Plant Species Response against Mowing in Southwestern Japan

This paper tried to study the patterns of plant species diversity in a herbaceous vegetation under mowing management in southwestern Japan. The investigation was conducted to examine species response from community-level mowing to assess species diversity and richness in two large quadrats. Within the two quadrats, six 4 m2 plots each were diligently investigated and 110 vascular plant species were recorded. Analysis on diversity revealed that total number of species increased from 2001. There was an increase in rare and newly appeared species recorded after mowing (ANOVA p<0.01). After 2001, species diversity increased in both Q1 and Q2 of each year but a high diversity was seen in Q2 of 2003 and 2004 (p