10.5061/DRYAD.8R6M4
Saccone, Patrick
University of Oulu
Virtanen, Risto
University of Oulu
Data from: Extrapolating multi-decadal plant community changes based on
medium-term experiments can be risky: evidence from high-latitude tundra
Dryad
dataset
2015
multiple drivers
Markov model
plant community dynamics
2015-03-24T17:52:08Z
2015-03-24T17:52:08Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.02399
78931 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
For most experimental studies the short-term responses to manipulation
often differ from the long-term changes in the community composition,
dynamics or functioning. Such discrepancy limits the translation of
experimental results into key ecological topics such as global
environmental change. Here we analyzed plant community dynamics from a
23-year transplant experiment in the Fennoscandian mountain tundra and
explored how well the pattern of responses over the first 12 years of the
experiment can predict longer-term changes. Sod-blocks of tundra heath
vegetation were transplanted to a snowbed 150 m higher in elevation from
their origin, where, with contrasting levels of soil wetness, half of the
transplants were protected from mammalian herbivores. Throughout the
experiment, community changes strongly depended on both plant functional
types and experimental treatments. The first 12 years were characterized
by a response to transplantation to the snowbed showing a strong increase
of graminoid and a decrease of shrub abundances in the transplants. In the
longer term, the community divergence increased in particular in response
to grazing and soil wetness within the snowbed, while graminoid dominance
disappeared. Markov chain models captured the main trends during the first
12 years but they failed to predict their relative abundance after 23
years. In particular, the late dominance of bryophytes in the wet snowbed,
the recovery of shrubs in the dry exclosures, and the subordinate status
of graminoids deviated from the extrapolation based on the medium-term
trends. Despite clear community dynamical trajectories detected in the
first decade, the differences in the temporal scale of both treatment
effects and plant functional type responses limited their ability to
extrapolate longer-term trajectories. We find that increasing focus on
long-term experiments is a crucial step to understanding the processes
involved in the response of plant communities to global environmental
change.
SacconeVirtanen-Oikos-02399-Plant-CompositionTable of 300 observations and
109 variables. Variables (columns) 1 to 4 = Year, treatment, replicate
number, soil moisture. variables 5 to 104 = species abundances. variables
105 to 109 = accumulated plant functional type
abundancesSacconeVirtanen-oik-02399.txt
Northern fennoscandia