Restoration of riverine inland sand dune complexes: implications for the conservation of wild bees

Restore species-rich grassland vegetation

A comparison of two restored sandy grassland and riverine sand dune complexes with the target semi-natural grassland communities near the River Hase, Lower Saxony, Germany found no significant difference in the number of bee species between target and restored sites in any study year, two to five years after restoration (Exeler et al. 2009). Bees were more abundant at semi-natural sand dunes than at restored sand dune sites, but this was not true for the semi-natural sandy grassland sites, characterised by maiden pink Dianthus deltoides and thrift Armeria elongata.