Land use affects flowering time: seasonal and genetic differentiation in the grassland plant Scabiosa columbaria

Reisch, Christoph; Poschlod, Peter

doi:10.1007/s10682-008-9270-4

Cited by 40 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…In our study, intensely grazed plant communities, furthermore, consisted of species with extended and variable flowering phenological traits. Flowering seasonality has been shown to change under land use, mowing regimes leading to earlier flowering onset, whilst grazing promoting later flowering species (Reisch & Poschlod, ). This can be explained by community composition, as high‐intensity mowing promotes plant communities dominated by early flowering graminoid species, whereas low‐intensity mowing or grazing predominantly promotes forbs with later flowering onsets and longer flowering durations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient stoichiometry and land use rather than species richness determine plant functional diversity

Busch

Klaus

Penone

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Plant functional traits reflect individual and community ecological strategies. They allow the detection of directional changes in community dynamics and ecosystemic processes, being an additional tool to assess biodiversity than species richness. Analysis of functional patterns in plant communities provides mechanistic insight into biodiversity alterations due to anthropogenic activity. Although studies have consi‐dered of either anthropogenic management or nutrient availability on functional traits in temperate grasslands, studies combining effects of both drivers are scarce. Here, we assessed the impacts of management intensity (fertilization, mowing, grazing), nutrient stoichiometry (C, N, P, K), and vegetation composition on community‐weighted means (CWMs) and functional diversity (Rao's Q) from seven plant traits in 150 grasslands in three regions in Germany, using data of 6 years. Land use and nutrient stoichiometry accounted for larger proportions of model variance of CWM and Rao's Q than species richness and productivity. Grazing affected all analyzed trait groups; fertilization and mowing only impacted generative traits. Grazing was clearly associated with nutrient retention strategies, that is, investing in durable structures and production of fewer, less variable seed. Phenological variability was increased. Fertilization and mowing decreased seed number/mass variability, indicating competition‐related effects. Impacts of nutrient stoichiometry on trait syndromes varied. Nutrient limitation (large N:P, C:N ratios) promoted species with conservative strategies, that is, investment in durable plant structures rather than fast growth, fewer seed, and delayed flowering onset. In contrast to seed mass, leaf‐economics variability was reduced under P shortage. Species diversity was positively associated with the variability of generative traits. Synthesis. Here, land use, nutrient availability, species richness, and plant functional strategies have been shown to interact complexly, driving community composition, and vegetation responses to management intensity. We suggest that deeper understanding of underlying mechanisms shaping community assembly and biodiversity will require analyzing all these parameters.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient stoichiometry and land use rather than species richness determine plant functional diversity

Busch

Klaus

Penone

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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“…) and may thus indirectly affect the movement behaviour of pollinators. In addition, grazing influences the number of flowering individuals as well as their flowering period through flower consumption, which again affects plant reproduction rates (Reisch & Poschlod ; Kloss et al . ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Directed dispersal by rotational shepherding supports landscape genetic connectivity in a calcareous grassland plant

et al. 2014

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Directed dispersal by animal vectors has been found to have large effects on the structure and dynamics of plant populations adapted to frugivory. Yet, empirical data are lacking on the potential of directed dispersal by rotational grazing of domestic animals to mediate gene flow across the landscape. Here, we investigated the potential effect of large-flock shepherding on landscape-scale genetic structure in the calcareous grassland plant Dianthus carthusianorum, whose seeds lack morphological adaptations to dispersal to animals or wind. We found a significant pattern of genetic structure differentiating population within grazed patches of three nonoverlapping shepherding systems and populations of ungrazed patches. Among ungrazed patches, we found a strong and significant effect of isolation by distance (r = 0.56). In contrast, genetic distance between grazed patches within the same herding system was unrelated to geographical distance but significantly related to distance along shepherding routes (r = 0.44). This latter effect of connectivity along shepherding routes suggests that gene flow is spatially restricted occurring mostly between adjacent populations. While this study used nuclear markers that integrate gene flow by pollen and seed, the significant difference in the genetic structure between ungrazed patches and patches connected by large-flock shepherding indicates the potential of directed seed dispersal by sheep across the landscape.

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“…They may well explain part of the association of P. alpina with grazed habitats. In a common garden study with Scabiosa columbaria, plants from populations from mown sites flowered earlier than populations from grazed ones (Reisch and Poschlod 2009) suggesting the avoidance of disturbance by management as potential selection pressure.…”

Section: Evidence For Adaptation Of Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Adaptation of Poa alpina to altitude and land use in the Swiss Alps

et al. 2011

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Current land use and climate change are prompting questions about the ability of plants to adapt to such environmental change. Therefore, we experimentally addressed plant performance and quantitative-genetic diversity of the common Alpine Meadow Grass Poa alpina. We asked how land use and altitude affect the occurrence of P. alpina in the field and whether its common-garden performance suggests adaptation to conditions at plant origin and differences in quantitative genetic diversity among plant origins. Among 216 candidate grassland sites of different land use and altitude from 12 villages in the Swiss Alps, P. alpina occurred preferentially in fertilized and grazed sites and at higher elevations. In a common garden at 1,500 m asl, we grew two plants of [600 genotypes representing 78 grassland sites. After 2 years, nearly 90% of all plants had reproduced. In agreement with adaptive advantages of vegetative reproduction at higher altitudes, only 23% of reproductive plants from lower altitudes reproduced via vegetative bulbils, but 55% of plants from higher altitudes. In agreement with adaptive advantages of reproduction in grazed sites, allocation to reproductive biomass was higher in plants from grazed grasslands than from mown ones. For 53 grasslands, we also investigated broad-sense heritability H 2 , which was significant for all studied traits and twice as high for grazed as for mown grasslands. Moreover, possibly associated with their higher landscape diversity, H 2 was higher for sites of villages of Romanic cultural tradition than for those of Germanic and Walser traditions. We suggest promoting diverse land use regimes to conserve not only landscape and plant species diversity, but also adaptive genetic differentiation and heritable genetic variation.

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Land use affects flowering time: seasonal and genetic differentiation in the grassland plant Scabiosa columbaria

Cited by 40 publications

References 48 publications

Nutrient stoichiometry and land use rather than species richness determine plant functional diversity

Nutrient stoichiometry and land use rather than species richness determine plant functional diversity

Directed dispersal by rotational shepherding supports landscape genetic connectivity in a calcareous grassland plant

Adaptation of Poa alpina to altitude and land use in the Swiss Alps

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