Recovery of Chionochloa rigida tussocks from fires in South Island, New Zealand

Gitay, H.; Lee, W.G.; Allen, R. B.; Wilson, J. Bastow

doi:10.1016/s0301-4797(11)80008-3

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This would be the time when the tussocks appear to have recovered from the effect of the fire, which is in agreement with the tussock recovery time suggested by Gitay et al (1992). This would be the time when the tussocks appear to have recovered from the effect of the fire, which is in agreement with the tussock recovery time suggested by Gitay et al (1992).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…They were chosen to include Chionochloa rigida rigida grasslands with differing, but known, fire histories. More details of the general area and the soils of the sites are given in McIntosh et al (1983) and Gitay et al (1992). to 12?)…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The distinction of Peet (1992) between the gradient-in-time and competitive-sorting models provides a critical test between these opinions, since only the latter explicitly involves community structuring by species interaction. Since European settlement, these grasslands have been burnt more frequently in order to increase the palatable material available to sheep and cattle (Gitay et al 1992). We provide a test for these models, by examining the change in spatial associations after fire in Chionochloa rigida spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Post-Fire Changes in Community Structure of Tall Tussock Grasslands: A Test of Alternative Models of Succession

Gitay¹,

Wilson²

1995

The Journal of Ecology

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. British Ecological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Ecology. Summary 1 Two recently published models of succession are the gradient-in-time model and the competitive-sorting model. The latter predicts that community structure will change during the course of succession, with chance establishment predominating early in succession, and competitive sorting into microhabitats increasing with time. The average strength of positive and negative interspecific associations should therefore increase. There is little evidence available to test these models in real communities. 2 We test the two models using postfire succession in tall tussock grasslands of New Zealand. Twenty-one sites dominated by the tussock grass Chionochloa rigida, and last burnt within the past 30 years, were sampled using contiguous quadrats. Three association coefficients were calculated for each site and related to time since the last fire, presence or absence of grazing, maximum height of vegetation and soil nutrient status. The results were examined at a range of spatial scales. 3 Community structure, as evidenced by the strength of interspecific association at small quadrat sizes, was significantly related to site factors. Mean association was negative in recently burnt sites, and again in sites burnt more than 20 years previously. The trends support the competitive-sorting model over the gradient-in-time model. The results are also compatible with the 'three-phase' model of secondary succession suggested by Greig-Smith; we refer to the three phases as 'pioneer ', 'building' and 'mature'. 4 There was a significant tendency over all sites for there to be a constant proportion of species from the graminoid vs. forb + bryophyte + lichen guilds in a quadrat, compared to null-model expectation. This tendency towards guild proportionality was more marked in lower elevation sites, and in sites where there was no grazing. This supports the existence of determinate community structure, a factor explicitly included in the competitive-sorting model. 5 We conclude that there is significant community structure in the tussock grasslands. The changes in species association are affected by grazing and site quality. The strength of species association can be an index of changes in community structure during succession, in spite of the confounding effect of microsite variation; however, this relationship is affected by grazing and site quality. The competitive-sorting model fits the results more closely than the gradient-in-time model, but the 'three-phase' model gives the best fit.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Post-Fire Changes in Community Structure of Tall Tussock Grasslands: A Test of Alternative Models of Succession

Gitay¹,

Wilson²

1995

The Journal of Ecology

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“…Those features slowest to recover include tiller weights and root nutrient levels, both taking approximately 15 years (on a per tussock basis) to reach pre‐disturbance levels (Payton et al . 1986; Gitay et al . 1992).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term effects of defoliation: incomplete recovery of a New Zealand alpine tussock grass, Chionochloa pallens, after 20 years

Lee

Fenner

Loughnan

et al. 2000

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary1. Chionochloa pallens, a New Zealand low alpine tussock grass, is an important food plant of the takaheÂ Porphyrio hochstetteri, a rare endemic¯ightless rail. Introduced red deer Cervus elaphus compete with the takaheÂ for this resource. 2. The experiment reported here measured the long-term rate of recovery of the grass after simulated severe deer grazing by means of a single clipping in 1977. Biomass, tillering and levels of six mineral nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na) were measured in tussocks 20 years after the clipping was carried out. Growth was compared between treatments (control vs. defoliated) and with a previous sampling in 1986. 3. Even after two decades, recovery was incomplete. Tiller dry weights and size (length and basal diameter) and tussock dry weight per unit area remained signi®-cantly depressed in the clipped plots (by about 30%) compared with the control plots. 4. Other features, such as biomass allocation to plant parts and mineral concentrations in tissues, no longer showed many signi®cant dierences between the treated and control plots, indicating continued convergence towards the controls. 5. However, at the present rate of recovery it is estimated that the eects of a single severe defoliation on biomass (per tiller and per unit area) will persist for nearly three decades. 6. As C. pallens is known to be a relatively fast-growing species of Chionochloa, recovery of other native snow tussock grasses in these alpine habitats damaged by deer grazing is likely to take even longer.

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“…Both sites represent seminatural Chionochloa rigida (Raoul) Zotov (1963) tall tussock grasslands with a diverse inter-tussock flora. They have a recent history of low density stocking (Gitay et al 1992;Ross et al 1997) and have remained un-burnt for at least 25 years. The Mt.…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations Between Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidea) and Plants, and Conservation Values in Two Tussock Grasslands, Otago, New Zealand

2006

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Ecosystem level processes and species interactions have become important concepts in conservation and land management. Despite being New Zealand's greatest contributors to global diversity, native invertebrates have been largely overlooked in the assessment of land values, and their diversity has often been assumed to reflect native plant diversity without justification. Invertebrates can in fact affect plant species composition, and in ecosystems such as New Zealand's remaining indigenous and semi-modified tussock grasslands can do so in excess of more conspicuous vertebrate grazers. An understanding of the interactions between invertebrates and their plant hosts may be informative in assessing land conservation values, increase the efficiency of rapid inventory analyses and would be applicable across the production-conservation spectrum. This study considers the Curculionoidea, vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen communities of two semimodified tussock grasslands in the Otago region of southern New Zealand. Quantitative plant and invertebrate sampling were carried out in January 2001. Data were analysed using ANalysis Of SIMilarity (ANOSIM) and Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) ordination techniques. Vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species richness was highest in the same site and plots as native weevil species richness, however the proportion of native vegetation in these locations was lower. Associations identified between Curculionoidea and vascular plants were dismissed due to the confounding effect of species frequency across samples. This appeared to have little influence on associations with bryophytes and/or lichens and these were given more weighting. The ecological implications of associations are considered and variability in weevil composition is discussed in reference to the tussock grassland environment. The importance of plant-invertebrate relationships to conservation and the uses and limitations of the PRIMER MDS ordination technique for determining associations are discussed.

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Recovery of Chionochloa rigida tussocks from fires in South Island, New Zealand

Cited by 21 publications

References 15 publications

Post-Fire Changes in Community Structure of Tall Tussock Grasslands: A Test of Alternative Models of Succession

Post-Fire Changes in Community Structure of Tall Tussock Grasslands: A Test of Alternative Models of Succession

Long‐term effects of defoliation: incomplete recovery of a New Zealand alpine tussock grass, Chionochloa pallens, after 20 years

Associations Between Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidea) and Plants, and Conservation Values in Two Tussock Grasslands, Otago, New Zealand

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