The Importance of Grasslands

Carbon sinks and biodiversity 'hotspots'

“Globally, studies have suggested that 2.3-7.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalents per year could be sequestered through grassland diversity restoration.”  Plantlife

Established hay meadows in the UK often support high levels of biodiversity, including rare or less common plants, fungi, farmland birds and invertebrates.

As well as being biodiversity ‘hotspots’ and having a fascinating history, many of Oxfordshire’s long established, or restored lowland meadows, are accessible to members of the public and wonderful places to visit at this time of year.  

Many grassland flowers are great food sources for bumblebees in spring, photo: Snake’s Head Fritillary at Dovehouse Close community meadow in Eynsham. Planted in autumn 2023 with funding from UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).

The historic floodplain meadows around Oxford include Oxford Meadows Special Area of Conservation (SAC), which is recognised as supporting vegetation communities which are ‘perhaps unique in the World’ in the selection criteria for designation and reflects the importance of continuing the traditional management that has been undertaken within these fields for centuries.

Conservation

We have lost a staggering number of wildflower-rich grasslands within the last 90 years. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew state that ‘Wildflower meadows are one of the rarest habitats in the UK and we have lost 97%’. The 2023 State of Nature Report found that ‘vascular plant distributions have declined on average by 23% since the 1930s’. Included within this group, are plants adapted to low fertility conditions and low competition, such as those found within unimproved meadows.