Exploring the effects of habitat management on grassland biodiversity: A case study from northern Serbia

According to the obtained findings, Galium verum was the most frequent plant species, as it occurred in 179 of the 224 sample units. The dichotomous branching emanating from this spe- cies clearly shows the separation of the G site in relation to the M and C sites (Fig 4). Depend- ing on whether it occurs in a community with the species Dactylis glomerata or Eryngium campestre, the branch is recognised as G or M, respectively. Following D. glomerata, G is char- acterised by the presence of Veronica arvensis, Taraxacum officinale, Phragmites communis, Rumex acetosa, Crataegus monogyna, Bromus ramossus, Carex caryophyllea, V. verna, and V. vindobonensis. On the other hand, following Eryngium campestre, M is characterised by Fal- caria vulgaris, Rubus sp., Fraxinus ornus, Knautia drymeia, Teucrium chamaedrys, Thalictrum elata, and Calamagrostis epigeios. Counter to the bilinear distinction of G and M, C is not rec- ognised as a single strong branch, but rather consists of semi-branches that have emerged Table 6. LDA results with proportion of dispersion and variable scores on the first two axes. LD1 LD2 Proportion of total dispersion 97.18 2.82 Maximum vegetation height (VG) -0.2862 -0.4852 Total vegetation cover (TVC) -2.6927 0.3609 Diversity of plants (DPl) 0.4876 1.2224 Diversity of pollinators (DPo) 0.0495 0.1797 Diversity of birds (DB) -0.1617 -0.5275 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301391.t006 Fig 3. Plots of the first two discriminant functions (LD1, LD2) yielded by Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). M − mowing, C − control, G − grazing.

TVC − Total vegetation cover; DPl − Diversity of plants; VG − Maximum vegetation height; DPo − Diversity of pollinators; DB − Diversity of birds. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301391.g003 PLOS ONE Effects of habitat management on biodiversity PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301391 March 28, 2024 11 / 19