Theme 1: Grassland Ecology
Description
Plants have developed remarkable functional variation over evolutionary time to cope with different environmental conditions. As a result, functional variation – measurable as functional traits above and below ground – can be found within but also among grassland communities today. The functional space covered by a community is thereby restricted by environmental factors while each single species within the community inhabits a specific niche with a certain breadth along different environmental gradients. Data from field sampling in European grasslands have shown, that species intraspecific functional variation can cover considerable amounts of possible functional spaces, hence holding the potential to establish under a wide range of conditions. But land use presents a strong filter restricting both functional space of the community and realized niches of the single species. Biodiversity restoration efforts in grasslands are numerous today but unfortunately in many cases not as successful in persistently enhancing biodiversity. I here propose a conceptual framework to predict restoration success in managed grasslands by utilizing functional ecology. I use the concept of the root economics space – with the collaboration and the conservation gradient - and the fast-slow leaf economic spectrum to define community functional spaces as well as species fundamental and realized niches. By integrating the effect of different land-use factors on the realized niches and communities shaped by environmental constraints, we can identify the potential functional biodiversity that can be restored by grassland management on a given site.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
Using Functional Ecology to Predict Restoration Success in Managed Grasslands
Plants have developed remarkable functional variation over evolutionary time to cope with different environmental conditions. As a result, functional variation – measurable as functional traits above and below ground – can be found within but also among grassland communities today. The functional space covered by a community is thereby restricted by environmental factors while each single species within the community inhabits a specific niche with a certain breadth along different environmental gradients. Data from field sampling in European grasslands have shown, that species intraspecific functional variation can cover considerable amounts of possible functional spaces, hence holding the potential to establish under a wide range of conditions. But land use presents a strong filter restricting both functional space of the community and realized niches of the single species. Biodiversity restoration efforts in grasslands are numerous today but unfortunately in many cases not as successful in persistently enhancing biodiversity. I here propose a conceptual framework to predict restoration success in managed grasslands by utilizing functional ecology. I use the concept of the root economics space – with the collaboration and the conservation gradient - and the fast-slow leaf economic spectrum to define community functional spaces as well as species fundamental and realized niches. By integrating the effect of different land-use factors on the realized niches and communities shaped by environmental constraints, we can identify the potential functional biodiversity that can be restored by grassland management on a given site.
