Humped-back shaped response of plant species richness to increasing shrub encroachment in calcareous grasslands
2015
Kesting, S. | Petersen, Ute | Isselstein, Johannes
In the present study we examined the effect of shrub encroachment in temperate semi-natural grasslands on plant species diversity. We tested the hypothesis that an initial shrub encroachment leads to enhanced habitat heterogeneity and thereby to a higher diversity. In a calcareous grassland near Göttingen (Germany) we analysed the effect of shrub encroachment on the species richness in 30 100m2-sized plots each with 10 1m2-sized subplots. The 30 main plots belonged to six different shrub encroachment classes. A descriptive correlative gradient analysis of shrub invaded grasslands and their species number of flowering plants was performed. Within the 30 plots of different shrub encroachment a total of 203 plant species were recorded. The mean alpha1-diversity (level of subplots), mean alpha2-diversity (level of plots) as well as the alpha3-diversity (different levels of shrub encroachment classes) have their highest values at medium shrub invaded sites. This finding is in line with our hypothesis of a hump-back relation between shrub encroachment and species richness, and can be explained by the increased habitat heterogeneity. However, Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) emphasized the importance of the present vegetation composition for species richness. The dominance of highly competitive, clonal-growing grass species is accompanied by low diversity swards with a lower facilitation of shrub establishment. Species accumulation curves highlight the benefit of shrub encroachment for gamma-(landscape-) diversity. This result emphasises the importance of habitat heterogeneity on biodiversity and, therefore, on nature conservation.
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Publisher Springer Nature
ISSN 1585-8553This bibliographic record has been provided by Thünen-Institut