Impact of land-use change in mountain semi-dry meadows on plants, litter decomposition and earthworms

. Traditionally managed mountain grasslands are biodiversity hotspots in central Europe. However, socio-economic trends in agriculture during the last decades have changed farming practices, leaving steep and remote sites abandoned. Especially the abandonment of meadows is well known to directly affect plant and insect diversity. However, not much is known about the effects on soil processes and soil biota. To assess this, we studied four...