Abstract
Mobility is highly species-specific and individual species mobility can be predicted by species traits, yet this topic remains largely understudied. We analyzed data on species presences/absences in permanent subplots (1m × 1m) within 15 main plots 10m × 10m) over 24 years originating from a grassland biodiversity experiment in Czechia. Plots differed in initial species richness and composition. We estimated mean individual species persistence and searched for any relationship with individual species traits. We also tested the effect of sowing richness/composition on species persistence and community mobility. Our results show that individual species have very different mobilities which vary in time and can be predicted by species traits, most importantly by leaf traits, clonal traits, and traits characterizing species life forms. Trait syndrome corresponding to the traveler part of the mobility gradient typically includes annuals having a taproot, long-lasting seedbank, and high SLA. Trait syndrome of sitters includes perennial hemicryptophytes with effective clonal reproduction and transient seedbank. Importantly, trait association with species mobility is spatial scale dependent, whereas studies on the spatial scale of 0.01m2 show that clonality increases mobility, in our case clonality increases the persistence of species in 1m2 units. In contrast with an evident linkage between mobility and traits, the effect of community richness/composition on species/community mobility was weak and detectable in the very first years of the experiment only.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to numerous people, mostly students, participating in the data collection (vegetation recording) and to the field owner Dr. Miroslav Šrůtek for permission to work on his farm and for experiment maintenance throughout the years. We thank Dawson Shillof for revision of our English.
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Our work was supported by grant GACR 20-13637S.
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All authors conceived the ideas and designed the methodology. JL established the experiment, JL and JD organized, supervised, and participated in the data collection, and TR analyzed the data and led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the revisions and gave final approval for publication.
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Communicated by Zoltan Nagy.
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Rychtecká, T., Doležal, J. & Lepš, J. Plant species within-community mobility is determined by traits of leaf economic spectrum, clonality, and life form. Plant Ecol 225, 95–105 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-023-01379-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-023-01379-1