Experimental comparison of mowing and mulching on snail communities in wet meadows

The condition of wet meadows nowadays depends mainly on human activities; the biodiversity and productivity of these habitats can only be maintained by appropriate management methods. Mowing and grazing are well-known traditional methods, but a new method, regular mulching – the fragmentation of plant material and its deposition in the area - is also increasingly used. The ecological impact of traditional management is still not fully known, and we know almost nothing about the effects of mulching. To better understand the impact of these methods we directly compared their effects on snails, an invertebrate taxon common in these habitats and known as good bioindicators. We experimentally manipulated management methods on two wet meadows in Northern Hungary, Europe, and surveyed their snail communities immediately before and one year after treatments. Our results showed that mowing had a detectable negative effect on the snail communities. On the other hand, mulching did not alter their characteristics. Therefore, mulching may be a more desirable method for short-term interventions on wet meadows, whilst at the same time also preserving their biodiversity.