Long-term vegetative surveys of permanent set-aside fields and of field margins on plant diversity and remarkable arable weeds

Abstract

An ecological monitoring was carried out to find out how the vegetation succeeded on permanent set-aside fields over 18 and 21 years, respectively. Furthermore, the vegetation of field margins under permanent monitoring was surveyed over 10 and 12 years, respectively. The surveys took place on diluvial sites in the federal states Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg.Plant diversity depends on the site, landscape and period of set-aside. Even after an extended period of setaside a few rare arable weeds like Anthoxanthum aristatum (annual vernal grass) and Consolida regalis (field larkspur) were found. A poor sandy site has been colonized by an interesting flora including plants typical of sandy dry meadow.Field margins adjacent to fields or permanent fallows partly showed considerable plant diversity. It depends on the site, landscape and management of adjacent fields and includes the sporadic but also permanent occurrence of arable weeds like Consolida regalis, Veronica triphyllos (fingered speedwell) or Camelina microcarpa (little-pod false flax).The long-term vegetative monitoring shows that permanent set-aside fields may produce remarkable plant diversity. However, 20-years set-aside with self-greening supports the maintenance of rare arable weeds to a very limited extent only. Field margins could be used as refuge for arable weeds.

Keywords

• Camelina microcarpa
• Consolida regalis
• Monitoring
• Sandtrockenrasenpflanzen
• Vegetationsentwicklung
• Veronica triphyllos
• monitoring
• sandy dry meadow species
• vegetation succession