TY - JOUR

T1 - Sowing different mixtures in dry acidic grassland produced priority effects of varying strength

AU - Plückers, Christine

AU - Rascher, Uwe

AU - Scharr, Hanno

AU - Von Gillhaussen, Philipp

AU - Beierkuhnlein, Carl

AU - Temperton, Victoria Martine

PY - 2013/11

Y1 - 2013/11

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Community assembly

KW - Filter theory

KW - Initial sowing

KW - Invasion

KW - Microsite limitation

KW - Restoration

KW - Biology

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84887214724&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.actao.2013.09.004

DO - 10.1016/j.actao.2013.09.004

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84887214724

VL - 53

SP - 110

EP - 116

JO - Acta Oecologica

JF - Acta Oecologica

SN - 1146-609X

ER -