
Mowing is a set pattern or frequency implemented in managing vegetation growth, preventspread of invasive insects, and restore habitats to enhance pre-existing biodiversity. Periodicmowing holds an integral role in a myriad of ecological interactions such as nutrient cycling,carbon sequestration, an increase in pollinator visit frequencies, and promoting ecologicalsuccession. However, recent studies indicate varying implications of mowing regimestowards ecosystem services(ES). Any direct or indirect benefits that humans derive fromnature for their well-being are ecosystem services(ES). To investigate the diverse implicationsof mowing on tangible and intangible ES, 8 green spaces across the University of Leicestercampus were identified as wild, amenity and recreational grasslands based on the mowingregimes. Each site was surveyed using the standard Flower Insect Timed(FIT) count methodto gain pollinator and plant insights and the‘ loss via ignition’ methodology for soil. The resultsshow a particular mowing regime applied on wildgrasslands support high pollinatorabundance, plant species richness and diversity, followed by amenity with moderate andrecreational the least. Furthermore, the soil survey findings show mowing to not exhibit anystatistically significant differences in organic matter content present in the soil. Althoughamenity and recreational grasslands exhibited higher organic matter content, followed bywildgrassland with the least, further in-depth soil-biochemistry research is required. Themultivariate analyses show the presence of high variation in pollinator communitycomposition across wildgrasslands, followed by moderate variation in amenity and least inrecreational grassland. In addition, the plant community composition spanned across sitesindicate wildgrasslands to exhibit significantly the highest variation in plants compared toamenity and recreational grasslands, which indicated moderate to least signifying the role ofintricate ecological interactions and the impact of mowing on ecosystem services.
Pollinators, Urban ecosystem, grassland management, mowing regimes, Ecosystem services, Urban Ecology, Conservation Ecology, Biodiversity conservation, Pollination
Pollinators, Urban ecosystem, grassland management, mowing regimes, Ecosystem services, Urban Ecology, Conservation Ecology, Biodiversity conservation, Pollination
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