Floristic diversity and the richness of locally endangered plant species of semi-natural grasslands under different management practices, southern Kyushu, Japan

Abstract

Background: The rapid decline of semi-natural grasslands in Japan threatens many relic and endemic plant species. There is insufficient knowledge on how the impacts of land-use changes and management of grasslands have been affecting grassland ecosystems and what conservation measures may be taken to conserve as much of the existing plant diversity as possible.

Aim: We assessed the existing management regimes for their suitability for conserving Red Data Book (RDB) species.

Methods: We conducted our study in four districts of Kushima, Kyushu, south-west Japan, with different land-use histories. We compared species richness, plant density and abundance in six grassland types: regularly burnt, regularly mown, paddy levee, roadside, landslip and wetland communities in a total of 289 1 m x 1 m quadrats, recorded in172 grassland patches. Species richness plant density and abundance were analysed with special reference to RDB species under different land use history.

Results: Species richness of grasslands did not differ across different land use histories, yet our analysis showed that the reduced area of grasslands markedly affected the density of RDB species. Grassland types differed in their ability to support RDB species: regularly burnt grasslands were the richest in RDB species and poorest in alien species, followed by regularly mown grasslands, paddy levees, landslip, wetland and roadside communities.

Conclusions: Traditional management regimes, such as regular burning or mowing of grasslands have the best potential for conserving RDB species, and thus should be part of conservation management practices of semi-natural grasslands.

Keywords:

• area reduction
• distribution pattern
• endangered species
• semi-natural grasslands
• species diversity

Acknowledgements

We thank the staff at the University of Tokyo for their assistance in preparing the data; farmers of four villages for help with our review of land use history; Dr Tatsuichiro Kawano of Kyoto Prefectural University and Miyoko Kawano of Miyazaki Higashi High School for help with research in the study area; and to Zaal Kikvidze and Kenji Fukuda of University of Tokyo for critical reading and comments on our manuscript.