TY - JOUR A1 - Busch, Verena A1 - Klaus, Valentin Helmut A1 - Schaefer, Deborah A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Chiste, Melanie A1 - Mody, Karsten A1 - Blüthgen, Nico A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Hölzel, Norbert A1 - Kleinebecker, Till T1 - Will I stay or will I go? Plant species-specific response and tolerance to high land-use intensity in temperate grassland ecosystems JF - Journal of vegetation science KW - community composition KW - ecological strategies KW - Ellenberg indicator values KW - land-use intensity niche KW - plant functional traits KW - species-specific niche breadth KW - species-specific niche optima KW - temperate grasslands KW - vegetation dynamics Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12749 SN - 1100-9233 SN - 1654-1103 VL - 30 IS - 4 SP - 674 EP - 686 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Diekmann, Martin A1 - Müller, Josef A1 - Heinken, Thilo A1 - Dupre, Cecilia T1 - Survey and statistical analysis of plant reintroductions in Germany JF - Tuexenia : Mitteilungen der Floristisch-Soziologischen Arbeitsgemeinschaft N2 - Aim - Plant reintroductions and other forms of targeted species translocations will in the future gain growing importance for nature conservation. In fragmented habitats, species reintroductions offer one of the most efficient tools for preserving or restoring plant diversity. In our study, we have compiled available data about plant reintroduction projects in Germany to answer the following questions: (1) What are the characteristics, habitat preferences and ecological strategies of species considered in plant reintroduction trials, and are these representative of the entire class of threatened species in Germany? (2) Is the judgment of the success or failure of plant reintroductions biased by the choice of species used in the experiments? (3) Do reintroduction efforts focus on those species for which Germany has a particularly high responsibility for conservation? Methods - Information about reintroduction projects in Germany were obtained from published and internet sources as well as unpublished reports. In our search we focused on single-species trials in the framework of scientific or conservation projects. For all threatened species included in our database, we compiled information on their systematics, life form, ecological strategies and habitat preferences. A list of all species being threatened nationally or regionally, comprising both reintroduced and not reintroduced species, served as a reference for statistical analysis. Results - The list of vascular plants used in conservation-oriented reintroductions consisted of 196 taxa. Species of families with large and conspicuous, mostly insect-pollinated flowers (for example, Orchidaceae) were over-represented among the reintroduced species compared to those threatened species not included in reintroduction trials. Species considered were also more often than expected found in semi-natural open habitats such as heathlands and grasslands. Notably, many projects focused on calcareous grasslands, characterized by dry, high-pH and infertile soils. In contrast, species of more near-natural vegetation (alpine and rocky formations, forests) were under-represented. About 25% of the species that were reintroduced are not threatened on the national scale. Out of 150 species for which Germany has a particularly high responsibility for conservation, only 14 (9.3%) were reintroduced. For only about 1/3 of all reintroduction attempts, success or failure were documented; whereas the success rate appears to be relatively low in nutrient-poor environments, trials with nutrient-demanding and competitive species were more successful. Conclusions - We conclude that conservation-oriented reintroduction attempts should focus more on species for which the country or a region has a particular high responsibility. Reintroductions, to a larger extent than at present, also need to consider the different chances of success in different habitat types and environments. KW - conservation responsibility KW - Ellenberg indicator values KW - Grime strategy KW - habitat type KW - life form KW - red list Y1 - 2015 SN - 0722-494X IS - 35 SP - 249 EP - 265 PB - Floristisch-Soziologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Verheyen, Kris A1 - Baeten, Lander A1 - De Frenne, Pieter A1 - Bernhardt-Römermann, Markus A1 - Brunet, Jorg A1 - Cornelis, Johnny A1 - Decocq, Guillaume A1 - Dierschke, Hartmut A1 - Eriksson, Ove A1 - Hedl, Radim A1 - Heinken, Thilo A1 - Hermy, Martin A1 - Hommel, Patrick A1 - Kirby, Keith J. A1 - Naaf, Tobias A1 - Peterken, George A1 - Petrik, Petr A1 - Pfadenhauer, Joerg A1 - Van Calster, Hans A1 - Walther, Gian-Reto A1 - Wulf, Monika A1 - Verstraeten, Gorik T1 - Driving factors behind the eutrophication signal in understorey plant communities of deciduous temperate forests JF - The journal of ecology N2 - 1. Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is expected to change forest understorey plant community composition and diversity, but results of experimental addition studies and observational studies are not yet conclusive. A shortcoming of observational studies, which are generally based on resurveys or sampling along large deposition gradients, is the occurrence of temporal or spatial confounding factors. 