Coexistence and Succession of Spontaneous and Planted Vegetation on Extensive Mediterranean Green Roofs: Impacts on Soil, Seed Banks, and Mesofauna

Christel Vidaller (), Anaïs Jouet, Carmen Van Mechelen, Tania De Almeida, Jérôme Cortet, Lucie Rivière, Grégory Mahy, Martin Hermy and Thierry Dutoit
Additional contact information
Christel Vidaller: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, 337 Chemin des Meinajaries BP 61207, CEDEX 09, 84911 Avignon, France
Anaïs Jouet: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, 337 Chemin des Meinajaries BP 61207, CEDEX 09, 84911 Avignon, France
Carmen Van Mechelen: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, 337 Chemin des Meinajaries BP 61207, CEDEX 09, 84911 Avignon, France
Tania De Almeida: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, 337 Chemin des Meinajaries BP 61207, CEDEX 09, 84911 Avignon, France
Jérôme Cortet: CEFE, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, University Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, 34000 Montpellier, France
Lucie Rivière: Unité Biodiversité et Paysage, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Université de Liège, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Grégory Mahy: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, 337 Chemin des Meinajaries BP 61207, CEDEX 09, 84911 Avignon, France
Martin Hermy: BUUR Part of Sweco, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Thierry Dutoit: Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie Marine et Continentale (IMBE), University Avignon, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, IUT Site Agroparc, 337 Chemin des Meinajaries BP 61207, CEDEX 09, 84911 Avignon, France

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: Extensive green roofs are well known to improve the urban environment, but in the Mediterranean regions, dry climatic conditions pose the problem of their sustainability when no irrigation is applied. After planting or sowing in 2012, 18 local Mediterranean plant species on different types of exposure and substrate in a non-irrigated extensive green roof in Avignon (South-Eastern France), the physico-chemical characteristics of the soil, winter and spring soil seed banks, soil mesofauna and initially sown, planted, or spontaneous vegetation expressed on the surface were studied from 2013 to 2020. In 2020, significant differences related to the exposure conditions (shade/sun) and, to a lesser extent, to the depth of substrate used (5 cm/5 cm or 10 cm with a water retention layer) were found. The deeper plots in the shade have significantly higher soil fertility, cover, and vegetation height. However, the plots in the sun have higher moss cover, planted or sowed vegetation abundance, and springtail abundance. By 2020, more than half of the initially sown species had disappeared, except for several planted perennials and short-cycle annual species. On the other hand, a significant increase in the species richness of spontaneously established species was measured over time. In the absence of a permanent and transient seed bank for the sowed and spontaneous species, the plant community is then mostly dependent on species flows via the local surrounding seed rain. Planting perennial species ( Sedum spp., Iris lutescens ), followed by spontaneous colonization of species present in the vicinity of the roof would then represent a more efficient strategy for the persistence of extensive non-irrigated green roofs in Mediterranean environments than sowing a species-rich local Mediterranean seed mixture dominated by annual species.

Keywords: geophytes; grassland species; insolation; local species; plant cover; plant diversity; seed rain; substrate depth; survival (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1726/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/9/1726/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:9:p:1726-:d:1233295

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().