Plant communities affect the species–area relationship on Carex sempervirens tussocks

Yu, Fei‐Hai; Krüsi, Bertil; Schütz, Martin; Schneller, J. J.; Wildi, Otto

doi:10.1016/j.flora.2007.03.002

Cited by 9 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…While the term ''tussock'' is broadly used as a synonym for bunch grass, here we refer to mounds of roots, rhizomes, and shoot bases that cespitose graminoids (typically Poaceae, Cyperaceae, or Juncaceae) produce above the soil surface ( Fig.1). Tussocks can grow up to 1 m tall (e.g., Carex stricta (Cyperaceae) ;Costello 1936), but are more typically 10-40 cm in height (Tsuyuzaki and Tsujii 1992, Crain and Bertness 2005, Peach and Zedler 2006, Yu et al 2008. Tussocks characterize wet herbaceous communities across the globe, including flooding grasslands (Perelman et al 2003), freshwater marshes (Ervin 2005), streams (Levine 2000), freshwater tidal marshes (Crain and Bertness 2005), tundra (Walker et al 1994) and alpine systems (Yu et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation of tussocks by sedges: effects of hydroperiod and nutrients

Lawrence¹,

Zedler²

2011

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. Tussock formation is a global phenomenon that enhances microtopography and increases biodiversity by adding structure to ecological communities, but little is known about tussock development in relation to environmental factors. To further efforts to restore wetland microtopography and associated functions, we investigated Carex stricta tussock size in relation to elevation (a proxy for water depth) at a range of sites in southern Wisconsin, USA, and tested the effect of five hydroperiods and N þ P addition (15 g N/m 2 þ 0.37 g P/m 2 ) on tussock formation during a three-year mesocosm experiment. Wet meadows dominated by C. stricta averaged 4.9 tussocks/m 2 , with a mean volume of 1160 cm 3 and height of 15 cm. Within sites, taller tussocks occurred at lower elevations, suggesting a structural adaptation to anoxic conditions. In our mesocosm experiment, C. stricta accelerated tussock formation when inundated, and it increased overall productivity with N þ P addition. Within two growing seasons, continuous inundation (þ18 cm) in the mesocosms led to tussocks that were nearly as tall as in our field survey (mean height in mesocosms, 10 6 1.3 cm; maximum, 17 cm). Plants grown with constant low water (À18 cm) only formed short mounds (mean height ¼ 2 6 0.4 cm). After three growing seasons, the volume of the largest tussocks (3274 6 376 cm 3 , grown with þ18 cm water depth and N þ P addition) was 12 times that of the smallest (275 6 38 cm 3 , grown with À18 cm water depth and no N þ P). Though tussock composition varied among hydroperiods, tussocks were predominantly organic (74-94% of dry mass) and composed of leaf bases (46-59%), fine roots (10-31%), and duff (5-13%). Only the plants subjected to high water levels produced the vertically oriented rhizomes and ascending shoot bases that were prevalent in field-collected tussocks. Under continuous or periodic inundation, tussocks achieved similar heights and accumulated similar levels of organic matter (range: 163-394 g C/m 2 ), and we conclude that these hydroperiods can accelerate tussock formation. Thus, C. stricta has high utility for restoring wetland microtopography and associated functions, including carbon accumulation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation of tussocks by sedges: effects of hydroperiod and nutrients

Lawrence¹,

Zedler²

2011

Ecological Applications

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“…Tussock-forming graminoids are the dominant species in many ecosystems and distributed over a wide range of vegetation and precipitation zones (Briske and Derner, 1998;Fernandez Monteiro et al, in press;Yu et al, 2006Yu et al, , 2008. Due to the compact architecture, tussocks can produce and accumulate a large amount of biomass and litter within a relatively small area and thus may show a large capacity of modifying soil properties beneath them (Briske and Derner, 1998;Hook et al, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When aboveground vegetation is continuous, space among tussocks is occupied by non-tussock plants rather than empty areas (Yu et al, 2006(Yu et al, , 2008. Although the ability of accumulating carbon and nitrogen may be relatively weak for individuals of non-tussock plants as compared with tussocks (Derner and Briske, 2001), a dense association of non-tussock individuals may also greatly modify soil properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carex sempervirens tussocks induce spatial heterogeneity in litter decomposition, but not in soil properties, in a subalpine grassland in the Central Alps

Schütz

Page‐Dumroese

et al. 2011

Flora - Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants

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“…Niche overlapping and differentiation control on species coexistence and ecological functioning at a basic level (Shmida and Wilson 1985;Auerbach and Shmida 1987). Therefore, a cross-plant functional groups approach is essential, even at very small scales, to accurately assess species richness and understand species coexistence (Yu et al 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…These compositional changes of plant functional groups likely have profound influences on the ecological functions of the Tibetan alpine grasslands (Wu et al 2013b;Wu et al 2014b). However, few studies have directly examined whether or how functional group composition can modify the form and parameters of the community SARs of zonal alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau (Yu et al 2008;Morgan et al 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%