The microdistribution of diploid and tetraploid plants of Dactylis glomerata L. was examined and related to their immediate environment in several sites in central Galicia, where morphologically indistinguishable individuals of both ploidies grow in sympatry. The two related cytotypes differed in habitat preference. Diploids were mainly confined to the low-density forest-floor habitat in woodlands of mostly ancient origin, whereas tetraploids were widespread in varied habitats but clearly predominant in open areas, particularly in disturbed anthropic sites. The in situ comparison of plant performance showed that where plants of each ploidy were more common they produced more tillers, panicles and seeds. This habitat preference closely reflected differences in life-history characteristics. The tetraploids had an early and short flowering time almost always completed before the aestival drought, whereas the diploids began to flower several weeks later and flowered throughout the drought. Comparisons along artificial gradients of soil water availability and light transmittance indicated that the cytotypes had distinct physiological requirements which probably originated in metabolic and more general genetic differentiation and could be directly attributable to ploidy. Habitat differentiation increases the species' colonizing ability. It also amplifies divergence in reproductive strategy between diploids and tetraploids, which reduces ineffective crossing between cytotypes and thereby permits them to coexist in sympatry. The effect of hybridization at the polyploid level on the differentiation between cytotypes was assessed from the recent introduction of a foreign tetraploid entity into the study area. Hybridization between the two distinct tetraploids was found to increase habitat differentiation between the diploids and the tetraploids, but the major part of this differentiation is probably attributable to ploidy itself.

Specific leaf area (the ratio of leaf area to leaf dry mass) and leaf nitrogen concentration were measured on ten annual and nine perennial grass species growing in two old-fields of southern France, under a sub-humid Mediterranean climate. Specific leaf area (SLA) was found to be significantly higher in annuals than in perennials, but leaf nitrogen concentration expressed on a dry mass basis (LNC) was similar in both life-forms; expressed on an area basis, leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC) was significantly higher in perennials. The correlation between SLA and LNC was negative in annuals and positive in perennials, while that between the inverse of specific leaf area (1/SLA) and LNC was positive in annuals and not significant in perennials. It is hypothesized that these contrasting patterns depend on whether the two components of SLA - leaf thickness and density - vary in opposite directions. For nine of the species studied (six annuals and three perennials), relative growth rate data obtained in the laboratory under non-limiting nutrient supply were available; positive correlations were found between these values and both SLA and LNC obtained in the field, suggesting that the interspecific differences in structural and chemical characteristics of leaves are maintained under a wide range of growing conditions.

We studied the effects of a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentration on intact monoliths of Mediterranean grassland in growth chambers where climatic field conditions were simulated. During the six month growing season, changes in community structure were monitored by quantifying species richness and cover. The CO2 exchange of microcosms was measured continuously and the resulting quantity and quality of biomass were evaluated. Species richness and cover did not respond to elevated CO2. After one month of treatment, CO2 exchange measured during the day did not differ between CO2 levels but the night respiration was two‐fold higher under elevated CO2. Stimulations of both day and night CO2 flux by short‐term CO2 enrichment were recorded several times during the growing season. These results suggest that despite some downward adjustment of photosynthesis, net canopy photosynthesis was stimulated by elevated CO2, but this stimulation was compensated for by an increased respiration. The 20% stimulation of final phytomass under elevated CO2 was not significant: it resulted from unchanged live plant matter but a significant, 100% increase in litter accumulation. These results suggest that in low‐productivity Mediterranean herbaceous systems, the greatest effect of CO2 is not on the storage of carbon in biomass but on the turnover of the carbon in the plants.

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