Evaluating the transplantation of a meadow in the Harz Mountains, Germany.

摘要

The success of transplantation of a 0.4-ha montane grassland in the Harz Mountains, Germany was evaluated for 5 years. The project is unique in central Europe with respect to the transplantation technique employed, size of the translocated area andquality of monitoring. The meadow was transplanted to a nearby location using a bulldozer with a special excavating shovel. This enabled the transfer of turf/soil pieces 2.2 m in length, 1.25 m in width and 0.5 m in depth directly to the new target areawithout loading the pieces onto another vehicle. The preservation of the flora of the whole transplanted area was successful. Disturbance indicator species were negligible. Of 18 regionally threatened species present, the majority responded indifferentlyor positively to the transplantation; only two showed a distinct decrease in population size (Rhinanthus minor and Viola tricolor), which was probably not caused by the transplantation alone. The preservation of the species composition of the four vegetation types occurring in the study area after a period of 4 years was also successful with all types reverting toward their pre-transplantation state. In contrast, the maintenance of the spatial vegetation mosaic failed completely. Dissection of previously coherent vegetation types and levelling of the ground surface resulted in an artificial vegetation pattern with predominantly geometric patterns.