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Progressive effects of shading on experimental wetland communities over three years

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Abstract

To investigate how the composition of wetland communities changes over time in response to altered light regimes, experimental communities of five Carex and four grass species were subjected to artificial shading (continuous or seasonal) in a three-year field experiment. Shoot number and size was measured after six weeks, and shoot biomass was harvested five times during the experiment. Communities were initially dominated by three grass species in all treatments, but subsequently, the Carex species increased and reached dominance in the control plots, whereas grasses remained dominant in the shaded plots. Shading had no effect on the biomass of communities or of single species in the first year. In the second year, community biomass was still unaffected, but shading reduced the biomass of three Carex species and also reduced species diversity. In the third year, shading reduced community biomass and all Carex species, but not species diversity. The greater shade tolerance of the grasses could not be explained by differences in morphological plasticity: after six weeks of growth all species had increased shoot height in response to shade by 40–70%. Grasses were hardly more plastic than Carex species. We propose that the long-term success of the Carex species in full light was due to a high allocation of biomass to belowground parts, which may have reduced losses caused by repeated harvesting of shoots (a simulation of management in productive wet meadows). Shading probably caused the Carex plants to change their allocation pattern, and thus prevented their progressive increase.

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Acknowledgements

We are most thankful to Dieter Ramseier and the Stiftung Seebachtal, who made the site available for this experiment and provided the seeds as well as valuable advice and support. We also thank Peter J. Edwards for advice on the experiment and R. Aerts for helpful comments on the manuscript. Phillipp Hafliger, Hanspeter Suter and Mark van Kleunen provided substantial help in establishing the field plots, and Claude Théato, Regula Ott and Kathrin Jaag efficiently helped in maintaining the experiment and collecting data. The research was funded through a grant from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich.

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  1. Geobotanical Institute ETH Zürich, Universitätsstrasse 18, ETH Zentrum CHN G 28.2, CH-8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Kirsten A. Edelkraut & Sabine Güsewell

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  1. Kirsten A. Edelkraut
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  2. Sabine Güsewell
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Correspondence to Kirsten A. Edelkraut.

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Edelkraut, K.A., Güsewell, S. Progressive effects of shading on experimental wetland communities over three years. Plant Ecol 183, 315–327 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-005-9042-y

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