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

lowest values for both MVH and TVC, whereas the C site recorded the significantly highest values (Fig 2). Most of the plants found at all sites belonged to disturbance-tolerant and generalist SBTs, while specialist species and IAS were represented with a small share, approx. 7% and 5%, respectively (Table 2). Greater percentages of natural pioneers were found at managed com- pared to unmanaged sites. The recorded 32 pollinator species (20 wild bees and 12 hoverflies) consisted of 290 individ- uals (269 wild bees and 21 hoverflies). The most common wild bee families were Apidae and Megachilidae, while only one species was detected from the family Halictidae. Most of the spe- cies had a very low abundance, with 25 species having 10 or fewer individuals, five species hav- ing 10 to 30 individuals, and only one species having over 100 individuals. In total, 46 species of birds were possibly breeding on the surveyed sites, 31 of which were confirmed or probable breeders. Passerines were the dominant group with 33 species. Bird assemblage was dominated by species typically inhabiting forests, woodlands, or shrubs (28 Fig 2. Vegetation height and total vegetation cover on the study sites (M − mowing, C − control, G − grazing). *Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences between sites (one-way ANOVA; p < 0.05); Different uppercase letters indicate significant differences between management practices (one-way ANOVA; p < 0.05). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301391.g002 PLOS ONE Effects of habitat management on biodiversity

PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301391 March 28, 2024 8 / 19