Potential role of seed banks and understory species in restoring quaking fens from floating forests

Quaking fens and floating forests in the Westbroek Polder, the Netherlands, have seed banks with an estimated mean total seed density of 920 and 690 seeds m^-2, respectively. Fifty nine species were found in two or more quaking fens of which 39 were also found in their seed banks. Fifty species were found in two or more floating-forests and 31 of these were also found in their seed banks. The seed banks of fens and forests had 36 species in common. The seed banks of fens and forests were more similar (Spearman rank order correlation coefficients of 0.64 on the basis of percent presence and 0.61 on the basis of mean seed density in the seed bank and mean species cover in the vegetation) than were the seed banks and vegetation of either fens or forests (0.46 and 0.46 for fens; 0.26 and 0.23 for forests).When the tree canopy is removed from a floating forest to try to restore it to a quaking fen, it is predicted that a total of 47 species from the floating-forest understory will persist. Eleven of these species are not present in fens. Fifteen additional species can become established potentially from the forest seed banks. Sixteen species found in fens, however, are predicted to be missing from cleared sites. Of these 16 species, 7 are uncommon aquatic-and fen species.     

Species richness, diversity and biomass production of desert annuals in an ungrazed Rhanterium epapposum community over three growth seasons in Kuwait

Two blocks, each consisting of twelve 0.25 m²permanent plots, were established in a community dominated by desert annuals inan area of Kuwait protected from grazing, and community attributes wereinvestigated over three growth seasons. A linear relationship was found betweenestimated desert annual cover and biomass production. Species frequency wasassessed by the number of 100 cm² subplots occupied byaspecies in a block (block incidence). Over the three seasons,vegetation features varied considerably. The first season (spring 1997) wascharacterised by very sparse vegetation cover, low vegetation block incidence(sum of individual block incidences of each species present in a block) and lowspecies richness. The second season (spring 1998) had high vegetation cover,relatively low vegetation block incidence, but high species richness. In thethird season (spring 2000), vegetation cover was very sparse (as in 1997), butboth blocks had the highest vegetation block incidence of the three years andspecies richness was moderately high, although individual plants were verysmall. The growth period was much shorter in the very productive andspecies-rich 1998 season than in 2000. Fluctuations in biomass and speciesincidence coincided with pronounced variation in key meteorological variables,in particular the onset of the first rains, the amount of rainfall during thegrowing season and its temporal distribution. Species composition, however,appears mainly to be determined by the amount and possibly the timing of thefirst rainfalls of the season to trigger germination. There was little evidenceto suggest that particularly favourable or unfavourable microsites existed inplots for more than one vegetation period, either for individual species or fordiversity in general. Despite substantial between-season fluctuations inincidence, the relative abundances of the more frequent species to each otherremained broadly similar over the three seasons, with Plantagoboissieri being the predominant species and accounting for thelargest proportion of biomass.     

New similarity indices for the assignment of relevés to the vegetation units of an existing phytosociological classification

Every proposed vegetation classification is sooner or later confronted with an accumulation of new data, which has to be assigned to existing vegetation units. Calculation of similarity indices between new relevés (vegetation plots) and constancy columns of established vegetation units is a suitable method for computerised assignment of relevés to these units. This paper compares several similarity indices using simulated data set where either randomly distributed or diagnostic species prevail in the species composition of the tested relevé. Traditional indices, based only on species composition, produce different results than similarity indices that consider species fidelity. However, both types of indices failed in some situations and thus cannot be widely accepted as suitable methods of additional relevé assignment. Therefore a combined Frequency-Positive Fidelity Index (FPFI) is proposed. This new index includes compositional similarity of an assigned relevé with vegetation unit and retains the advantages and lacks the disadvantages of tested indices. The calculation of all these indices is available in the JUICE program (http://www.sci.muni.cz/botany/juice.htm).     

