Abstract:
:Grazing, fire, and climate shape mesic grassland communities. With global change altering all three factors, understanding how grasslands respond to changes in these combined drivers may aid in projecting future changes in grassland ecosystems. We manipulated rainfall and simulated grazing (clipping) in two long-term fire experiments in mesic grasslands in North America (NA) and South Africa (SA). Despite their common drivers, grasslands in NA and SA differ in evolutionary history. Therefore, we expected community structure and production in NA and SA to respond differently to fire, grazing, and drought. Specifically, we hypothesized that NA plant community composition and production would be more responsive than the SA plant communities to changes in the drivers and their interactions, and that despite this expected stability of SA grasslands, drought would be the dominant factor controlling production, but grazing would play the primary role in determining community composition at both sites. Contrary to our hypothesis, NA and SA grasslands generally responded similarly to grazing, drought, and fire. Grazing increased diversity, decreased grass cover and production, and decreased belowground biomass at both sites. Drought alone minimally impacted plant community structure, and we saw similar treatment interactions at the two sites. Drought was not the primary driver of grassland productivity, but instead drought effects were similar to or less than grazing and fire. Even though these grasslands differed in evolutionary history, they responded similarly to our fire, grazing, and climate manipulations. Overall, we found community and ecosystem convergence in NA and SA grasslands. Grazing and fire are as important as climate in controlling mesic grassland ecosystems on both continents.
journal_name
Ecologyjournal_title
Ecologyauthors
Koerner SE,Collins SLdoi
10.1890/13-0526.1subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2014-01-01 00:00:00pages
98-109issue
1eissn
0012-9658issn
1939-9170journal_volume
95pub_type
杂志文章相关文献
ECOLOGY文献大全abstract::Species abundances in natural systems are usually close to some equilibrium, making mechanisms that maintain or prevent species coexistence difficult to discern. Biological control projects provide an opportunity to observe systems transition between equilibriums as a result of the influence of the newly introduced sp...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/08-0852.1
更新日期:2009-05-01 00:00:00
abstract::One of the major mechanisms of plant diversification has been the evolution of polyploid populations that differ from their diploid progenitors in morphology, physiology, and environmental tolerances. Recent studies have indicated that polyploidy may also have major effects on ecological interactions with herbivores a...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/07-1432.1
更新日期:2008-08-01 00:00:00
abstract::Dispersal evolves as an adaptive mechanism to optimize individual fitness across the landscape. Specifically, dispersal represents a mechanism to escape fitness costs resulting from changes in environmental conditions. Decades of empirical work suggest that individuals use local habitat cues to make movement decisions...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.2982
更新日期:2020-04-01 00:00:00
abstract::Interference competition may lead to a tragedy of the commons in which individuals driven by self-interest reduce the fitness of the entire group. We investigated this hypothesis in Allenby's gerbils, Gerbillus andersoni allenbyi, by comparing foraging behaviors of single vs. pairs of gerbils. We recorded strong inter...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/14-0130.1
更新日期:2015-01-01 00:00:00
abstract::Recent advances in metabolic scaling theory have highlighted the importance of exchange surfaces and vascular network geometry in understanding the integration and scaling of whole-plant form and function. Additional work on leaf form and function has also highlighted general scaling relationships for many leaf traits...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/06-1158
更新日期:2007-05-01 00:00:00
abstract::For sessile organisms, dispersal and recruitment are typically spatially stochastic, but there is little understanding of how this variability scales up to influence processes such as competitive coexistence. Here we argue that coexistence of benthic marine animals is enhanced by stochastic differences between species...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/10-1332.1
更新日期:2011-05-01 00:00:00
abstract::The interactive effects of consumers and nutrients on terrestrial plant communities, and the role of plant functional traits in mediating these responses, are poorly known. We carried out a six-year full-factorial field experiment using mammalian herbivore exclusion and fertilization in two habitat types (fertile and ...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/12-0393.1
更新日期:2012-12-01 00:00:00
abstract::Understanding of how plant communities are organized and will respond to global changes requires an understanding of how plant species respond to multiple environmental gradients. We examined the mechanisms mediating the distribution patterns of tidal marsh plants along an estuarine gradient in Georgia (USA) using a c...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/11-0487.1
更新日期:2012-01-01 00:00:00
abstract::Measures of body condition, immune function, and hematological health are widely used in ecological studies of vertebrate populations, predicated on the assumption that these traits are linked to fitness. However, compelling evidence that these traits actually predict long-term survival and reproductive success among ...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/14-0418.1
更新日期:2014-11-01 00:00:00
abstract::A 10-year experiment tested for variation in competition intensity over time in a natural grassland at the northern edge of the Great Plains. Growing-season precipitation varied fivefold during the study. All ecosystem-level variables varied significantly among years, and most covaried in expected ways. The covers of ...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/07-0587.1
更新日期:2007-12-01 00:00:00
abstract::The spatial habitat heterogeneity hypothesis posits that habitat complexity increases the abundance and diversity of species. In tropical forests, lianas add substantial habitat heterogeneity and complexity throughout the vertical forest profile, which may maintain animal abundance and diversity. The effects of lianas...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.3176
更新日期:2020-12-01 00:00:00
abstract::Soils host diverse communities of interacting microbes and the nature of interspecific interactions is increasingly recognized to affect ecosystem-level processes. Antagonistic interactions between bacteria and fungi are of particular relevance for soil functioning. A number of soil bacteria produce secondary metaboli...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/13-1215.1
更新日期:2014-05-01 00:00:00
abstract::There is now strong evidence suggesting that interactions between plants and their species-specific antagonistic microbes can maintain native plant community diversity. In contrast, the decay in diversity in plant communities invaded by nonnative plant species might be caused by weakening negative feedback strengths, ...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.2850
