1 WHAT CAN BE INTEGRATED FROM NORTH-AMERICAN GRASSLAND BURNING TO EUROPEAN GRASSLAND CONSERVATION?

Abstract. Prescribed burning is an integral part of the North-American grassland conservation practice, while in European grasslands this technique is rarely applied. European grassland managers and scientists are increasingly interested in cost-effective, alternative ways of biodiversity conservation and prescribed burning can be a vital solution to several conservation problems. We point out which prescribed burning measures widely used in North-America could be integrated into the conservation of European grasslands. Our goal was to draw attention to the use of prescribed fire as a neglected but promising conservation measure in European grasslands. We found that European studies on this topic are scarce; mostly yearly dormant-season burning is applied. The reviewed studies concluded that this burning type solely is not appropriate to preserve and maintain species-rich grasslands. We also discussed burning studies from North-America to identify which findings can be adapted to the European grassland conservation strategy. In North-America, contrary to Europe, the application of burning is fine tuned in terms of timing, frequency and is generally combined with other restoration measures (grazing, seed sowing or herbicide application). Thus, multiple conservation goals, like increasing landscape-level heterogeneity and invasion control can be linked. We emphasize that for the application of prescribed burning the general findings of carefully designed case studies should be combined with the practical knowledge of conservation managers concerning the local application circumstances to reach specific management objectives