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Wet meadows have traditionally been managed at low intensity, promoting the co‐existence of a variety of plant species. The remaining fragments of these meadows are now being degraded by either mowing abandonment or by agricultural intensification, such as increased fertilization. We tested the theoretical expectation that certain functional traits can explain vegetation changes along gradients of productivity and soil moisture in response to these land‐use changes.

Železné hory Mts., Czech Republic, Central Europe.

We set up a long‐term experiment where we applied a full factorial design of fertilization and abandonment to 17 traditionally mown wet meadows covering a broad range of productivity and soil moisture conditions found within the region. Plant functional traits that cover different aspects of plant ecological strategies – plant height, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry …