Basic and Applied Ecology 14 (2013) 126–136 Interacting effects of fertilization, mowing and grazing on plant species diversity of 1500 grasslands in Germany differ between regions Stephanie A. Socher a,∗ , Daniel Prati a , Steffen Boch a , Jörg Müller b , Henryk Baumbach b,c , Sonja Gockel e,l , Andreas Hemp b,j , Ingo Schöning d,e , Konstans Wells f,g , Franc ¸ois Buscot h,k , Elisabeth K.V. Kalko f,1 , Karl Eduard Linsenmair i , Ernst-Detlef Schulze d , Wolfgang W. Weisser e,l , Markus Fischer a,b a Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland b Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Maulbeerallee 1, D-14469 Potsdam, Germany c Institute of Botany, Herbaria Haussknecht, Botanical Garden, University Jena, Philosophenweg 16, D-07743 Jena, Germany d Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knöll-Str. 10, D-07745 Jena, Germany e Institute of Ecology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburgerstr. 159, D-07743 Jena, Germany f Institute of Experimental Ecology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein Allee 11, D-89069 Ulm, Germany g Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), D-60325 Frankfurt (Main), Germany h Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Department of Soil Ecology, Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 4, D-06120 Halle, Germany i Theodor-Boveri-Institute for Biosciences, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany j Department of Plant Systematics, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany k Chair of Soil Ecology, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Johannis-Allee 21-23, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany l Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Terrestrial Ecology, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, D-85350 Freising, Germany Received 25 January 2012; accepted 20 December 2012 Available online 20 January 2013 Abstract The relationship of different types of grassland use with plant species richness and composition (functional groups of herbs, legumes, and grasses) has so far been studied at small regional scales or comprising only few components of land use. We comprehensively studied the relationship between abandonment, fertilization, mowing intensity, and grazing by different livestock types on plant diversity and composition of 1514 grassland sites in three regions in North-East, Central and South- West Germany. We further considered environmental site conditions including soil type and topographical situation. Fertilized grasslands showed clearly reduced plant species diversity (-15% plant species richness, -0.1 Shannon diversity on fertilized grasslands plots of 16 m 2 ) and changed composition (-3% proportion of herb species), grazing had the second largest effects and mowing the smallest ones. Among the grazed sites, the ones grazed by sheep had higher than average species richness (+27%), and the cattle grazed ones lower (-42%). Further, these general results were strongly modulated by interactions between the different components of land use and by regional context: land-use effects differed largely in size and sometimes even in direction between regions. This highlights the importance of comparing different regions and to involve a large number of plots ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 31 631 4923; fax: +41 31 631 4911. E-mail address: stephaniesocher@hotmail.com (S.A. Socher). 1 Deceased. 1439-1791/$ – see front matter © 2012 Gesellschaft für Ökologie. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2012.12.003