Plant traits and functional types in response to reduced disturbance in a semi-natural grassland.
2005
Louault, Frédérique | Pillar, V.D. | Aufrere, Jocelyne, J. | Garnier, Éric | Soussana, Jean-François, J.-F. | Unité de recherche Agronomie de Clermont (URAC) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) | Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul [Porto Alegre] (UFRGS) | Unité de Recherches sur les Herbivores (URH) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) | Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE) ; Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) ; Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [Occitanie])-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro)
International audience
Mostrar más [+] Menos [-]Inglés. Question: How do functional types respond to contrasting levels of herbage use in temperate and fertile grasslands? Location: Central France (3 degrees 1' E, 45 degrees 43' N), 870 m a.s.l. Methods: Community structure and the traits of dominant plant species were evaluated after 12 years of contrasted grazing and mowing regimes in a grazing trial, comparing three levels of herbage use (high, medium and low). Results and Conclusions: Of 22 measured traits (including leaf traits, shoot morphology and composition, phenology), seven were significantly affected by the herbage use treatment. A decline in herbage use reduced individual leaf mass, specific leaf area and shoot digestibility, but increased leaf C and dry matter contents. Plants were taller, produced larger seeds and flowered later under low than high herbage use. Nine plant functional response types were identified by multivariate optimization analysis; they were based on four optimal traits: leaf dry matter content, individual leaf area, mature plant height and time of flowering. In the high-use plots, two short and early flowering types were co-dominant, one competitive. grazing-tolerant and moderately grazing-avoiding, and one grazing-avoiding but not -tolerant. Low-use plots were dominated by one type, neither hardly grazing-avoiding C 0 nor grazing-tolerant, but strongly competitive for light.
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