2. We were able to assess the contribution of N deposition versus other ecological drivers on forest understorey plant communities by combining a temporal and spatial approach. Data from 1205 (semi-)permanent vegetation plots taken from 23 rigorously selected understorey resurvey studies along a large deposition gradient across deciduous temperate forest in Europe were compiled and related to various local and regional driving factors, including the rate of atmospheric N deposition, the change in large herbivore densities and the change in canopy cover and composition. 3. Although no directional change in species richness occurred, there was considerable floristic turnover in the understorey plant community and a shift in species composition towards more shade-tolerant and nutrient-demanding species. However, atmospheric N deposition was not important in explaining the observed eutrophication signal. This signal seemed mainly related to a shift towards a denser canopy cover and a changed canopy species composition with a higher share of species with more easily decomposed litter. 4. Synthesis. Our multi-site approach clearly demonstrates that one should be cautious when drawing conclusions about the impact of atmospheric N deposition based on the interpretation of plant community shifts in single sites or regions due to other, concurrent, ecological changes. Even though the effects of chronically increased N deposition on the forest plant communities are apparently obscured by the effects of canopy changes, the accumulated N might still have a significant impact. However, more research is needed to assess whether this N time bomb will indeed explode when canopies will open up again. KW - atmospheric deposition KW - determinants of plant community diversity and structure KW - Ellenberg indicator values KW - forest herbs KW - forest management KW - large herbivores KW - north-western Europe KW - resurveys KW - (semi-)permanent plots Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01928.x SN - 0022-0477 VL - 100 IS - 2 SP - 352 EP - 365 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kaiser, Thomas A1 - Wehrhan, Marc A1 - Werner, Armin A1 - Sommer, Michael T1 - Regionalizing ecological moisture levels and groundwater levels in grassland areas using thermal remote sensing JF - Grassland science N2 - Site-specific soil moisture and groundwater levels are key input parameters for ecological modeling. Obtaining such information in a comprehensive manner is difficult for large regions. We studied a floodplain region in the Federal State of Brandenburg, Germany, to examine the degree to which the average depth of groundwater tables can be derived from surface temperatures obtained by the ASTER radiospectrometer (spatial resolution of 90 m per pixel). A floristic ecological indicator representing the site-specific moisture level was applied to develop a proxy between the thermal satellite data and groundwater table depth. The use of spring scenes (late April to early May) from 2 years proved to be well suited for minimizing the effects of weather and land use. Vegetation surveys along transects that were 2 m wide across the pixel diagonals allowed for the calculation of average ecological moisture values of pixel-sites by applying Ellenberg-numbers. These values were used to calibrate the satellite data locally. There was a close relationship between surface temperature and the average ecological moisture value (R2 = 0.73). Average ecological moisture values were highly indicative of the average groundwater levels during a 7-year measurement series (R2 = 0.93). Satellite-supported thermal data from spring were suitable for estimating the average groundwater levels of low-lying grasslands on a larger scale. Ecological moisture values from the transect surveys effectively allowed the incorporation of relief heterogeneity within the thermal grid and the establishment of the correlation between thermal data and average groundwater table depth. Regression functions were used to produce a map of groundwater levels at the study site. KW - Ellenberg indicator values KW - groundwater table KW - satellite data KW - soil moisture Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-697X.2011.00240.x SN - 1744-6961 VL - 58 IS - 1 SP - 42 EP - 52 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Malden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Socher, Stephanie A1 - Baumbach, Henryk A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Gockel, Sonja A1 - Hemp, Andreas A1 - Hessenmöller, Dominik A1 - Kalko, Elisabeth K. V. A1 - Linsenmair, K. Eduard A1 - Pfeiffer, Simone A1 - Pommer, Ulf A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef A1 - Seilwinder, Claudia A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Wells, Konstans A1 - Fischer, Markus T1 - High plant species richness indicates management-related disturbances rather than the conservation status of forests JF - Basic and applied ecology : Journal of the Gesellschaft für Ökologie N2 - There is a wealth of smaller-scale studies on the effects of forest