the richness and total composition of Central European grasslands.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Historical land use is thought to have influenced plant community diversity, composition and function through the local persistence of taxa that reflect ecological conditions of the past.

Objectives

We tested for the effects of historical land use on contemporary plant species richness, composition, and ecological preferences in the grassland vegetation of Central Europe.

Methods

We analyzed 6975 vegetation plots sampled between 1946 and 2021 in dry, mesic, and wet grasslands in the borderland between Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Using 1819-1853 military maps, we assigned each plot to a historical land-use category (arable land, forest, grassland, settlement, permanent crop, and water body). We modeled the response of species richness, compositio

SUBMITTER: Midolo G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11729212 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature