Seed Density Significantly Affects Species Richness and Composition in Experimental Plant Communities 英文参考文献.docVIP

SeedDensitySignificantlyAffectsSpeciesRichnessand CompositioninExperimentalPlantCommunities ZuzanaMu¨nzbergova′1,2 * 1DepartmentofBotany,FacultyofScience,CharlesUniversity,Praha2,CzechRepublic,2InstituteofBotany,AcademyofSciencesoftheCzechRepublic,Pru?honice, CzechRepublic Abstract Studies on the importance of seed arrival for community richness and composition have not considered the number of seeds arriving and its effect on species richness and composition of natural communities is thus unknown. A series of experimental dry grassland communities were established. All communities were composed of the same 44 species in exactlythesameproportionsontwosubstratesusingthreedifferentseeddensities. Theresultsshowedthatseeddensity hadaneffectonspeciesrichnessonlyatthebeginningoftheexperiment.Incontrast,theeffectsonspeciescomposition persistedacrosstheentirestudyperiod.Theresultsdonotsupportthepredictionthatduetohighercompetitionforlight in nutrient-rich soil, species richness will be the highest in the treatment with the lowest seed density. However, the prevalence of small plants in the lowest seed density supported the expectation that low seed density guarantees low competition under high soil nutrients. In the nutrient-poor soil, species richness was the highest at the medium seed density,indicatingthatspeciesrichnessreflectsthebalancebetweencompetitionandlimitationscausedbytheavailability of propagules or their ability to establish themselves. This medium seed density treatment also contained the smallest plants. Theresultsdemonstratethatfutureseedadditionexperimentsneedtoconsidertheamountofseedaddedsothat itreflectstheamountofseedthatisnaturallyfoundinthefield.Differencesinseeddensity,mimickingdifferentintensityof theseedrainmayalsoexplaindifferencesinthecompositionofnaturalcommunitiesthatcannotbeattributedtohabitat conditions.Theresultsalsohaveimportantimplicationsforstudiesregardingtheconsequencesofhabitatfragmentation suggestingthatincreasingfragmentationm