Influence of Soil Heterogeneity on the Coexistence of Grassland Species

Abstract

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The intimacy between sexual traits and Grime’s CSR strategies for orchids coexisting in semi-natural calcareous grassland at the Olive Lawn

“…Subordinate species exhibited a much broader range of strategies and were either randomly dispersed or only slightly aggregated, suggesting that they occupied the physical spaces between genets of dominant species. Fine-scale environmental heterogeneity is generally accepted as significant to coexistence in grassland communities (Fitter 1982;Reynolds et al 1997;Fridley et al 2011), and thus the observation in the present study of heterogeneity in primary strategies provides a potential link between the adaptations of each species and their position within a mosaic of potential microsites and the plant community.…”

Microsite and herbaceous vegetation heterogeneity after burning Artemisia tridentata steppe

“…The impacts of Wre on the heterogeneity of soil resources may have signiWcant implications for community assembly and diversity. Plant diversity is positively correlated with soil heterogeneity (Fritter 1982;Rusch and Fernandez-Palacios 1995;Inouye and Tilman 1995), because resource heterogeneity promotes coexistence of plant species that suYciently partition resources (Fritter 1982;Pacala and Tilman 1994). This suggests resource heterogeneity may exert a strong inXuence over the rate and direction of community assembly following disturbance (Baer et al 2004).…”

Spatial variability on slopes of Mediterranean grasslands: structural discontinuities in strongly contrasting topographic gradients

“…However, this general scheme is probably too simplistic, since many environmental factors play an important role in the distribution of plant species in grasslands (Hall 1971;Fitter 1982). The sedimentation sector is especially controversial.…”