Suppressing competitive dominants and community restoration with native parasitic plants using the hemiparasitic Rhinanthus alectorolophus and the dominant grass Calamagrostis epigejos

1. Dominance of native or alien competitive plants causes competitive exclusion of subordinate species and represents a major mechanism reducing biodiversity following land-use changes. The successful competitive strategies may however be interfered with by parasitic plants, which withdraw resources from other plants’ vasculature. Parasitism may strongly reduce the growth of the dominants, which may facilitate regeneration of other species and consequently trigger restoration of natural communities of high diversity.
2. Here, we aim to provide robust empirical evidence demonstrating this restoration potential of parasitic plants. We present a case study testing suppressive effects of hemiparasitic Rhinanthus alectorolophus on competitive grass Calamagrostis epigejos. In recent decades, C. epigejos has invaded many high-nature-value semi-natural grasslands of Central Europe, which is one of the prominent factors causing their biodiversity decline.
3. We conducted three manipulative fie...