| Abstract Detail
Ecological Section Case , Erica J [1], Harrison, SP [1], Cornell, HV [1]. Impacts of goatgrass on functional and compositional beta-diversity in a serpentine annual grassland. Invasive plants often cause substantial declines in local species richness. However, the impact of invaders on community heterogeneity (beta-diversity) is less clear. One possibility is that invasive species select against a subset of species with functional traits that render them unable to compete in an invader-modified environment, reducing species and functional beta-diversity. We tested whether such a filtering effect accompanies invasion of serpentine annual grasslands by barbed goatgrass (Aegilops triuncialis). We established 150 pairs of adjacent invaded and non-invaded plots visually estimated cover of all species twice during the growing season, and converted species metrics into trait metrics using community weighted metrics at the local scale. We found invasion favored species with high f: nitrogen ratios, causing a 10% increase in community-weighted mean foliar N. Despite this weak trait-based selection at the local scale, functional beta-diversity did not significantly differ among invaded and control plots, and species beta-diversity increased. Therefore, stochastic extinction may outweigh the selective impacts of invasive species on community composition.
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1 - University Of California Davis, Environmental Science and Policy, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95618, United States
Keywords:
none specified
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 10
Location: Firs South/Boise Centre
Date: Monday, July 28th, 2014
Time: 1:30 PM
Number: 10001
Abstract ID:877
Candidate for Awards:None |
