plant diversity; seed rain; Global and Planetary Change; Ecology; Nature and Landscape Conservation; green roof; grassland
Abstract :
[en] Extensive green roofs are well known to improve the urban environment, but in the Mediterranean regions, dry climatic conditions pose the problem of their sustainability when no irrigation is applied. After planting or sowing in 2012, 18 local Mediterranean plant species on different types of exposure and substrate in a non-irrigated extensive green roof in Avignon (South-Eastern France), the physico-chemical characteristics of the soil, winter and spring soil seed banks, soil mesofauna and initially sown, planted, or spontaneous vegetation expressed on the surface were studied from 2013 to 2020. In 2020, significant differences related to the exposure conditions (shade/sun) and, to a lesser extent, to the depth of substrate used (5 cm/5 cm or 10 cm with a water retention layer) were found. The deeper plots in the shade have significantly higher soil fertility, cover, and vegetation height. However, the plots in the sun have higher moss cover, planted or sowed vegetation abundance, and springtail abundance. By 2020, more than half of the initially sown species had disappeared, except for several planted perennials and short-cycle annual species. On the other hand, a significant increase in the species richness of spontaneously established species was measured over time. In the absence of a permanent and transient seed bank for the sowed and spontaneous species, the plant community is then mostly dependent on species flows via the local surrounding seed rain. Planting perennial species (Sedum spp., Iris lutescens), followed by spontaneous colonization of species present in the vicinity of the roof would then represent a more efficient strategy for the persistence of extensive non-irrigated green roofs in Mediterranean environments than sowing a species-rich local Mediterranean seed mixture dominated by annual species.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Vidaller, Christel ; Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, Avignon, France
Jouet, Anaïs; Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, Avignon, France
Van Mechelen, Carmen; Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, Avignon, France ; BUUR Part of Sweco, Leuven, Belgium ; Department Earth & Environment Sciences, Forest, Nature and Landscape, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
De Almeida, Tania ; Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, Avignon, France ; Laboratoire de Génie Civil et Géo-Environnement (LGCgE), University Lille, IMT Lille Douai, University Artois, Yncrea Hauts-de-France, Lille, France
Cortet, Jérôme ; CEFE, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, University Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier, France
Rivière, Lucie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > TERRA Research Centre
Mahy, Grégory ; Université de Liège - ULiège > TERRA Research Centre > Biodiversité et Paysage ; Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, Avignon, France
Hermy, Martin; BUUR Part of Sweco, Leuven, Belgium
Dutoit, Thierry; Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, Avignon, France
Language :
English
Title :
Coexistence and Succession of Spontaneous and Planted Vegetation on Extensive Mediterranean Green Roofs: Impacts on Soil, Seed Banks, and Mesofauna
Publication date :
September 2023
Journal title :
Land
eISSN :
2073-445X
Publisher :
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
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