A study of meadows and pastures has shown that those at higher elevations are in worse condition than they were 20 years ago. Dry grasslands are home to many rare and threatened plants in Switzerland, but because of agriculture, 95% of them have disappeared since the start of the 20th century. To protect the remaining ones, 3,600 plots were granted conservation status in 1995. To see how they’ve fared in the meantime, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have inspected the vegetation at more than 500 sites. “In lowland areas, the habitat quality of dry grasslands largely remained constant, suggesting that the conservation measures have been successful. In contrast, the habitat quality of the particularly species-rich grasslands at higher elevations declined,” reports WSL. Two possible culprits are fertiliser and neglect. “While fertilisation and irrigation are banned from designated dry grasslands in Switzerland, it may well be ...
