Creating novel urban grasslands by reintroducing native species in wasteland vegetation

In many areas of the world, grassland species have declined due to intensified agriculture and abandonment of unproductive sites. In rural areas, restoration approaches seek to counteract this loss. Additional potential for grassland restoration arises in urban settings, especially on large-scale wastelands isolated from suitable species pools. lored the potential of urban wastelands for the development of low-maintenance meadows. We expanded on restoration approaches of rural landscapes by working with altered urban soils and existing wasteland vegetation. We tested if grassland species of regional provenances can be successfully reintroduced by comparing different restoration treatments: (1) transfer of a threshed seed mixture (Heudrusch) from local hay meadows, (2) seeding of species of regional provenances, (3) the same seeding combined with mycorrhizal inoculation. ealed higher total species richness in all treated plots compared to the control, with similar proportions of grassland species. Both seeding treatments showed increased proportions of target species. The proportion of target species was stable in the seeding/mycorrhiza treatment and increased in the seeding only treatment from the second to the third year of the study to the same level. Urban soil features including stone content were negatively related to target species richness. In contrast, human-mediated impacts (e.g., dog intrusion) showed no significant effect on target species richness. periment demonstrates that urban wastelands are suitable habitats for grassland species. Including extant soils and resident vegetation results in novel urban meadows with a considerable share of ruderal species but where rare grassland species are able to persist.