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Early succession on plots with the upper soil horizon removed
Author(s) -
Lepš Jan,
Michálek Jaroslav,
Rauch Ota,
Uhlík Petr
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1654-1103
pISSN - 1100-9233
DOI - 10.2307/3236805
Subject(s) - ecological succession , calluna , vegetation (pathology) , ordination , plant community , ecology , secondary succession , primary succession , environmental science , soil water , soil texture , biology , moorland , medicine , pathology
. Succession was studied on plots with the upper soil horizon removed in an area affected by acidic air pollution in the Krušné Hory Mts., Czech Republic. 10 permanent 1‐m 2 plots were marked and vegetation recorded annually using a grid of 100 subplots from 1989 to 1995. Constrained ordination analyses showed that soil texture is the most important environmental factor influencing the course of succession. Its effect on species composition increases with successional age of the plant community. On fine‐grained soils species‐poor communities dominated by grasses ( Calamagrostis villosa, Deschampsiaflexuosa ) and on coarse‐grained soils species‐rich communities dominated by heather ( Calluna vulgaris ) developed. Succession proceeded from communities where species composition was determined by diaspore availability towards communities where species composition depended on environmental conditions. Successional communities after 10 yr are more dependent on soil characteristics and consequently environmental determination increases over the course of succession and causes the communities to diverge.