Species-area curve, life history strategies, and succession: a field test of relationships

  • Jan Lepš
  • Jan Štursa
Chapter
Part of the Advances in vegetation science book series (AIVS, volume 11)

Abstract

Changes of species richness along temporal and environmental gradients were investigated. Two data sets were used: a successional sere of old-field plant communities in the Bohemian Karst, and a set of plant communities under various intensities of disturbance in the Krkonoše (Giant) Mts, both in Czechoslovakia. The species richness of a plant community is a spatial phenomenon, and should be described by the species-area relationship (using e.g. the power function S = c · A z ) rather than by a single number. In the old-field succession, the number of species in very small plots (0.1 × 0.1 m) tends to increase with successional age while the number of species in larger plots (4 × 4 m) decreases from the third year of succession. The plant community under the highest rate of disturbance of the Krkonoše Mts data set shows the lowest number of species on small plots and the highest number of species on large plots. The results may be explained using the distinction between founder- and dominance-controlled communities (Yodzis 1978, 1984). In accordance with this theory, the species-area relationship within a community is shaped mainly by the type of competitive interaction and may be predicted on the basis of life-history strategies of constituent species. Disturbance causes a shift from dominance to founder control. On the landscape scale, the species-area relationship is shaped by other factors, and so it is unjustified to extrapolate the relationship outside the range in which it was originally assessed.

Keywords

Competition Disturbance Diversity Krkonoše Mountains Old field Species richness 
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1990

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jan Lepš
    • 1
  • Jan Štursa
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Biomathematics, Biological Research CentreCzechoslovak Academy of SciencesČeské BudějoviceCzechoslovakia
  2. 2.KRNAP, Krkonoše Mountains National Park, MuseumVrchlabíCzechoslovakia

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