PMID: 9419354Feb 21, 1998Paper

Biodiversity at the edge: a test of the importance of spatial "mass effects" in the Rothamsted Park Grass experiments

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
W E Kunin

Abstract

The coexistence of many plant species competing for a few resources is one of the central puzzles of community ecology. One explanation is that different species may be competitively superior in different microhabitats. Many species could then coexist within each piece of a mosaic landscape by what has been termed "mass effects," because subpopulations in areas with negative growth rates would be supplemented by propagules from areas with reproductive surpluses. If mass effects are important, plant species diversity should increase near habitat boundaries, especially where habitat differences are moderate. In the first experimental test of this prediction, plants were censused on 54 transects within the long-established Rothamsted Park Grass plots. Very few showed significant declines in species richness with distance from subplot boundaries. Nonetheless, the regression coefficients were negative much more often than expected by chance, suggesting that weak mass effects operated. The effect was strongest where neighboring subplots differed greatly, with no evidence of the predicted decline where differences were extreme. Detailed analyses of transects with apparent mass effects revealed few species that behaved as predicted. Th...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 20, 2012·Biology Letters·Thomas PommierDavid Mouillot
Jul 31, 2013·Journal of Insect Science·Stacey A SaraPaul V Switzer
Feb 25, 2005·The American Naturalist·M J CrawleyG R Edwards
Jan 30, 2007·Ecology Letters·Evan H Campbell GrantWilliam F Fagan
Jan 9, 2008·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Norman W H MasonChristine Argillier
Nov 23, 2010·Ecology Letters·Lenore FahrigJean-Louis Martin
Feb 26, 2010·The Journal of Animal Ecology·B L Brown, C M Swan
Apr 4, 2015·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Deepa SenapathiSimon G Potts
Nov 9, 2016·Marine Environmental Research·R S K Barnes
Sep 24, 2004·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Christopher C Gilbert
Jul 26, 2019·The Journal of Applied Ecology·Helen MetcalfeJonathan Storkey
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