Download realized ecological niches composition along plant succession

Institute of physicochemical and biological problems in soil science of RAS;
142290 Pushchino, Moscow region, RUSSIA
[email protected]
as_ [email protected]
Elena Zubkova, Alexander Komarov
REALIZED ECOLOGICAL NICHES COMPOSITION ALONG PLANT SUCCESSION
The idea that plant communities change their composition as a result of altering their edaphic environment to enhance their fitness was proposed by Clements
(1916) and named as an endogenic (primary) succession. The quantitative estimation of interrelations between environmental factors and plant populations is a
problem of great importance, which is still unsolved for a great variety of plant species composing vegetation in a local site. Modeling of the forest ground
vegetation dynamics is also a great problem. Niche theory could be taken as a background in description of resource sharing of competing plant species. There
is a well-known assumption that early successional species have been suggested to have broader ecological niches (Odum, 1969), and dominant species
greater niche widths (McNauhghton and Wolf 1970). Direct procedure of the checking this hypothesis have been not proposed. We shall demonstrate a
method of direct evaluation of the niches width and structure of niches composition along plant succession.
It is based on ecological indicators values have been developed for West (Ellenberg, 1974; Landolt, 1974) and East (Ramensky et al., 1956; Tsyganov, 1983)
European plant species. It should be noted that Russian ecological indicators values arranged as interval scales. It means that for each plant species we can
define the range of its existence in relation to concrete factor, for instance, soil richness, moisture etc. It could be evaluated in conventional units (ranks)
covering the total factor longitude from minimum up to maximum in relation to concrete species. The background of building of interval indicator values and
examples are at figures below.
An example of ecological indicator values for
different species (more than 2,300 plant species)
from (Tsyganov, 1983)
(Ramensky et al., 1956)
Location of Pechoro-Ilychskii Nature Reserve
(Ramensky et al., 1956)
An example of ecological indicator values for different species (more than 1,400 plant species)
from (Ramensky et al., 1956). For some species and/or factors boundary are not defined
2. Pineta hylocomioso-cladinosa→
Earlier a new method for estimating of probability of plant
species occurrence in certain environmental conditions
have been suggested (Zhukova, 2004). L.A.Zhukova
(2004) introduced potential (PEV) and realized (REV)
ecological valences. PEV is a measure of suitability of a
certain species to a change of single ecological factor
and can be measured as a portion of corresponding
factor scale gradations observed for all species to the
total scale longitude. REV could be measured as a
portion of factor scale gradations observed for the certain
species in certain site. Such portions could be evaluated
by processing of standard geobotanical descriptions and
considered as approximate estimators of ecological
niches. If PEV ≤ 0.34 then species is a stenobiont one, if
PEV > 0.67 then species could be considered as
eurybiont ones. Rest species belong to mesobionts.
Acknowlegements:
Authors are grateful to Prof.
L.A.Zhukova for discussions of the
work,
Tatiana Grokhlina for providing the
ECOSCALE software,
Lar is a Khanina and Elena
Glukhova for providing data from
FORUS database.
Work of EZ was supported by
Russian Foundation of Basic
Researches, project 07-04-00952.
3. Piceeta obovatae fruticuloso-hylocomiosa→
70
60
50
percents (%)
1. Piceeta cladinosa →
In accordance with well-known successional sequence of forest types in North
taiga (Zaugol’nova, Morozova, 2006) we processed geobotanical descriptions
obtained by A.A.Korchagin (1940) in Pechoro-Ilychskii Nature Reserve and
some other authors in relation to Tsyganov’s ecological indicators values.
40
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
forest types
Percent of stenobiont species along
primary succession in North taiga
4. Piceeta obovatae parviherboso-hylocomiosa→
5. Piceeta obovatae magnoherboso-hylocomiosa
Some ecological scales are not sensitive being expressed in narrow scale,
some of them showed good results. For example, at Figure we present the
dynamics of stenobiont species along the succession. It is clear that number
of species with narrow range of existence increases in correspondence with
classic assumptions. It should be noted that difference in absolute moisture
values between initial and final stages of the succession sequence is small
and observable changes are result more of competition than of ecological
changes. Number of species increases from 25 at the first stage to 41 at
final stage in average. More comprehensive analysis of other ecological
factors presents similar but sometimes more complicated dynamics of
species composition in relation to REVs, and requires more detailed study
with biggest set of data. Predictive habitat models are based on hypothesis
on realized niches i.e., species responses on environmental gradients
including soil factors, light conditions etc. Generalized additive models
(GAMs) usually are in use for those purposes.
We suppose to incorporate these results into the ecosystem models (e.g.
Komarov et al. 2003), which make them good tools for vegetation analyses.
References:
Clements F.E. 1916. Plant succession: an analysis of the development of vegetation.Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. 512 p.
Ellenberg, H. 1974. Zeigerwerte der Gefasspflanzen Mitteleuropas. Göttingen, 97 s.
Landolt, E. 1977. Okologische Zeigerwerts zur Sweizer Flora. Veroff. Geobot. In st. ETH. Zurich. H.64. s. 1-208.
Komarov, A.S., Chertov, O.G., Zudin, S.L., Nadporozhskaya, M.A., Mikhailov, A.V., Bykhovets, S.S., Zudina, E.V., Zoubkova, E.V. 2003. EFIMOD 2 - a model of growth
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