Old cultural traditions, in addition to land use and topography, are shaping plant diversity of grasslands in the Alps

Maurer, Katrin; Weyand, Anne; Fischer, Markus; Stöcklin, Jürg

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2006.01.005

Cited by 152 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…As measure of landscape diversity in a village, we used the mean number of different land use types per village (Maurer et al 2006;Fischer et al 2008). As measure of plant species diversity, we used the mean number of plant species of two vegetation records per site (Maurer et al 2006;Rudmann-Maurer et al 2008 We also harvested reproductive biomass of each plant for 2 years.…”

Section: Plant Materials and Its Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the valleys of Romanic regions, more diverse types of land use are still found than in the valleys of the other cultural traditions (Maurer et al 2006). If plants disperse between differently used grassland sites, the higher land use diversity in Romanic regions may suggest that not only microsatellite variation (Maurer et al 2005;RudmannMaurer et al 2007) but also heritable genetic variation of P. alpina is higher in Romanic regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Swiss Alps, the old cultural traditions Romanic, Germanic, and Walser, as well as recent land use changes affect vegetation diversity and composition (Maurer et al 2006;Rudmann-Maurer et al 2008). Land use changes are particularly important, as in the Alps human land use is undergoing large socio-economically motivated change (Bätzing 1991(Bätzing , 1993(Bätzing , 2003 involving both abandonment of land and intensification of agriculture (Olsson et al 2000;Fischer and Wipf 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To account for potential regional and cultural differences, we had selected four villages of each of the three main cultural traditions in the Swiss Alps, Romanic, Germanic, and Walser . The experiment also served for estimating broad-sense heritability of several vegetative and reproductive characters of P. alpina and to relate it to plant species diversity and microsatellite diversity of Poa alpina known for all sites from previous studies (Maurer et al 2005(Maurer et al , 2006Rudmann-Maurer et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As measure of plant species diversity, we used the mean number of plant species of two vegetation records per site (Maurer et al 2006;Rudmann-Maurer et al 2008 We also harvested reproductive biomass of each plant for 2 years. In 2003, we harvested monthly from July to October.…”

Section: Plant Materials and Its Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Section: Plant Materials and Its Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plant Materials and Its Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2011

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Multiple‐Level Governance is Needed in the Social‐Ecological System of Alpine Cultural Landscapes

Scolozzi

Soane²,

Gretter

2014

Scale‐sensitive Governance of the Environment

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Reintroduction of the endangered and endemic plant species Cochlearia bavarica—Implications from conservation genetics

Kaulfuß

Reisch

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Population reintroduction is a common practice in conservation, but often fails, also due to the effects of inbreeding or outbreeding depression. Cochlearia bavarica is a strongly endangered plant species endemic to Bavaria in Germany, constantly declining since the late 1980s. Therefore, population reintroduction is intended. In this study, we analyzed genetic diversity within and genetic differentiation between all 32 remnant populations of the species in Swabia and Upper Bavaria using amplified fragment length polymorphisms. Our aim was to increase reintroduction success by providing data to avoid negative effects of inbreeding and outbreeding and to preserve the natural genetic pattern of the species. Genetic diversity within populations was low but similar to other rare and endemic species and varied strongly between populations but did not depend on population size. Our analysis revealed a strong geographic pattern of genetic variation. Genetic differentiation was strongest between Swabia and Upper Bavaria and at the population level, whereas differentiation between subpopulations was comparatively low. Isolation by distance and genetic differentiation was stronger among populations from Upper Bavaria than from Swabia. From the results of our study, we derived recommendations for a successful reintroduction of the species. We suggest using rather genetically variable than large populations as reintroduction sources. Moreover, the exchange of plant material between Swabia and Upper Bavaria should be completely avoided. Within these regions, plant material from genetically similar populations should preferably be used for reintroduction, whereas the exchange among subpopulations seems to be possible without a negative impact on genetic variation due to natural gene flow.

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Old cultural traditions, in addition to land use and topography, are shaping plant diversity of grasslands in the Alps

Cited by 152 publications

References 33 publications

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

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

Multiple‐Level Governance is Needed in the Social‐Ecological System of Alpine Cultural Landscapes

Reintroduction of the endangered and endemic plant species Cochlearia bavarica—Implications from conservation genetics

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