A Comparison of Plant Responses to the Extreme Drought of 1995 in Northern England

Buckland, Sarah M.; Grime, J. Philip; Hodgson, J.; Thompson, Ken

doi:10.2307/2960608

Cited by 76 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Yet, despite the ecosystem significance of recurrent summer drought, compositional changes induced by recurrent drought have increased only marginally through time and have not produced large changes in vegetation structure. In general, soil moisture gradients in these grasslands more strongly influence local abundance than community membership (24), which further attests to the ability of these communities to persist in their basic structure while still exhibiting fine adjustment to natural rainfall patterns (25). Indeed, most evidence suggests that, since forest clearance, these grasslands have persisted in their basic form and composition over several centuries through periods of considerable climate variation (26, 27).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term resistance to simulated climate change in an infertile grassland

Grime¹,

Fridley

Askew³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

274

259

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Climate shifts over this century are widely expected to alter the structure and functioning of temperate plant communities. However, long-term climate experiments in natural vegetation are rare and largely confined to systems with the capacity for rapid compositional change. In unproductive, grazed grassland at Buxton in northern England (U.K.), one of the longest running experimental manipulations of temperature and rainfall reveals vegetation highly resistant to climate shifts maintained over 13 yr. Here we document this resistance in the form of: (i) constancy in the relative abundance of growth forms and maintained dominance by longlived, slow-growing grasses, sedges, and small forbs; (ii) immediate but minor shifts in the abundance of several species that have remained stable over the course of the experiment; (iii) no change in productivity in response to climate treatments with the exception of reduction from chronic summer drought; and (iv) only minor species losses in response to drought and winter heating. Overall, compositional changes induced by 13-yr exposure to climate regime change were less than short-term fluctuations in species abundances driven by interannual climate fluctuations. The lack of progressive compositional change, coupled with the long-term historical persistence of unproductive grasslands in northern England, suggests the community at Buxton possesses a stabilizing capacity that leads to long-term persistence of dominant species. Unproductive ecosystems provide a refuge for many threatened plants and animals and perform a diversity of ecosystem services. Our results support the view that changing land use and overexploitation rather than climate change per se constitute the primary threats to these fragile ecosystems.calcareous grassland ͉ climate manipulation ͉ global change ͉ multivariate analysis ͉ vegetation

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term resistance to simulated climate change in an infertile grassland

Grime¹,

Fridley

Askew³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

274

259

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“…2000). The importance of water limitation in freedraining chalk soils has also been noted; extreme summer drought events suppress dominant plant species and 'reset' plant distributions (Hopkins 1978;Watt 1981;Buckland et al . 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of slope and aspect on long‐term vegetation change in British chalk grasslands

Bennie¹,

Hill²,

Baxter³

et al. 2006

Journal of Ecology

299

232

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Summary 1The species composition of fragmented semi-natural grasslands may change over time due to stochastic local extinction and colonization events, successional change and/or as a response to changing management or abiotic conditions. The resistance of vegetation to change may be mediated through the effects of topography (slope and aspect) on soils and microclimate. 2 To assess long-term vegetation change in British chalk grasslands, 92 plots first surveyed by F. H. Perring in 1952-53, and distributed across four climatic regions, were re-surveyed during 2001-03. Changes in vegetation since the original survey were assessed by comparing local colonization and extinction rates at the plot scale, and changes in species frequency at the subplot scale. Vegetation change was quantified using indirect ordination (Detrended Correspondence Analysis; DCA) and Ellenberg indicator values. 3 Across all four regions, there was a significant decrease in species number and a marked decline in stress-tolerant species typical of species-rich calcareous grasslands, both in terms of decreased plot occupancy and decreased frequency within occupied plots. More competitive species typical of mesotrophic grasslands had colonized plots they had not previously occupied, but had not increased significantly in frequency within occupied plots. 4 A significant increase in Ellenberg fertility values, which was highly correlated with the first DCA axis, was found across all regions. The magnitude of change of fertility and moisture values was found to decrease with angle of slope and with a topographic solar radiation index derived from slope and aspect. 5 The observed shift from calcareous grassland towards more mesotrophic grassland communities is consistent with the predicted effects of both habitat fragmentation and nutrient enrichment. It is hypothesized that chalk grassland swards on steeply sloping ground are more resistant to invasion by competitive grass species than those on flatter sites due to phosphorus limitation in shallow minerogenic rendzina soils, and that those with a southerly aspect are more resistant due to increased magnitude and frequency of drought events.

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“…2006) and the ecosystem services that they provide (Walker et al 1999;Kremen 2005). Unfortunately, ECEs are difficult to study within a pre-planned experimental and statistical framework (Buckland et al 1997), and so little or no information exists on the responsiveness of most plant communities to ECEs of varying severity. However, a range of studies provide insight into the dramatic and persistent impacts of prolonged abiotic stress on plant community composition and structure.…”

Section: Demographic Change and Plant Mortalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Variation in soil moisture occurs at a range of spatial scales (Buckland et al 1997;Gitlin et al 2006;Dobrowski 2011;Godfree et al 2011), and because plant mortality is non-linearly related to soil moisture content, microscale variation in water availability can critically influence plant survival under extreme drought (Godfree et al 2011). At larger spatial scales, hydrological variation and the frequency of soil drought is a key driver of species assortment and community composition (Oberbauer & Billings 1981;Buckland et al 1997;Yurkonis & Meiners 2006), a process which reflects variation in the ability of species to recover from drought (e.g., Tilman & El Haddi 1992;Stampfli & Zieter 2004) as much, or more, than tolerance of drought itself (Gutschick & BassiriRad 2003).…”

Section: Community Composition and Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme Climatic Events as Drivers of Ecosystem Change

Godfree¹

2012

Diversity of Ecosystems

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A Comparison of Plant Responses to the Extreme Drought of 1995 in Northern England

Cited by 76 publications

References 12 publications

Long-term resistance to simulated climate change in an infertile grassland

Long-term resistance to simulated climate change in an infertile grassland

Influence of slope and aspect on long‐term vegetation change in British chalk grasslands

Extreme Climatic Events as Drivers of Ecosystem Change

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