Ecological and genetic correlates of long-term population trends in the park grass experiment

The American Naturalist
J SilvertownPeter Lutman

Abstract

The Park Grass Experiment (PGE) is the longest-observed set of experimental plant communities in existence. Although the gross composition of the vegetation was at equilibrium over the 60-yr period from 1920 to 1979, annual records show that individual species exhibited a range of dynamics. We tested two hypotheses to explain why some species initially increased and why subsequently some of these (the outbreak species) decreased again. The study was designed around eight phylogenetically independent contrasts (PICs), each containing related species with different dynamics. Our first hypothesis was that persistent increasers and outbreakers have higher intrinsic rates of natural increase than control species (species without trends), allowing them to spread when interspecific competition is reduced by drought. This was tested by measuring establishment and seed production of species in field experiments, with and without interspecific competition. Seed production in outbreak species responded more strongly to release from interspecific competition than it did in either of the other groups of species. Our second hypothesis was that outbreak species eventually declined because they lacked the genetic variation necessary to adapt t...Continue Reading

References

May 1, 1990·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·W D HamiltonR Tanese

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Citations

Jul 5, 2006·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Boris Igic, Joshua R Kohn
Apr 11, 2012·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Andrew R RaduskiBoris Igić

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