Browsing by Subject "grass lawns"

My master’s thesis aims to determine the impact of soil treatments and the hemi-parasite Rhinanthus minor (yellow rattle) on the soil properties of newly established perennial wildflower meadow. As urbanization and urban green spaces increase, the need for viable methods for establishing biodiverse meadows on existing lawns grows. I joined a lawn to meadow project based at Lammi Biological Station wherein four soil treatments (untreated, scarified, overturned, and replaced with meadow substrate) were employed in eight meadow blocks. Within those blocks, yellow rattle was sown into half of the plots to determine if it can hamper the growth of competitive grass species. My aim was to explore the meadow blocks’ chemical soil properties (phosphate, nitrate + nitrite, ammonium, total carbon, total nitrogen, and pH). The soil properties were measured using LECO analysis, photometric analysis, and a pH meter. In the newly established meadows at Lammi biological stations, there is evidence that soil properties do change as a result of different soil treatments and the introduction of a hemi-parasitic plant. The initial soil properties show that soil turnover results in increased nitrate + nitrite and decreased total nitrogen compared to untreated meadow soil and lawn controls, respectively. Meadow soils replaced with a substrate exhibited nutrient poor conditions typical of low nutrient preferring meadow plants. The effects of yellow rattle on aboveground community structure are not investigated here, but after the first growing season, its presence increased nitrate + nitrite in the first ten cm of soil. Nitrogen mineralization as a result of grass introduced to soil microbes and nutrient dense yellow rattle leaves may be the cause of these changes to the soil properties. Meadow establishment can take 3 – 5 years, so the use of these methods should continue to be observed. I would expect larger differences to manifest as the experiment continues, namely, decreased soil nutrients as more growing seasons pass.