Meadows species composition, biodiversity and forage value in an Alpine district: Relationships with environmental and dairy farm management variables

Alpine meadows have been exposed to relevant management shifts in the last decades, with changes in plant species composition and biodiversity losses often occurring in favor of augmented foraging capabilities, especially in marginal rural contexts. In this study, we analyzed the relationships among the plant species composition, biodiversity and forage value of meadows and two sets of variables, environmental and management ones, in a dairy district of the Central Italian Alps. Results indicate that management variables could only explain limited variability of the meadows under study: for instance, the number of cuts per year is available to justify the plant species composition and biodiversity of such coenoses. Moreover, the environmental variables better described the variability of responses, due to the harsh environmental constraints of the area under examination, located at high altitudes. The shared effects of the two sets explained larger variance than the management set alone, due to the complex relationships of environmental and management factors in the context. The forage value of meadows, an indicator of hay quality, was found negatively associated with the Shannon Index. This behavior highlights a known dilemma which especially refers to high altitude communities as the ones under study, clearly highlighting trade-offs between their production and biodiversity. Some taxa as Anthriscus sylvestris, Heracleum sphondylium and others critically unbalance the species composition of meadows, thus their overall biodiversity, at low altitudes. This finding, explainable by the late first cuttings commonly adopted by all farmers, suggests the eutrophication of coenoses. The management choices inspected did not reflect on the wide variability of meadows, but indeed they made possible to understand how this farming system should be deeply revised, with respect to environmental constraints and meadows' fodder capabilities.