Proposed project focuses on complex ecological restoration of 506 ha of wetlands located in the agricultural landscape of southern Moravia. This area is divided among eight project localities, each a Natura2000 site. All the project localities include remnants of priority habitat *1340 inland salt meadows, which are in a degraded and diminishing state. For the reporting period 2013-2018, the inland salt meadows got an unfavourable-bad status on both national and international level for. The project localities are threatened by massive overgrowing by expansive and invasive species, eutrophication, nutrient pollution, disruption of natural water regime, lack of management, and consequent homogenization and loss of biodiversity. Our aim is to restore and stabilize the areas with priority habitat of inland salt marches, to renew wetlands’ ecosystem functions, improve water quality and water retention, create new habitats and suitable conditions for target endangered wetland/salt meadow species, strengthen their populations and increase overall biodiversity. Complex ecological restoration will combine traditional methods of management (grazing, controlled burn-off, mowing, turf disruption) together with innovative methods (introducing semi-parasitic plant species to mitigate growth of expansive and invasive plant species, supporting wetland flora by additional targeted sowing of regional seed mixtures, or employing a method of green hay from the well-preserved wetland localities). To address the water pollution and negative effects of previous drainage, we will perform a complex hydro-chemical analysis and install close-to-nature biotechnical measures or natural small water retention measures. In order to verify the effect of project activities, we will perform a detailed biomonitoring and quantitative analysis of ecosystem services and landscape heterogeneity, before and after the project’s realisation.

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