Long-term effects of different mulching and cutting regimes on plant species composition of Festuca rubra grassland

• We evaluate the effect different mulching management on grassland vegetation.
• Vegetation changes developed during the first five years of different management.
• Vegetation under mulching once a year in September was similar to no management.
• Multiple mulching can substitute for traditional cutting.

In the Czech Republic, the number of cattle has decreased by about 60% between the years 1990 and 2010 and one major question is therefore, how to manage mountain grasslands with reduced livestock and demand for forage. One possible alternative is low-cost mulching, which is defined as the crushing of aboveground biomass, which is then evenly spread onto the ground. In view of a lack of data on the effects of mulching, we established an experiment with different cutting and mulching regimes on mountain Festuca rubra grassland in 1997 and monitored plant species composition over twelve years.Treatments with a similar response of plant species composition were (i) unmanaged control and grassland mulched once a year in September; (ii) grassland mulched once a year in May and in July; (iii) grassland mulched twice a year in June and August and grassland mulched three times a year in May, July and September; (iv) grassland cut twice a year with biomass removal in June and August.We concluded that mulching performed at least twice a year can substitute for cutting management in low productive grassland, without substantial loss of plant species richness and diversity. Mulching only in September affected plant species composition of the grassland in a similar way to no management, therefore, mulching performed only in September can be used only for prevention of grassland encroachment by shrubs and trees. The majority of changes in plant species composition developed during the first five years, thus, experiments to study the effects of management on grasslands must be performed for at least this length.