management on plant diversity. However, studies comparing plant species diversity in forests with different management types and intensity, extending over different regions and forest stages, and including detailed information on site conditions are missing. We studied vascular plants on 1500 20 m x 20 m forest plots in three regions of Germany (Schwabische Alb, Hainich-Dun, Schorfheide-Chorin). In all regions, our study plots comprised different management types (unmanaged, selection cutting, deciduous and coniferous age-class forests, which resulted from clear cutting or shelterwood logging), various stand ages, site conditions, and levels of management-related disturbances. We analyzed how overall richness and richness of different plant functional groups (trees, shrubs, herbs, herbaceous species typically growing in forests and herbaceous light-demanding species) responded to the different management types. On average, plant species richness was 13% higher in age-class than in unmanaged forests, and did not differ between deciduous age-class and selection forests. In age-class forests of the Schwabische Alb and Hainich-Dun, coniferous stands had higher species richness than deciduous stands. Among age-class forests, older stands with large quantities of standing biomass were slightly poorer in shrub and light-demanding herb species than younger stands. Among deciduous forests, the richness of herbaceous forest species was generally lower in unmanaged than in managed forests, and it was even 20% lower in unmanaged than in selection forests in Hainich-Dun. Overall, these findings show that disturbances by management generally increase plant species richness. This suggests that total plant species richness is not suited as an indicator for the conservation status of forests, but rather indicates disturbances. KW - Biodiversity Exploratories KW - Coniferous plantations KW - Disturbance KW - Ellenberg indicator values KW - Forest management KW - Selection vs. age-class forests KW - Silviculture KW - Standing biomass KW - Typical forest species KW - Unmanaged vs. managed forests Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2013.06.001 SN - 1439-1791 VL - 14 IS - 6 SP - 496 EP - 505 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wasof, Safaa A1 - Lenoir, Jonathan A1 - Gallet-Moron, Emilie A1 - Jamoneau, Aurelien A1 - Brunet, Jörg A1 - Cousins, Sara A. O. A1 - De Frenne, Pieter A1 - Diekmann, Martin A1 - Hermy, Martin A1 - Kolb, Annette A1 - Liira, Jaan A1 - Verheyen, Kris A1 - Wulf, Monika A1 - Decocq, Guillaume T1 - Ecological niche shifts of understorey plants along a latitudinal gradient of temperate forests in north-western Europe JF - Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology N2 - Aim In response to environmental changes and to avoid extinction, species may either track suitable environmental conditions or adapt to the modified environment. However, whether and how species adapt to environmental changes remains unclear. By focusing on the realized niche (i.e. the actual space that a species inhabits and the resources it can access as a result of limiting biotic factors present in its habitat), we here examine shifts in the realized-niche width (i.e. ecological amplitude) and position (i.e. ecological optimum) of 26 common and widespread forest understorey plants across their distributional ranges. Location Temperate forests along a ca. 1800-km-long latitudinal gradient from northern France to central Sweden and Estonia. Methods We derived species' realized-niche width from a -diversity metric, which increases if the focal species co-occurs with more species. Based on the concept that species' scores in a detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) represent the locations of their realized-niche positions, we developed a novel approach to run species-specific DCAs allowing the focal species to shift its realized-niche position along the studied latitudinal gradient while the realized-niche positions of other species were held constant. Results None of the 26 species maintained both their realized-niche width and position along the latitudinal gradient. Few species (9 of 26: 35%) shifted their realized-niche width, but all shifted their realized-niche position. With increasing latitude, most species (22 of 26: 85%) shifted their realized-niche position for soil nutrients and pH towards nutrient-poorer and more acidic soils. Main conclusions Forest understorey plants shifted their realized niche along the latitudinal gradient, suggesting local adaptation and/or plasticity. This macroecological pattern casts doubt on the idea that the realized niche is stable in space and time, which is a key assumption of species distribution models used to predict the future of biodiversity, hence raising concern about predicted extinction rates. KW - Beta diversity KW - climate change KW - detrended correspondence analyses KW - Ellenberg indicator values KW - forest understorey plant species KW - niche optimum KW - niche width KW - plant community KW - realized niche Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12073 SN - 1466-822X VL - 22 IS - 10 SP - 1130 EP - 1140 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER -