Spatial patterns in seed bank and vegetation of semi-natural mountain meadows

Reiné, R.; Chocarro, C.; Fillat, Federico

doi:10.1007/s11258-006-9119-2

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Bonet and Pausas 2004). The main dispersal strategies were derived from field observation, and the literature data (Valbuena 1995;Bonet and Pausas 2004;Gondard et al 2006;Reiné et al 2006). To simplify the analysis, where a species exhibited more than one dispersal strategy, only the main strategy was used.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional groups and dispersal strategies as guides for predicting vegetation dynamics on reclaimed mines

et al. 2011

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The development of species richness and plant cover through time are two important measures that are often used to assess success in land reclamation schemes. We expand this approach by considering functional groups in terms of life-history traits and dispersal strategies, as important components of ecosystem function and colonisation. Here, we test, if the species richness and cover of these functional groups are changed during post-treatment succession in 26 reclaimed coal mines, and whether these changes are related to selected soil variables (C:N, total N, and available P). Species richness showed a skewed unimodal response with time since reclamation, with a peak at 13 years. The richness of life-forms showed a clear dominance order starting with annuals, followed by perennial herbs and then woody species; whereas, when plant cover was considered, perennial herbs dominated the entire sequence. Dispersal strategies showed that anemochorous and zoochorous species were the most important groups. Soil variables were correlated with richness and cover of perennial herbs, woody species, and with anemochorous richness and zoochorous species cover. Our findings indicate that those species which respond during succession on reclaimed coal wastes are controlled in some part, by the attributes of functional groups, whereas the colonisation process is more dependent on seed sources from the local species pool than on soil properties. Our results also highlighted that the use of life-forms and dispersal strategy patterns improved the description and prediction of vegetation dynamics, and allowed us to identify successional stages better. We discussed the implication of these findings for future reclamation approaches in similar areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional groups and dispersal strategies as guides for predicting vegetation dynamics on reclaimed mines

et al. 2011

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“…It has been hypothesised that organisms surviving large-scale infrequent disturbances dictate much of the initial revegetation patterns . Species have been found to form long-term persistent seed banks in mountain meadows, while absent from the established vegetation (Reiné et al 2006). On the other hand, in the long run, these xeric species are expected to disappear from mesic grasslands because mesic species such as Festuca nigrescens seem to out-compete them (Sebastià 2004).…”

Section: Recolonization After Small and Large Disturbancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex vegetation responses to soil disturbances in mountain grassland

Sebastià

Puig

2008

Plant Ecol

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We studied vegetation responses to disturbances originated by ants and voles in subalpine grasslands in the Eastern Pyrenees. We compared the effects of these small-scale disturbances with those of a large-scale disturbance caused by ploughing. We wanted to know if these soil disturbances promoted species richness through the existence of a specific guild of plants colonizing these areas, and if this guild was the same for all soil disturbances, independently of their extent. In general, grassland vegetation seemed to recover relatively quickly from soil-displacement disturbances, and the effects could be scaled up in time and space in terms of species richness and composition. Vole mound composition was similar to that in the surrounding grassland, suggesting that mounds were rapidly colonized by the neighbouring vegetation. Vegetation composition differed between the grassland and the ant mounds. Grasses and erect dicots coped well with repeated disturbance, while rosette-forming species and sedges were very sensitive to it. Landscape processes could be important to understanding recolonization. Species from xeric grasslands were found in mesic grasslands when disturbed by ploughing and on the tops of active ant mounds. Furrows in mesic grasslands recovered well, but decades after disturbance showed long persistence of some xeric species and increased species richness compared to terraces, while xeric grasslands showed decreased richness. This suggests that, because of those disturbances, within-habitat diversity was increased, although landscape diversity was not. However, specific disturbances showed idiosyncratic effects, which could enhance the species richness globally. In ant-affected areas, the grassland itself showed the highest plant species richness, partially associated to the presence of some species with elaiosomes not, or only rarely, found in adjacent grasslands without ant mounds. Therefore, soil disturbances occurring at different spatial scales contributed to complexity in vegetation patterns in addition to abiotic factors and grazing.

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“…Such studies have demonstrated that soil seed banks tend to have aggregated distributions at fine spatial scales (e.g., Thompson 1986; but see Reiné et al 2006). While studies of forest soil seed banks in the context of stand-level disturbance are numerous (e.g., Morgan and Neuenschwander 1988;McGee and Feller 1993;Qi and Scarratt 1998;Lee 2004), beyond acknowledging the heterogeneity implicit in the large variances often associated with seed bank estimates (e.g., Morgan and Neuenschwander 1988;Qi and Scarratt 1998), coarse-scale heterogeneity in forest soil seed bank species composition has received little attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in soil seed bank species composition of a dry coniferous forest: spatial scale and sampling considerations

2007

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In order to assess the effects of disturbance on soil seed bank spatial structure, variation in seed bank species composition was analyzed at two spatial scales in mature (undisturbed) and recently disturbed stands of Interior Douglas-fir forest in south-central British Columbia. Coarse-scale analysis among stands 10-100 km apart using Multi-Response Permutation Procedures showed that individual mature stands were mainly characterized by unique seed bank species compositions. Disturbance had an homogenizing effect on seed bank species composition at the coarse scale--there was less variability among stands following disturbance by both low and high severity fires, and by non-salvage logging. In contrast, finer scale analysis among sampling units c. 10 m apart showed that heterogeneity in seed bank species composition was greater on severely burned and logged sites, commensurate with greater levels of soil disturbance, than on lightly burned and undisturbed sites. Despite the high intensity of seed bank sampling (sixty 25 cm 2 soil samples from each of 16 sites), species-area curves leveled off only when infrequent species were removed from the dataset. The number of seed bank samples required to account for the common species ranged from 84 on severely burned sites, to 196 on undisturbed sites; more than the 240 samples collected per disturbance class in this study would have been required to account for the remaining infrequent species. Overall, this study highlights the importance of sampling intensively within multiple stands to capture the variation in species composition inherent to these dry coniferous forest soil seed banks.

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Spatial patterns in seed bank and vegetation of semi-natural mountain meadows

Cited by 12 publications

References 24 publications

Functional groups and dispersal strategies as guides for predicting vegetation dynamics on reclaimed mines

Functional groups and dispersal strategies as guides for predicting vegetation dynamics on reclaimed mines

Complex vegetation responses to soil disturbances in mountain grassland

Variation in soil seed bank species composition of a dry coniferous forest: spatial scale and sampling considerations

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