Diversity and productivity

15 important questions on Diversity and productivity

What are the differences between grassland types?

- Calcareous
- Wet meadows
- Hay meadows

What are calcareous grasslands?

Dry grassland on base-rich soils
Limestone dating back to the cretaceous close to the surface (auge 100 mln years)
- Extremely species rich
- Sheep grazing (and mowing)
- Producitvity limited by p availability

What is glanshaverhooiland/ arrhenatherion?

- Hay meadows on relatively fertile moist to slighlt dry soils on clay, loss and loamy sand
- Mostly calcareous, basic soils, but also weakly acidid
- Relatively broad range in productivity
- Mild grazing only in early spring and late autumn (in between 1 or 3 hay cuts)
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What is blauwgrasland/fen meadow/ junco-molinion?

- Wet, winter flooded hay meadows on weakly acidid to neutroal soils on sand and peat
- Productivity limited by P availability
- Dependent upon seepage on sandy soils and occasional flooding by rivers and streams on peat soils
- Only 30 ha left in the netherlands

What is the species pool?

- On aregional scale, the species pool is important
- Driven by evolution
- Habitat availability to meet an individual's needs and dispersal limitation also play a role
- Environmental filtering of species gives the regional species pool

What can be environmental filters?

- Productivity (fertility)
- Hydrology
- pH

What happens during a low pH?

Calcifuge species (needs low pH). Ammonium als dominant N source. Resist high levels of Al3+

What happens during a high pH?

- Calicole species (need high pH)
- Nitrate
- Sensitive to Al toxicity
- Exretion of specific organic acids to solubulize P and Fe in limestone

What are local interactions?

- Competition
- Trophic interactions
- Symbiosis

What are trophic interactions?

Interactions between produces and consumers

What is exploitation competition?

Competition for limiting resources in which the resource consumed or intercepted by one individual is no longer avaliable to a second individual, thereby decreasing its fitness.

What is a resource?

Something that may be consumed by one individual so that it is no longer available to another individual; nitrogen, p, k, micronutrients, water, light, co2

What is the role of management in influencing species richnes?

-Control productivity (mowing and remiving/grazing/sod cutting)
- Stop succession towards forest (mowing/grazing)
- Regulate pH (sod cutting, liming)
- Maintain or restore hydrology
- Facilliate dispersal (EHS, grazing, mowing and spreading of ripe seeds)

What are the main threats to species-rich grasslands?

- Habitat loss
- Fragmentation (dispersal)
- Habitat quality (abiotic conditions)
- Eutrophication
- Nitrogen deposition
- Acidification
- Sulfate deposition (acid rain)
- Los of buffers
- Dessication (hydrology)
- Climate change

What is the complementarity effect?

Greater species numbers utilize the available resources more completely

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