Evaluating the transplantation of a meadow in the Harz Mountains, Germany

The transplantation of 0.4 ha of montane grassland in the Hart Mountains was accompanied by evaluating the achievement of declared objectives for 5 years. The project is unique in central Europe with respect to the transplantation technique employed, size of translocated area and intensity of monitoring. The meadow was transplanted to a nearby location using a bulldozer with a special excavating shovel. The preservation of the flora of the whole transplanted area was successful. Disturbance indicator species appeared only to a negligible degree. Of 18 regionally threatened species present, the majority responded indifferently or positively to the transplantation; only two showed a distinct decline in population size, which was probably not caused by the transplantation alone. The preservation of the species composition of the four vegetation types occurring in the study area after a period of 4 years was also successful with all types reverting toward their pre-transplantation state. In contrast, the maintainance of the spatial vegetation mosaic failed completely. Dissection of previously coherent vegetation types and levelling of the ground surface resulted in an artificial vegetation pattern with predominantly geometric patterns. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.