Plant communities of mountain grasslands in a broad cross-section of the Eastern Alps

Apart from forests, the landscape of the Alps is dominated by grasslands, where they account for up to 40% of the agricultural area. This study focuses on the main man-made grassland plant communities of the Eastern Alps, shows their current spatial distribution and examines how strongly the influence of land use and site factors determines the communities. Discriminant analysis was used to harmonize the phytosociological classification of 1502 vegetation relevés from the literature and 375 own recorded inventories from Western Austria and Northern Italy. Land-use intensity, altitude, slope and pH were also recorded, in order to assess the impact of the factors to plant communities, as calculated in nonmetric multidimensional scaling. We identified 39 plant communities and generated a table with the main ecological and floristic parameters as well as a map showing their present spatial distribution. Contrary to the literature, the pasture communities Crepido-Festucetum commutatae, Deschampsio cespitosae-Poetum alpinae and Rumicetum alpini occur also in fertilized meadows. On the other hand we found meadow communities occurring in pastures, such as the Angelico-Cirsietum oleracei, the Pastinaco-Arrhenatheretum, the Ranunculo repentis-Alopecuretum pratensis and the Trisetetum flavescentis. The most species-rich communities – the Caricetum ferruginei and the Seslerio-Caricetum sempervirentis – occur in unfertilized meadows above calcareous bedrock. Further species-rich communities – the Campanulo scheuchzeri-Festucetum noricae, the Gentianello anisodontae-Festucetum variae, the Pulsatillo alpinae-Festucetum noricae, the Trifolio thallii-Festucetum nigricantis and the Hypochoerido uniflorae-Festucetum paniculatae – are endangered: they are regionally restricted and depend on the absence of fertilizer and on mowing once annually or every second or third year. Therefore agri-environmental measures should focus on unfertilized mountain meadows, in order to conserve these rare grassland communities.