Dry meadow

Dry meadow with rattling pots, bulbous buttercups, meadow clover and other species

Dry meadows is a term often unspecific for income poor but mostly species-rich meadows on soil dry locations is used. Often, however, specific stands are meant in the transition between dry lime grass and smooth oat meadows , i.e. fat meadows rich in species . In Switzerland, the term is also used for all types of mowed dry grass , so it also includes the stands that are counted as “steppes” or “lawns” in the name of the vegetation units, provided they are only mowed. The contrast here are the, grazed , dry pastures . Together they are summarized in Switzerland under the abbreviation TWW.

Dry oat meadows

Depending on the nitrogen content of the soil, dry limestone lawns from fresher locations, so-called semi - dry lawns (in terms of vegetation, the Mesobromion Association ) seamlessly merge into the leanest and driest variant of the fat meadows (from a vegetation perspective to the smooth oat meadows, Arrhenaterion Association). In many cases the smooth oat meadows emerged from dry grass through moderate fertilization with nitrogen, but they can also simply take on the better (deeper and more nutrient-rich) soils in the mosaic of locations. Such a sequence of locations that merge into one another is also called a catena . Regionally, such transitional populations can stand between the pure types in such a way that an allocation is hardly possible, for example in the Thayatal National Park (Austria). Characteristic are some grassland species such as meadow sage ( Salvia pratensis ), bulbous buttercup ( Ranunculus bulbosus ), pigeon scabiosis ( Scabiosa columbaria ) or trembling grass ( Briza media ), which are interspersed in the combination of species in the fatty meadows. Both the oat grass species ( Arrhenatherum elatius ) as well as the upright trespe ( Bromus erectus ) typical of dry grasslands can achieve high proportions. In Switzerland, the following are also typical of such transitional stocks: cypress spurge ( Euphorbia cyparissias ), fluffy meadow oats ( Helictotrichon pubescens ), meadow marguerite ( Leucanthemum vulgare ), nodding celibate ( Silene nutans )

Dry meadows in Switzerland

"Dry meadows and pastures of national importance", abbreviated to TWW, are a protected object of nature conservation in Switzerland . The stocks were mapped nationwide according to special mapping instructions and included in a cadastre (federal inventory according to Article 18a of the Federal Law on Nature Conservation and Home Protection (NHG)). The inventory includes around 3,000 objects, which correspond to 0.5 percent of the country's area. Farmers who own such areas are obliged to maintain them, but can, subject to certain conditions, claim compensation payments from public funds for their cultivation. In this sense, dry meadows include a large number of different vegetation units, including dry limestone lawns, steppe lawns, alpine fescue, gold fescue, fescue and blue grass grass, bristle grass grass , dry, species-rich, fatty meadows.

Individual evidence

1. ^ T. Wrbka, B. Thurner, I. Schmitzberger: Vegetation-historical study of the meadows and fallow meadows in the Thayatal National Park. Expert opinion prepared on behalf of the National Park Administration by the Department for Nature Conservation Research, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology, Institute for Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Vienna. PDF
2. ↑ Heinz Ellenberg : Vegetation of Central Europe with the Alps in an ecological, dynamic and historical perspective. 5th, heavily changed and improved edition. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-8001-2696-6 (Therein section Glatthaferwiesen and their small-scale modifications, page 789 ff.).
3. ^ ^{A b} Stefan Eggenberg, Thomas Dalang, Michael Dipner, Cornelia Mayer: Mapping and assessment of dry meadows and pastures of national importance. Technical report. Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, Series Environment SRU No. 325, 2001. Page no longer available , search in web archives: download
4. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: dry meadows and pastures . Swiss Confederation, Federal Office for the Environment FOEN. accessed on July 28, 2016
5. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Dossier dry meadows and pastures. Enforcement assistance. Leaflets. Swiss Confederation, Federal Office for the Environment FOEN. accessed on July 28, 2016