Plant plugs survival under different grassland management regimes

Restoring botanical diversity of species-poor and productive grasslands is often limited by a lack of propagules of desirable species, an absence of establishment microsites, competition for resources and high rates of seedling mortality. In this study we tested the effectiveness of introducing container-grown plants (plug plants) as a means of overcoming these constraints in grasslands with a range of soil fertility and management regimes. The results showed this is a widely applicable and highly effective restoration technique, with planted species surviving in all sites for high nutrient concentrations, particularly nitrogen, were correlated with lower survival rates of introduced species. Also, the combination of fertiliser addition and silage cutting followed by prolonged and intensive grazing was most detrimental to plug plant survival. In contrast, the most beneficial management was late hay cutting followed by extensive aftermath grazing.