King's College Cambridge wildflower meadow monitoring data: biodiversity, climate change and society

The biodiversity and climate crises are critical challenges of this century. Wildflower meadows in urban areas could provide important nature-based solutions, addressing the biodiversity and climate crises jointly, and benefitting society in the process. King’s College Cambridge (England, UK) established a wildflower meadow over a portion of its iconic Back Lawn in 2019, replacing a fine lawn first laid in 1772. We used biodiversity surveys, Wilcoxon signed rank, and ANOVA models to compare species richness, abundance, and composition of plants, spiders, bugs, bats, and nematodes supported by the meadow, and remaining lawn, over three years. We estimated the climate change impact of meadow vs lawn from maintenance emissions, soil carbon sequestration, and reflectance effect. We surveyed members of the university to quantify the societal benefits of, and attitudes towards, increased meadow planting on the collegiate university estate. In spite of its small size (0.36 ha), the meadow supp..., Study site Meadow establishment The meadow area covers about 40% of the original extent of the King’s College Back Lawn, which was first laid in 1772. The dimensions are 96 x 66 m lawn (0.63ha) and 96 x 37 m meadow (0.36 ha). A soil study commissioned before sowing showed both the topsoil (of 30 cm depth) and subsoil were strongly alkaline (pH 8.4) sandy loams. The topsoil had intermediate fertility (20-27 mg/l extractable phosphorus, 131-167 mg/l extractable potassium, 0.50-0.52% total nitrogen using Dumas method), whilst the subsoil had moderately high fertility (35-54 mg/l extractable phosphorus, 69-129 mg/l extractable potassium, 0.24-0.39% total nitrogen). Thus topsoil removal was not necessary, and seed was sown into glyphosate treated scarified topsoil at 6 g/m2 in October 2019. Three different seeds mixes sourced by Emorsgate were sown: the Great Lawn meadow mix, a perennial meadow species mix intended as the long-term flora of the meadow; a Cornfield Annual mix intended to pro..., ,生物多样性与气候危机是本世纪的重大挑战。城市区域的野花草坪可提供关键的基于自然的解决方案（nature-based solutions），能够同时应对生物多样性与气候危机，并在此过程中惠及社会。英国剑桥大学国王学院（King’s College Cambridge, England, UK）于2019年在其标志性的后草坪（Back Lawn）的部分区域营建了一片野花草坪，替换了始建于1772年的精细修剪草坪。 本研究采用生物多样性调查法、Wilcoxon符号秩检验（Wilcoxon signed rank）与方差分析模型（ANOVA），对比了该野花草坪与剩余传统草坪在三年周期内所支撑的植物、蜘蛛、昆虫、蝙蝠以及线虫的物种丰富度、个体多度与群落组成。研究人员从维护作业排放、土壤碳固存与地表反射效应三个维度，评估了野花草坪相较于传统草坪的气候变化影响。此外，本研究还调查了该大学的全体成员，以量化在学院校园内扩大野花草坪种植规模所带来的社会效益，以及公众对此类举措的态度。 尽管该野花草坪面积仅为0.36公顷，但其[原文截断] 研究样地 草坪营建 该野花草坪区域约占国王学院后草坪原始面积的40%，该草坪始建于1772年。样地的尺寸为：传统草坪区域96×66米，面积0.63公顷；野花草坪区域96×37米，面积0.36公顷。播种前委托开展的土壤检测显示，30厘米深的表层土与下层土均为强碱性（pH值8.4）的砂质壤土。表层土肥力中等：可提取磷含量为20~27 mg/L、可提取钾含量为131~167 mg/L、采用杜马斯法（Dumas method）测定的总氮含量为0.50%~0.52%；而下层土肥力中等偏高：可提取磷含量为35~54 mg/L、可提取钾含量为69~129 mg/L、总氮含量为0.24%~0.39%。因此无需移除表层土，研究团队于2019年10月将种子播撒在经草甘膦（glyphosate）处理并划痕松整的表层土中，播种密度为6 g/m²。研究团队使用了由Emorsgate公司提供的三种不同种子混播组合：大草坪野花混播配方（Great Lawn meadow mix），该配方为多年生草本混播组合，旨在作为该野花草坪的长期植物群落；农田一年生草本混播配方（Cornfield Annual mix），旨在用于[原文截断]。