The role of landuse and natural determinants for grassland vegetation composition in the Swiss Alps

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

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2007.08.005

Cited by 64 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…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%

“…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%

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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%

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

et al. 2011

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“…Some authors, however, suggested that such preferential data can be applied for testing ecological hypotheses if appropriate statistical tools are used and the results are carefully interpreted considering the preferences of data collectors [25][26][27]. Generally, ecologists follow the principles of the probability theory and apply random sampling to study interactions between vegetation and environment [28][29][30]. Systematic sampling is also often applied in ecological investigations, particularly in analyses of spatial vegetation changes along environmental gradients [31,32], although this method does not guarantee the total independence of observations [33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A performance comparison of sampling methods in the assessment of species composition patterns and environment–vegetation relationships in species-rich grasslands

et al. 2017

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The influence that different sampling methods have on the results and the interpretation of vegetation analysis has been much debated, but little is yet known about how the spatial arrangement of samples affect patterns of species composition and environment-vegetation relationships within the same vegetation type. We compared three data sets of the same sample size obtained by three standard sampling methods: preferential, random, and systematic. These different sampling methods were applied to a study area comprising of 36 ha of intermittently wet Molinia meadows. We compared the performance of the three methods under two management categories: managed (extensively mown) and unmanaged (abandoned for 10 years). A total of 285 vegetation-plots were sampled, with 95 plots recorded per sampling method. In preferential sampling, we sampled only patches of vegetation with an abundance of indicator species of the habitat type, while random and systematic plots were positioned independently from the researcher by using GIS. The effect of each sampling method on the patterns of species composition and species-environment relationships was explored by redundancy analysis and the significance of effects was tested by the randomization test. Preferential sampling revealed different patterns of species composition than random and systematic sampling methods. Random and systematic sampling methods have resulted in broader vegetation variability than with preferential sampling method. Preferential sampling revealed different relationship between soil parameters and species composition in contrast to random and systematic sampling methods. Although we have not found significant differences in vegetation-environment relationships between random and systematic sampling methods, random sampling revealed a more robust correlation of species data to soil factors than preferential and systematic sampling methods. Intentional restriction of vegetation variation sampled preferentially may be detrimental to statistical inference in studies of species composition patterns and vegetation-environment relationships.

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“…It is reported from several studies (e.g. Rudmann-Maurer et al 2008;Wittig et al 2010), that low intensity grazing and also hay harvesting seem to be a beneficial conservation alternative for grassland.…”

Section: Discussion Of Types Of Agricultural Land Use Patterns and Dymentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing Data of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) to Detect Patterns of Agricultural Land-Use Change at Municipality Level

Lüker-Jans

Simmering²,

Otte

2016

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European landscapes have featured considerable changes towards intensification and marginalisation. These major trends are expected to continue in the future. Besides, the cultivation of bioenergy crops has become an important factor in agricultural land use. A thorough understanding of land-use processes for management purposes is needed. In this study, the spatial and temporal pattern of agricultural land use and land-use change was classified at the scale of municipalities from 2005 to 2010. The study region was the German federal state Hesse. By using data of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) of the European Union and with the help of k-means cluster analysis, five types of agricultural land-use patterns and dynamics (TLPDs) were detected. These TLPDs represent different sub-regions. Sub-regions with favourable physical conditions for cultivation are dominated by arable land. A progressive land-use change occurred by conversion of grassland to arable land. In sub-regions, where physical conditions are rather unfavourable, especially in mountainous areas, grassland is the predominant land use. But on the remaining arable land, there is a slight change in favour of maize. The knowledge of sub-regions with spatially and temporally different agricultural land use could be utilised to develop land management instruments like site-specific agri-environmental schemes.

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The role of landuse and natural determinants for grassland vegetation composition in the Swiss Alps

Cited by 64 publications

References 14 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

A performance comparison of sampling methods in the assessment of species composition patterns and environment–vegetation relationships in species-rich grasslands

Analysing Data of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) to Detect Patterns of Agricultural Land-Use Change at Municipality Level

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