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- Title
Functional groups for response to disturbance in Mediterranean oil fields
- Authors
Lavorel, S.; Rochette, C.; Lebreton, J. -D.
- Abstract
Experimental disturbance and fertilisation in two Mediterranean old fields, three and nine years old, respectively, were used to identifyfunctional groups for response to disturbance. Five morphological traits (canopy structure, height, lateral spread, habit and plasticity)and five regeneration traits (life cycle, seed mass, fecundity, dispersal mode and germination seasonality) were used for species classification. Correlation patterns of species composition and species attributes with disturbance treatments were analysed in order to characterise groups of response to disturbance. The classification based on morphological traits was repeatable across fields and reflected natural correlation patterns among attributes. Erect rosettes with low morphological plasticity and moderate lateral spread, mostly grasses, were intolerant of disturbance. Partial rosettes with low morphological plasticity and wide lateral spread, e.g. Asteraceae species, colonised disturbed locations. Flat proto-rosettes with a plastic architecture were indifferent to disturbance in the young plot but required disturbance to establish in the older plot. The classification based on regeneration traits repeatedly identified germination period to be correlated with disturbance response. Species with early germination were intolerant of disturbance while late-germinating species colonised disturbances. These groups were clearly distinct from groups based onnatural attribute correlation patterns which related primarily to seed mass, and secondarily to dispersal mode and fecundity. Effects of fertilisation were detected only within disturbed quadrats of the oldplot. Fertilisation favoured the colonisation of disturbances by species with a partial rosette and low plasticity and by species with late germination and high fecundity. These results, complemented by direct analyses on individual traits, are mostly consistent with previous descriptions of the ruderal strategy. This study shows that additional
- Subjects
MEDITERRANEAN Region; FOREST ecology; PLANTS
- Publication
Oikos, 1999, Vol 84, Issue 3, p480
- ISSN
0030-1299
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3546427