Small‐scale plant mobility in a species‐rich grassland

Abstract

Abstract. Plant mobility was studied in a species‐rich grassland in S. Moravia (Czech Republic) at scales from 0.0025 to 2.25 m2. Cumulative species numbers, cumulative species frequencies and the distribution of distances between sites of occurrence in particular years were established using data collected from 1991 to 1997. The observed values were compared with null models of completely random and restricted random movement of the plants. Most plants persisted at a spot more frequently than expected from the completely random model and with a few exceptions they also spread to neighbouring subplots more often than expected. Cumulative species numbers were between the ranges predicted by the two random models and increased linearly during the 7‐yr period at all scales, indicating a large species pool. The role of clonal spreading and of generative reproduction depended on the growth form of the species. I conclude that a high species richness is not necessarily linked with a high plant mobility, even if coexistence of plant species may be promoted by plant mobility.

How fast is the carousel? Direct indices of species mobility with examples from an Oklahoma grassland

“…Such studies have been particularly profuse in recent years (e.g. Rusch & van der Maarel 1992;Herben et al 1993aHerben et al , b, 1995van der Maarel & Sykes 1993Økland 1994a, b, 1995Pärtel & Zobel 1995;Zhang & Skarpe 1995;Geißelbrecht-Taferner et al 1997;Klimeš 1999). However, the development of a general model of fine-scale dynamics is hindered by the confusion of terms and indices that have been used to estimate the degree of mobility.…”

“…For example, van der Maarel & Sykes (1997) proposed that a useful method to explore differences in mobility between species was the degree of departure from a simulated random pattern of colonization (it was more a simulated random rearrangement of occurrences). Some species will colonize vacant space in a manner close to random whereas others will have a tendency to colonize open space in an aggregated manner (van der Maarel & Sykes 1997;Klimeš 1999). Although related to the dynamics of space occupation, the degree of aggregation by which a species colonizes new space provides only an indirect estimation of a species tendency to shift positions.…”

“…A series of studies have explicitly addressed how vegetation dynamics vary with spatial scale (Herben et al 1993b(Herben et al , 1995Økland 1994a, 1995Pärtel & Zobel 1995;Zhang & Skarpe 1995;Klimeš 1999). Generally, there is a tendency for space-use dynamics to be slower at broad compared to fine scales (Herben et al 1993b;Zhang & Skarpe 1995;Morgan 1998).…”

“…We accept the definition of Fowler & Fowler (1946) that to be mobile is to 'shift positions readily'. Examples of these terms/indices are: 'persistence' (Herben et al 1993a;Økland 1994a, 1995 'turnover' (Rusch & van der Maarel 1992;Milberg & Hansson 1993;Pärtel & Zobel 1995), 'cumulative frequency' (Sykes et al 1994;van der Maarel & Sykes 1993Klimeš 1999), 'constancy' (Geißelbrecht-Taferner et al 1997), 'mobility rate ' (van der Maarel & Sykes 1997). Others are meant to provide an overall estimate of the dynamics of the community, e.g.…”

Species-area relationship within and across functional groups at alpine grasslands on the northern Tibetan Plateau, China

“…Lazarina et al (2013) implied that the observed variations in SAR are correlated with beta diversity because they reflect the differentiation of species composition among habitats. The roles of clonal spreading and of generative reproduction depend on the growth form of the species (Klimeš 1999). A strong dominant species affects the shape of SAR curve through indirect controls over the internal environment and the structure of plant communities (Rejmének and Rosén 1992;Singh et al 1996).…”