Separating the chance effect from other diversity effects in the functioning of plant communities

Abstract

Separating the chance effect from other diversity effects in the functioning of plant communitiesLeps, J; Brown, VK; Len, TAD; Gormsen, Dagmar; Hedlund, Katarina; Kailova, J; Korthals, GW; Mortimer, SR; Rodriguez-Barrueco, C; Roy, J; Regina, IS; van Dijk, C; van der Putten, WH Published in: Oikos DOI: 10.1034/j. 1600-0706.2001.920115.x 2001 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Leps, J., Brown, VK., Len, TAD., Gormsen, D., Hedlund, K., Kailova, J., ... van der Putten, WH. (2001). Separating the chance effect from other diversity effects in the functioning of plant communities. Oikos, 92(1), 123-134. https://doi.org/10.1034/j. 1600-0706.2001.920115.x General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. The effect of plant species diversity on productivity and competitive ability was studied in an experiment carried out simultaneously in five European countries: Czech Republic (CZ), the Netherlands (NL), Sweden (SE), Spain (SP), and United Kingdom (UK). The aim was to separate the 'chance' or 'sampling effect' (increasing the number of sown species increases the probability that a species able 'to do a job' will be included) from the complementarity effect (species-rich communities are better able to exploit resources and to take care of ecosystem functions than species-poor communities). In the experiment, low diversity (LD) and high diversity (HD) mixtures of grassland species were sown into fields taken out of arable cultivation. The HD mixture consisted of five grass species, five legumes and five other forbs. The LD mixtures consisted of two grasses, one legume and one other forb, with different plant species combinations in each replicate block. The design of the experiment was constructed in such a way that the total number of seeds of each species over all the replications was exactly the same in HD and LD treatments, and the total number of grass seeds, leguminous seeds and other forb seeds were the same in both LD and HD. The responses measured were the total above-ground biomass (as a measure of productivity) and the average number of naturally establishing species in a plot (as a measure of the competitive ability of the mixture), both measured in the third year of the experiment. The results show that, on average, the HD plots performed better (i...

Non-Native Plants Disrupt Dual Promotion of Native Alpha and Beta Diversity

“…Therefore, although we have focused on patterns of diversity in this study, the multiscale effects of non-native species we have described here may have broader implications for ecosystem functioning, affecting productivity, decomposition, and nutrient cycling (Van der Putten et al 2000;Lepš et al 2001).…”

“…Not all local communities are randomly assembled, however (Götzenberger et al 2012;Rajaniemi et al 2012). Some species may modify local habitat conditions upon arrival, and consequently influence the kind of species that can subsequently establish, facilitating some species with certain ecological traits, while inhibiting others with other traits (Weiher and Keddy 1995;Grime 1998;Lepš et al 2001;Fukami et al 2005). If so, local communities that vary stochastically in the timing of the arrival of key species can diverge in species composition, resulting in higher beta diversity than expected solely from environmental filtering and otherwise random assembly (Chase 2010).…”

Restoration of Biodiversity and Ecosystem

“…This lack of a clear relationship between species richness and biomass production in a experimental grasslands (Leps et al, 2001) was also demonstrated by the lack of consistent differences between plots sown with low or high numbers of grassland species. The variance in the species composition between the different replicates of the Low diversity plots, as a consequence of their lower diversity, resulted in highly variable productivity.…”

“…At local and regional scales, land use changes are among the most immediate drivers of species diversity. Intensification of land use, especially the conversion of natural ecosystems into agro-ecosystems is supposed to both change the composition and reduce the diversity of biological communities Leps et al, 2001). Therefore, one of the possibilities to counteract the current loss of biodiversity may be to reduce the intensity of land use (in the case of grassland), as well as to abandon cultivated land (in case of arable land).…”

Impact of Weed Management Practices on Grapevine Growth, Yield Components, Plant and Arthropod Abundance, and Carabid Seed Predation in Paso Robles Vineyard

“…However, the cover crop, which introduced ten plant species to the system, had the same richness than the control. Thus, it seems that increasing plant species richness changed the structure of the native weed community by suppressing several species (Leps et al, 2001). Drought is believed to be partially responsible for the notable decline in plant species richness and density in 2007, year in which rainfall represented 29% of the previous year.…”