The effects of different kinds of livestock farming and abandonment on botanical diversity in mountain hay meadows

摘要

The process of agricultural abandonment has proceeded at an alarming rate during recent decades in many European mountain areas. The process has been even greater for traditional livestock farming, as it is in the case of the extensive management thatis undertaken in the Catalan Pyrenees. Research is conducted here on the importance of the traditional livestock farming for botanical diversity conservation in mountain hay meadows (Arrhenatherium elatioris) in the county of Pallars Sobira in the Catalan Pyrenees (Spain). The aim is to analyse the effects on the botanical diversity of these meadows of the changing practices prompted by the process of abandonment. A comparison was carried out among hay meadows grazed by sheep, horses and cattle, and also between cut meadows and partially abandoned ones. Botanical transects have been carried out by means of the point intercept method. Transects have been analysed using different biodiversity indices in order to consider both species abundance and species richness. Finally, our study reveals the existence of a small tendency in the process of agricultural abandonment to undermine the characteristic botanical composition of mountain hay meadows.