更新日期:2019-12-01 00:00:00
abstract::Does climate determine species' ranges? Rapid rates of anthropogenic warming make this classic ecological question especially relevant. We ask whether climate controls range limits by quantifying relationships between climatic variables (precipitation, temperature) and tree growth across the altitudinal ranges of six ...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/10-1639.1
更新日期:2011-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::Intrapopulation variation in habitat use is commonly seen among mobile animals, yet the mechanisms maintaining it have rarely been researched among untrackable species. To investigate how alternative life histories are maintained in a population of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), cumulative reproductive o...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/12-1588.1
更新日期:2013-11-01 00:00:00
abstract::Flowering sex ratios of dioecious plants are commonly male-biased but rarely female-biased. While greater costs of reproduction from females have been repeatedly demonstrated and explain male biases, male reproductive costs almost never exceed female costs, making the origins of female biases enigmatic. I investigated...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/09-0685.1
更新日期:2010-05-01 00:00:00
abstract::Although invasive species can have substantial impacts on animal communities, cases of invasive species facilitating native species by removing their predators have rarely been demonstrated across vertebrate trophic linkages. The predictable spread of the invasive cane toad (Rhinella marina), however, offered a unique...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/14-1332.1
更新日期:2015-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::The literature suggests that small genomes promote invasion in plants, but little is known about the interaction of genome size with other traits or about the role of genome size during different phases of the invasion process. By intercontinental comparison of native and invasive populations of the common reed Phragm...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.2068
更新日期:2018-01-01 00:00:00
abstract::The nature of nutrient limitation in large areas of temperate forest may be changing due to human activities. As N availability in these forests increases, other nutrients could increasingly constrain productivity and other ecosystem processes. To determine the nature of nutrient limitation (N, P, and Ca) in forest so...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/0012-9658(2007)88[119:nlised]2.0.co;2
更新日期:2007-01-01 00:00:00
abstract::An individual's competitive ability is often dependent on its size, but the methods commonly used to analyze plant competition experiments generally assume that the outcome of interactions are size independent. A method for the analysis of experiments with paired competition treatments based on nonlinear regression wi...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/0012-9658(2006)87[1452:anratt]2.0.co;2
更新日期:2006-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::A mechanistic understanding of the carbon (C) cycle-climate change feedback is essential for projecting future states of climate and ecosystems. Here we report a novel field mechanism and evidence supporting the hypothesis that nocturnal warming in a temperate steppe ecosystem in northern China can result in a minor C...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/08-2026.1
更新日期:2009-10-01 00:00:00
abstract::Competition is predicted to affect the expression of inducible defenses, but because costs of behavioral and morphological antipredator defenses differ along resource gradients, its effects on defenses may depend on the traits considered. We tested the predictions from different defense models in tadpoles of the commo...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/06-1703.1
更新日期:2007-07-01 00:00:00
abstract::Sex ratios are commonly skewed and variable in wild populations, but few studies track temporal trends in this demographic parameter. We examined variation in the operational sex ratio at two protected and declining breeding colonies of Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) in Chubut, Argentina. Penguins from ...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.2939
更新日期:2020-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::Animals selecting habitats often have to consider many factors, e.g., food and cover for safety. However, each habitat type often lacks an adequate mixture of these factors. Analyses of habitat selection using resource selection functions (RSFs) for animal radiotelemetry data typically ignore trade-offs, and the fact ...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/08-0576.1
更新日期:2009-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::Foundation species structure forest communities and ecosystems but are difficult to identify without long-term observations or experiments. We used statistical criteria--outliers from size-frequency distributions and scale-dependent negative effects on alpha diversity and positive effects on beta diversity--to identif...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.3234
更新日期:2020-10-26 00:00:00
abstract::Abundance and population density are fundamental pieces of information for population ecology and species conservation, but they are difficult to estimate for rare and elusive species. Mark--resight models are popular for estimating population abundance because they are less invasive and expensive than traditional mar...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/12-1256.1
更新日期:2013-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::Animals can be important in modulating ecosystem-level nutrient cycling, although their importance varies greatly among species and ecosystems. Nutrient cycling rates of individual animals represent valuable data for testing the predictions of important frameworks such as the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) and ecol...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.1792
更新日期:2017-05-01 00:00:00
abstract::Abiotic constraints and biotic interactions act simultaneously to shape communities. However, these community assembly mechanisms are often studied independently, which can limit understanding of how they interact to affect species dynamics and distributions. We develop a hierarchical Bayesian neighborhood modeling ap...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1002/ecy.2441
更新日期:2018-10-01 00:00:00
abstract::The "evolution of increased competitive ability" (EICA) hypothesis proposes that escape from natural enemies, e.g., after transcontinental introductions, alters the selection regime because costly defenses no longer enhance fitness. Such an evolutionary loss of defenses enables resources to be directed toward growth o...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/07-0160.1
更新日期:2008-02-01 00:00:00
abstract::We resurveyed the under- and overstory species composition of 94 upland forest stands in southern Wisconsin in 2002-2004 to assess shifts in canopy and understory richness, composition, and heterogeneity relative to the original surveys in 1949-1950. The canopy has shifted from mostly oaks (Quercus spp.) toward more m...
journal_title:Ecology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1890/07-1129.1
更新日期:2008-09-01 00:00:00