Local density effects on individual production are dynamic: insights from natural stands of a perennial savanna grass

Oecologia
Julia ZimmermannAnja Linstädter

Abstract

Perennial grasses are a dominant component of grasslands, and provide important ecosystem services. However, most knowledge of grasslands' functioning and production comes from plot-level studies, and drivers of individual-level production remain poorly explored. Extrapolation from existing experiments is hampered by the fact that these are mostly concentrated on even-aged cohorts, and/or on the early stages of a plant's life cycle. Here we explored how local density regulates individual production in mono-specific natural grassland, focusing on adult individuals of a perennial savanna grass (Stipagrostis uniplumis). We found individual production to increase with individuals' size, but to decrease with neighbour abundance. A metric of neighbour abundance that considered size was superior to a metric based solely on the number of individuals. This finding is particularly important for studying competitive effects in natural populations, where plants are normally not even-sized. The inferred competition kernel, i.e. the function describing how competitive strength varies with spatial distance from a target plant, was hump-shaped, indicating strongest intraspecific competition at intermediate distances (10-30 cm). The spatial sig...Continue Reading

References

Nov 3, 2007·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Birgit MüllerChristian Wissel
Nov 1, 1990·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·J Weiner
Aug 21, 2013·Journal of Theoretical Biology·Olof LeimarUlf Dieckmann
Apr 30, 2014·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Santiago SoliveresFernando T Maestre

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