Rough: Away from grass dominance – towards more diversity
Prof. Dr. Tim Diekötter has been Professor of Landscape Ecology at Kiel University since 2014. Kiel University is one of four universities involved in the German Golf Association’s GolfBiodivers project. Diekötter himself had little contact with golf before this project.
As part of GolfBiodivers, Kiel University was initially involved with the golf courses Gut Wulfsmühle, Hoisdorf, Kitzeberg and Marine GC Sylt. What was your first impression when you came to the golf courses?
Diekötter: My impression was indeed that the golf courses, which are often located in an agricultural environment, stand out positively in terms of the structural features of the landscape – but at the same time that this is a large area and there is of course still potential for improvement when it comes to the diversity of resources. That is also the aim of the project.
Which term would you first associate with a golf course from a landscape ecology perspective?
Diekötter: Large surfaces. Only one part is actually in play and the other part, which is larger, has the potential for more biodiversity.
Golf courses around the world encompass many habitats from deserts to wetlands. Do you see the greatest potential for species-rich meadows in Germany?
Diekötter: I believe that this is where the greatest potential lies, because they are often actually embedded in the cultural landscape.
There are also golf courses in Germany that have partially dried out moors on their grounds? Can such moors be reclaimed?
Diekötter: On some golf courses, there are still larger wooded areas, where you could perhaps imagine smaller silting bogs. Otherwise, the revitalization of peatlands is relatively difficult due to the hydrology, because large areas have to be rewetted. This means that larger areas in the vicinity of the dried-up moors would also have to be waterlogged and would then no longer be playable.
In Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony there are also some courses with heathland – are you also involved in their further development as part of GolfBiodivers?
Diekötter: Heath is a very high-quality habitat. The course in St. Dionys, for example, is heavily dominated by heathland, and we also have small heathland areas at GC Kitzeberg. At GolfBiodivers, however, we try to implement relatively similar measures on all courses in order to achieve comparability and evaluate the measures accordingly. Of course, we make small adjustments because there are differences in location. But in the end, we don’t want to treat every type of vegetation separately. However, it makes no sense to go into a heathland area with our measures for a species-rich lowland hay meadow. We will therefore have to think about how to promote heathland or how it can be usefully supplemented to increase the diversity of resources in neighboring areas.
Assuming a golf course wants to convert areas into species-rich meadows, what size does it make sense to do so?
Diekötter: I wouldn’t see any restrictions. The question is always what you want to achieve and for which species. GolfBiodivers focuses on insects, and even small plots are helpful because they enable the movement of these species like a mosaic or stepping stones on the course. We have some relatively large areas for upgrading between the fairways, which we naturally like to use, but the smaller areas are connecting elements that you shouldn’t do without. In general, it always depends on the species you are focusing on. At this point, we also need to keep an eye on the plant species themselves. The diversity of plants ultimately leads to the diversity of animals.
If we look at the green areas that are now to be upgraded – what is actually wrong with that?
Diekötter: It is important to increase the diversity of flowering plants. At the moment, almost everything is grass-dominated. The sites are often too rich in nutrients, in which case the grasses dominate and crowd out the smaller herbaceous flowering plants. We want to promote them now. But even if a lean area is created now, the target species often do not move into the area on their own, as they have now become so rare in the landscape that they will not migrate on their own in the foreseeable future. These species must therefore be sown in a targeted manner.
Have you already found a species on one of the golf courses that you didn’t expect?
Diekötter: We haven’t had any big surprises yet. It has to be said, however, that the golf course on Sylt, for example, already has a very high level of plant diversity.
Is there an animal that you would be particularly happy to meet?
Diekötter: In the coastal areas, I would be very happy to see the bumblebee, because that is the species I worked with in my thesis in the Amöneburg Basin, an agricultural landscape in Hesse. Otherwise, I would also be very happy about the golden fritillary butterfly. But it is relatively unlikely that we will come across it, as it was extinct in Schleswig-Holstein and has only been reintroduced in a major project by the Nature Conservation Foundation in recent years.
Basically, golf courses are first and foremost sports areas. In your view, is there a fundamental conflict here with the objectives of nature conservation?
Diekötter: On the golf courses where we are currently working, there is a very positive basic attitude towards the nature conservation measures that we want to implement and the biodiversity issue itself. We coordinate our measures closely with the greenkeepers; they tell us where they would disrupt play or where someone would constantly walk into the new meadows, which wouldn’t even be a problem with a lowland mown meadow.
Does the golfer understand your approach?
Diekötter: One of the aims of this project is also to achieve a greater understanding of the topic of biodiversity. If we communicate this properly, we might be able to convince one or two players that it’s okay to have herbs in the area. This may be a little more challenging for the game, but it increases the diversity of species.
How do golfers react to the scientists at work on the golf course?
Diekötter: Very positive overall. They often come and ask what we were doing. We usually get interested queries.
