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Anthropogenic expansion and loss of natural environments calls for the more sustainable use of resources, including land. To combine the conservation of highly valuable meadow habitat with reclamation of post‐industrial land, 1.3 ha of turf were translocated from an urban area to basins constructed near an abandoned quarry. In contrast to the usual method of choosing similar habitats as salvage sites, the selected quarry possessed different environmental properties to the meadows, challenging their acclimatisation. To evaluate the project, we monitored three meadows (Molinion caeruleae alliance) for three seasons: immediately before the transfer and for 2 years afterwards. We recorded vegetation composition in tandem with 27 physico‐chemical properties of the soil. In the first year following translocation, enrichment of soil in total calcium, potassium, sodium, and sulphur was noted. The contents of available phosphorus, nitrogen, and magnesium, as well as soil pH, were lower in the second year. The domination of ammonia over nitrate, which is characteristic of wetlands, decreased markedly. Water holding capacity slowly decreased as well, suggesting humus decomposition. The plant communities maintained their high level of diversity, and the dominance of characteristic meadow species continued. However, an increase in the number of weeds was observed, along with the replacement of some meadow plant species by others. We conclude that if a receptor site does not resemble a habitat type of a donor site, the ecosystem becomes more human‐dependent and requires site‐specific aftercare. In this case, the active control of competitive and ruderal species invasion and moisture management is required.

The indicators of functional diversity are increasingly used to assess the conservation effectiveness of the most valuable habitats. However, little is known about the response of functional traits, their diversity, and divergence in plant communities after translocation. To assess how functional diversity changes on dry heath, meadow, and fen after translocation of entire turfs of vegetation from an airport area to the Botanical Garden in Radzionkow, we used leaf–height–seed (LHS) traits (specific leaf area, height, and seed mass) and vegetative traits (bud bank size, bud bank depth, and lateral spread). We also measured community weighted means and multifunctional diversity metrics (functional richness, evenness, and divergence) for all the traits and for LHS and vegetative traits separately. On the basis of our results, we found that the most sensitive type of vegetation to changes in functional diversity is meadow, where an increase in functional evenness and divergence were observed. The functional richness increased also for the LHS traits set in meadow plots. The response to the translocation on dry heath was a decline in functional richness and an upswell of functional evenness and divergence of vegetative reproduction traits. Additionally, we observed changes in community weighted means on meadow and dry heath. Fen was the most resistant to alterations in functional diversity after translocation. Despite the changes in functional diversity and community weighted means being significant, the shift in values of particular indices was not considerable. Our results may provide a better insight into function changes in translocated vegetation plots.

The study presents results of habitat creation and riparian vegetation recovery in artificial oxbow lakes in urbanized area within the large river valley. The investigation of open water, rush and wet meadows flora and vegetation in three ponds located in the city centre of Opole was conducted in years 2001–2013. Oxbow lakes were constructed as a compensation measure and no vegetation was transplanted into the ponds on purpose. 13-years observation showed that (1) the red-listed species are able to spontaneous reoccurrence after habitat restoration, but they can thrive only in first years of oxbow lakes recolonisation process, (2) there are some restoration constraints, especially in relation to Phragmites australis and Nuphar lutea expansion, but alien species invasions were insignificant and (3) the species number and vegetation cover was constantly increasing during the recolonisation process in recreated oxbow lakes. The dynamic of vegetation was considerable, especially in first 6 years of experiment when the significant increase in diversity and richness of native plant species was observed. After that time, the increasing expansion of P. australis and N. lutea was noted causing the decline of several species and vegetation types. So, restoring just the environmental conditions may be sufficient for a limited period of time only. Strong disturbances, much intense that moderate inundations, imitating disastrous flooding within the valley each 10–13 years are need to maintain the ecological niches for river corridor and riparian species.