Responses of fen plant species to groundwater level and light intensity

Characteristic species of sedge-moss fen communities occur in constantly wet, nutrient-poor sites with a high penetration of light through the vegetation canopy. We studied the effects of water table depth and differences in light intensity on the performance of fen species. Three fen species (Carex curta, Viola palustris, Hydrocotyle vulgaris) and one species with a wide range of occurrence (Poa trivialis) were grown for 10 weeks in a sedge-moss peat substrate at 4 different water levels and 3 light intensities. In all species differences in light availability had a larger effect on biomass production than differences in water level. Under a light availability reduced to only 10% the root weight ratio of all the species decreased while leaf weight ratio increased. The biomass allocation ratios were hardly affected by differences in water level. For Viol a and Hydrocotyle an interaction between the two factors was observed. Poa did not show particular differences compared to the other species. We discuss the results in the context of the establishment of fen species in riparian vegetation. It is suggested that the occurrence of fen species in the landscape is directly related to the availability of light, whereas the relationship between fen species occurrence and hydrological conditions seems to be an indirect one.     

科尔沁沙地丘间地植被演变的研究

 主要研究了科尔沁沙地丘间地植被的发生和演变规律及不同发育时间群落种类组成动态特征。结果表明：丘间地植被发育很快,在围封条件下,30年内经历了一年生草本阶段、多年生草本阶段和灌丛阶段。在组成结构上,物种多样性指数和均匀度呈上升趋势,而生态优势度下降,表明其相对稳定的特征。同时就过度放牧对植被的影响进行了论述。     

科尔沁沙地丘间地植被演变的研究

主要研究了科尔沁沙地丘间地植被的发生和演变规律及不同发育时间群落种类组成动态特征。结果表明 :丘间地植被发育很快 ,在围封条件下 ,30年内经历了一年生草本阶段、多年生草本阶段和灌丛阶段。在组成结构上 ,物种多样性指数和均匀度呈上升趋势 ,而生态优势度下降 ,表明其相对稳定的特征。同时就过度放牧对植被的影响进行了论述     

Plant species diversity in abandoned coppice forests in a temperate deciduous forest area of central Japan

We investigated plant species diversity as it related to stand structure and landscape parameters in abandoned coppice forests in a temperate, deciduous forest area of central Japan, where Fagus crenata was originally dominant. The species occurring in the study plots were classified into habitat types based on a statistical analysis of their occurrence bias in particular habitats (e.g., primary forest, coniferous plantation) in the landscape studied. The relationships between stand structure, which reflected the gradient of management, and forest floor plant species diversity (H and J) and richness (number of species per unit area) were not significant. However, these factors did influence the forest floor plant composition of the different types of habitat. According to the multiple regression analysis, species diversity and the richness of forest floor plants was affected by landscape parameters rather than by stand structure. For trees, species richness was mainly affected by the relative dominance of F. crenata, which is one of the stand structure parameters that decreases with intensive management. This is probably because many of the tree species that are characteristic of coppice forests increase after F. crenata have been eliminated by management; these species are not dominant in the original forest, where they are suppressed by F. crenata, the shade-tolerant dominant species. The species diversity (H and J) of trees was positively correlated with some landscape parameters, including the road density around the study plot, which may be associated with the intensity of management activity. The number of disturbance-tolerant species increased with increasing road density. Stand structure mainly affected disturbance-intolerant forest floor plant species and disturbance-tolerant tree species. Thus, the species diversity responses differed between forest floor plants and trees. The impact of forest management on species diversity was more prominent for forest floor plants.     

Near term climate projections for invasive species distributions

Climate change and invasive species pose important conservation issues separately, and should be examined together. We used existing long term climate datasets for the US to project potential climate change into the future at a finer spatial and temporal resolution than the climate change scenarios generally available. These fine scale projections, along with new species distribution modeling techniques to forecast the potential extent of invasive species, can provide useful information to aide conservation and invasive species management efforts. We created habitat suitability maps for Pueraria montana (kudzu) under current climatic conditions and potential average conditions up to 30 years in the future. We examined how the potential distribution of this species will be affected by changing climate, and the management implications associated with these changes. Our models indicated that P. montana may increase its distribution particularly in the Northeast with climate change and may decrease in other areas.