Sowing different mixtures in dry acidic grassland produced priority effects of varying strength

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Several longer-term assembly studies on ex-arable land have found that species that arrive first at a disturbed site can play a key role in the further development of the community and that this priority effect influences aboveground productivity, species diversity and stability of the grassland communities that develop. Restoration of nutrient poor, species rich grasslands is often limited by seed dispersal as well as the accessibility of suitable microsites for establishment. Sowing species (i.e. creating priority effects for further assembly) may help overcome such dispersal barriers, but the potential of using priority effects for restoration has not been tested in this type of dry grassland. We tested the hypothesis that sowing two different seed mixtures used for dry acidic grassland restoration onto a sandy substrate (which formed an equivalent to a primary succession) would create priority effects, and that these priority effects would be sustained over a number of years. We followed community assembly and measured aboveground productivity for four years after sowing. We found that priority effects caused by sowing of differently diverse mixtures did also occur in dry acidic grassland habitat, but that how persistent they were over time depended on the response variable considered. Priority effects on species number were not as strong as found in previous ex-arable land studies, whereas priority effects for aboveground productivity were still visible after 4 years. In addition, functional composition of the community still reflected the composition of the seed mixtures 4 years later. Our results suggest that priority effects can occur in nutrient-poor dry acidic grassland but in contrast to more nutrient-rich sites the breadth of responses affected may not be as wide.

Original languageEnglish
JournalActa Oecologica
Volume53
Pages (from-to)110-116
Number of pages7
ISSN1146-609X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11.2013
Externally publishedYes

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Wolfram Kawohl

Publications

  1. Legislating for Outer Space
  2. Key landscape features in the provision of ecosystem services
  3. Das AGG in der Beratungspraxis
  4. Briefe schreiben in der Sekundarstufe I
  5. Neighbour species richness and local structural variability modulate aboveground allocation patterns and crown morphology of individual trees
  6. TraceSim
  7. Defining value in sustainable business models
  8. Die Zeit nach E-Government
  9. Being perceived as a knowledge sender or knowledge receiver
  10. LivingCare - An autonomously learning, human centered home automation system
  11. Unfreiwillige Mitarbeit
  12. (S)training experiences
  13. Adaptive learning support as a key element of innovative teaching in Germany
  14. Nitrogen Addition Enhances Drought Sensitivity of Young Deciduous Tree Species
  15. Evaluation of a temporal causal model for predicting the mood of clients in an online therapy
  16. Conservatives are less accurate than liberals at recognizing false climate statements, and disinformation makes conservatives less discerning
  17. Effectiveness of a web-based intervention for injured claimants
  18. Motivation revisited
  19. What do we do with "other" music?
  20. UE4SD - University Educators for Sustainable Development
  21. Does outcome expectancy predict outcomes in online depression prevention? Secondary analysis of randomised-controlled trials
  22. Using gender theories to analyse nature resource management
  23. Quantifying ecosystem services of rewetted peatlands − the MoorFutures methodologies
  24. § 44 VwGO (Objektive Klagehäufung)
  25. On anisotropic tensile mechanical behavior of Al-Cu-Li AA2198 alloy under different ageing conditions
  26. Identification of the effective water availability from streamflows in the Zerafshan river basin, Central Asia