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Question: Interspecific competition and seed dispersal are key mechanisms that may influence plant community assembly, but their relative importance remains difficult to disentangle as they can be affected by abiotic conditions (environmental filtering). We experimentally studied the balance between these processes in a Molinia wet meadow plant community in which abiotic constraints are mostly represented by flooding, while agricultural practices such as mowing prevent the dominance of a few competitive species. We hypothesized that (H1) mowing, by decreasing competitive exclusion and (H2) seed addition, by increasing immigration, both enhance plant species diversity, and that (H3) small variations in flooding intensity become secondary to these processes in determining species assembly. Location: French National Nature Reserve "Etang de Cousseau", Nouvelle Aquitaine, France. Methods: In a three‐year experiment, we added seeds of 17 species characteristic of Molinia wet meadows and managed above‐ground competition through mowing. We measured spatial variations in soil moisture as an indicator of the flooding regime. We recorded species relative cover, species richness and evenness annually, and measured light availability, linked with canopy openness, twice. Results: From the beginning of the experiment, small‐scale variations in soil moisture mainly affected species richness, composition and evenness, and canopy openness. Mowing significantly increased light availability and evenness, and affected the relative cover of several species, but not species richness. The addition of seeds did not influence any of the variables monitored during the experiment. Conclusion: Our study helps to disentangle processes underlying community assembly in wet meadows. It demonstrates significant and rapid effects of mowing on canopy opening and on community assembly, while seed addition had only a slight effect, possibly explained by an insufficient decrease in competitive interactions through mowing or unmeasured processes. It also shows that abiotic heterogeneity remains a primary driver of community assembly, even on a small scale. Finally, our results suggest that the respective weight of the different filters (dispersion, environment, competition) is subject to interannual variability or environmental stochasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key insights: •Agriculture is given consideration in most periurban municipal policies.•Municipal agricultural projects depend on the political will of the elected representatives.•The location of municipalities does not impact upon how agriculture is integrated in municipal policies.•Urban planning documents provide a sound proxy to identify interesting municipal agricultural policies. Urban growth leads to decreases in area of farmland. In France, considerable attention is paid to this problem, including in frequent public policy debates. In this article, we explore issues associated with agriculture in 24 French periurban municipalities. We compare the treatment of agriculture in municipal policies by analysing urban planning documents and conducting in‐depth interviews with elected representatives. Our study reveals a high level of congruence between these two sources of information, confirming that planning documents are a sound proxy to identify municipalities' agricultural strategies. The study also shows both diverse degrees of municipal commitment to agriculture, which range from ignoring it to strongly supporting it, and diverse issues about agriculture that depend on local context and concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how farm women represent rurality and agriculture within the context of farm tourism. We draw upon qualitative data analysis of a farm women's agritourism network in southern France centred on sheep milk production for Roquefort cheese. Through the use of choreography, staging, performances, and their bodies, we found that women represent rurality and agriculture in multiple and seemingly contradictory ways. At times they paint portraits of rural life that reproduce human-nature and masculine-feminine binaries affiliated with tradition and cultural heritage. At other times, they choreograph, stage, and perform modernity by accentuating materials, ideals, and roles more accurately articulated as a product of contemporary society. The result is a complex amalgam of agriculture and rural life representations constructed for tourist consumption. We conclude by discussing the opportunities such representations hold for enabling farm women to access cultural influence in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]