4 research outputs found
Long-term and year-to-year stability and its drivers in a Mediterranean grassland
Understanding the mechanisms underlying community stability has become an urgent need to protect ecosystems from global change and resulting biodiversity loss. While community stability can be influenced by species richness, synchrony in annual fluctuations of species, species stability and functional traits, the relative contributions of these drivers to stability are still unclear. In semi-natural grasslands, land-use changes such as fertilization might affect stability by decreasing richness and influencing year-to-year fluctuations. In addition, they can promote long-term directional trends, shifting community composition and influencing grassland maintenance. Thus, it is important to consider how species and community stability vary year-to-year but also in the long term. Using a 14-year vegetation time series of a species-rich semi-natural Mediterranean grassland, we studied the relative importance of richness, synchrony, species stability and functional traits on community stability. To assess land-use change effects on stability, we applied a fertilization treatment. To distinguish stability patterns produced by year-to-year fluctuations from those caused by long-term trends, we compared the results obtained using a detrending approach from those without detrending. Independently of the treatment and approach applied, the most stable communities were those composed of asynchronous species with low specific leaf area. Fertilization decreased year-to-year and long-term community stability by increasing community-weighted mean of specific leaf area, decreasing species stability or also reducing richness in the case of year-to-year stability. Additionally, traits such as seed mass had an indirect effect on stability through synchrony. Long-term trends appeared in control and fertilized plots (due to fertilization), decreasing community and species stability and leading to differences in the relationships found between community stability and some of its drivers. This reflects the importance of accounting for the effect of temporal trends on community and species stability using both a long-term and a year-to-year approach. Synthesis. Stability is influenced by richness, synchrony and functional traits. Fertilization decreases species and community stability by promoting long-term trends in species composition, favouring competitive species and decreasing richness. Studying stability at the community level and species level, and accounting for the effect of trends is essential to understand stability and its drivers more comprehensively
Long-term and year-to-year stability and its drivers in a Mediterranean grassland
Understanding the mechanisms underlying community stability has become an urgent need to protect ecosystems from global change and resulting biodiversity loss. While community stability can be influenced by species richness, synchrony in annual fluctuations of species, species stability and functional traits, the relative contributions of these drivers to stability are still unclear. In semi-natural grasslands, land-use changes such as fertilization might affect stability by decreasing richness and influencing year-to-year fluctuations. In addition, they can promote long-term directional trends, shifting community composition and influencing grassland maintenance. Thus, it is important to consider how species and community stability vary year-to-year but also in the long term. Using a 14-year vegetation time series of a species-rich semi-natural Mediterranean grassland, we studied the relative importance of richness, synchrony, species stability and functional traits on community stability. To assess land-use change effects on stability, we applied a fertilization treatment. To distinguish stability patterns produced by year-to-year fluctuations from those caused by long-term trends, we compared the results obtained using a detrending approach from those without detrending. Independently of the treatment and approach applied, the most stable communities were those composed of asynchronous species with low specific leaf area. Fertilization decreased year-to-year and long-term community stability by increasing community-weighted mean of specific leaf area, decreasing species stability or also reducing richness in the case of year-to-year stability. Additionally, traits such as seed mass had an indirect effect on stability through synchrony. Long-term trends appeared in control and fertilized plots (due to fertilization), decreasing community and species stability and leading to differences in the relationships found between community stability and some of its drivers. This reflects the importance of accounting for the effect of temporal trends on community and species stability using both a long-term and a year-to-year approach. Synthesis. Stability is influenced by richness, synchrony and functional traits. Fertilization decreases species and community stability by promoting long-term trends in species composition, favouring competitive species and decreasing richness. Studying stability at the community level and species level, and accounting for the effect of trends is essential to understand stability and its drivers more comprehensively
LOTVS: a global collection of permanent vegetation plots
Analysing temporal patterns in plant communities is extremely important to quantify the extent and the consequences of ecological changes, especially considering the current biodiversity crisis. Long-term data collected through the regular sampling of permanent plots represent the most accurate resource to study ecological succession, analyse the stability of a community over time and understand the mechanisms driving vegetation change. We hereby present the LOng-Term Vegetation Sampling (LOTVS) initiative, a global collection of vegetation time-series derived from the regular monitoring of plant species in permanent plots. With 79 data sets from five continents and 7,789 vegetation time-series monitored for at least 6 years and mostly on an annual basis, LOTVS possibly represents the largest collection of temporally fine-grained vegetation time-series derived from permanent plots and made accessible to the research community. As such, it has an outstanding potential to support innovative research in the fields of vegetation science, plant ecology and temporal ecology
LOTVS: a global collection of permanent vegetation plots
Analysing temporal patterns in plant communities is extremely important to quantify the extent and the consequences of ecological changes, especially considering the current biodiversity crisis. Long-term data collected through the regular sampling of permanent plots represent the most accurate resource to study ecological succession, analyse the stability of a community over time and understand the mechanisms driving vegetation change. We hereby present the LOng-Term Vegetation Sampling (LOTVS) initiative, a global collection of vegetation time-series derived from the regular monitoring of plant species in permanent plots. With 79 data sets from five continents and 7,789 vegetation time-series monitored for at least 6 years and mostly on an annual basis, LOTVS possibly represents the largest collection of temporally fine-grained vegetation time-series derived from permanent plots and made accessible to the research community. As such, it has an outstanding potential to support innovative research in the fields of vegetation science, plant ecology and temporal ecology