Abstract: Henriette Dahms, Volkmar Wolters & Jens Dauber Dipl. Biol. Henriette Dahms (contact author), Prof. Dr. Volkmar Wolters & Dr. Jens Dauber, Department of Animal Ecology, Ifz, Justus-Liebig-University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, D-35392 Giessen, Germany. E-mail: henriette.dahms@bio.uni-giessen.de Myrmecol. News 10: 103 A long tradition of grazing and mowing has created seminatural grasslands in Northern Europe, harbouring a remarkably high biodiversity on small spatial scales (Dauber & al. 2006). During the 20th century, the area covered by these habitats has decreased dramatically. This was mostly due to the abandonment of traditional low-input farming systems, resulting in the afforestation of formerly open habitats (Bakker & Berendse 1999). During recent decades, an increasing number of grasslands have been restored by the cutting-down of trees and the reintroducing of grazing. We have studied ant communities in 22 restored seminatural grasslands and continuously managed control sites in Sweden. We examined how species richness and community composition were affected by…