No species loss, but pronounced species turnover in grasslands in the Northern Alps over 25 years

The abandonment of marginally productive habitats and the intensification of land use on productive sites have caused transformative changes in vegetation composition in Central Europe. In this study, after 25 years we resurveyed a total of 145 grassland relevés from the mid‐1990s in a grassland‐dominated valley of the Northern Alps of Upper Austria. We studied changes in richness and composition, and related these to underlying drivers. We found that the average species number in plots increased from 46 in the first survey period to 49 in the second one. Median species richness across sites significantly increased from 1995 to 2020 for Festuco‐Brometea (55–61 species) and Galio‐Urticetea (24–32 species), but did not show any significant change for the other classes. Further, we recorded substantial species turnover, with winners consisting mostly of species that prefer nutrient‐rich sites, while losers were predominantly species of nutrient‐poor sites. In particular, using Ellenberg Indicator Values for calculating community indices, we found an indication for ongoing eutrophication in vegetation types of nutrient‐poor vegetation classes ( Festuco‐Brometea and Calluno‐Ulicetea ), and in wet habitats ( Scheuchzerio‐Caricetea fuscae). Community indices of wet habitats also showed clear signs of becoming more mesic. Thermophilization of community indices was evident across several vegetation classes. Further, alien species that were very rare in the mid‐1990s became more abundant in the resurveyed plots, although the level of invasion is still low. Finally, community values for nutrients of plots that are located in a protected area that has been established in 2014 did not increase significantly, while this was the case in plots outside the protected area, indicating that the management of the protected area has positive effects in halting eutrophication. We conclude that despite overall species richness changing only moderately between both surveys, substantial changes in community composition toward more nitrophilic and thermophilic conditions occurred.