0000000000411836
AUTHOR
Christof Engels
Plant diversity effects on the water balance of an experimental grassland
In the literature, contrasting effects of plant species richness on the soil water balance are reported. Our objective was to assess the effects of plant species and functional richness and functional identity on soil water contents and water fluxes in the experimental grassland of the Jena Experiment. The Jena Experiment comprises 86 plots on which plant species richness (0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 60) and functional group composition (zero to four functional groups: legumes, grasses, tall herbs, and small herbs) were manipulated in a factorial design. We recorded meteorological data and soil water contents of the 0·0–0·3 and 0·3–0·7 m soil layers and calculated actual evapotranspiration (ETa)…
Plant Growth Along the Altitudinal Gradient — Role of Plant Nutritional Status, Fine Root Activity, and Soil Properties
In tropical montane forests, aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP ) usually decreases with increasing altitude. Besides low photosynthesis (Kitayama and Aiba 2002) and direct impact of low temperatures on plant growth (Hoch and Korner 2003), low ANPP at high altitudes has often been attributed to nutrient limitation (Bruijnzeel et al. 1993; Bruijnzeel and Veneklaas 1998; Tanner et al. 1998). Plant growth is often correlated with nutrient availability in tropical montane forests. For example, the exceptionally high tree stature in a montane forest stand in Papua New Guinea was attributed to its nutrient rich soil parent material (Edwards and Grubb 1977). In montane forests of Jamaica (…
Resources, recruitment limitation and invader species identity determine pattern of spontaneous invasion in experimental grasslands
Summary 1 A number of experimental studies have supported the hypothesis that diversity increases invasion resistance, but several mechanisms were proposed to explain this relationship. We studied spontaneous invasion in experimental grasslands varying in species richness (1–16 (60)) and plant functional group richness and identity (1–4; grasses, legumes, tall herbs small herbs) during the first 3 years after establishment on large-area plots of 20 × 20 m size. 2 Invader species number, biomass and density decreased with increasing community species richness. The identity of successful invaders changed through time as the relative importance of external invaders (= species not belonging to …