Data for "Abandonment or biomass production? Phytodiversity responses to land-use changes of semi-natural grasslands in northern Europe"

In the associated study, we surveyed vascular plant communities to assess biodiversity consequences of land-use change in SNG habitats in different agricultural landscape contexts. Using a space-for-time substitution approach, we analyzed responses in plant community composition (overall species richness and diversity, species richness of plants of conservation concern, plant community dissimilarity, community nestedness and species turnover) to three land-use change scenarios for the SNGs in the area: abandonment, afforestation, and intensified management for ley production.

Thus, we assessed the contribution of converted and abandoned SNGs to local plant diversity and dissimilarity across sites, in comparison to grazed SNGs, and how this impacts the view of abandoned land and its suitability for increased biomass production in terms of ley production and afforestation.