Competition at Community Boundaries: Mechanisms of Vegetation Structure in a Dune-Slack Complex

1. A re-examination of the distribution of the dominant species in a series of dune and slack communities after an interval of 24 years revealed varying amounts of movement in the boundaries between the different vegetation types. 2. Some boundaries showed no measurable differences in location while...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Functional ecology 1993-01, Vol.7 (2), p.156-168
Main Authors: Studer-Ehrensberger, K., Studer, C., Crawford, R. M. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Anoxia
Biological and medical sciences
Disaster relief
Dunes
Ecological competition
Floods
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Habitats
Plant growth
Plants
Synecology
Terrestrial ecosystems
Vegetation
Wetland ecology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:1. A re-examination of the distribution of the dominant species in a series of dune and slack communities after an interval of 24 years revealed varying amounts of movement in the boundaries between the different vegetation types. 2. Some boundaries showed no measurable differences in location while others had changed significantly. The most stable boundary was between the Carex arenaria heath vegetation of the dune tops and the Filipendula ulmaria-dominated community of the adjacent dune slack. This boundary coincided with the maximum winter flood-line which has remained stable despite increased flooding, as excess water decants into drier slacks to seaward. 3. Within the slack community increased flooding and nutrient supply, from a drainage system that was put in place shortly after the initial survey, have been accompanied by an increase in Glyceria maxima at the expense of F. ulmaria and Carex nigra dominated zones. 4. Examination of the anoxia tolerance of some of the species suggests that the stable winter flood-line boundary between the dune and slack communities is maintained in its fixed position by the intolerance to anoxia of the dune-top species, with stress tolerance rather than competition being the over-riding factor determining its location. By contrast, changes within the mire vegetation types appear to be in response to competition processes with stress tolerance playing a reduced role.
ISSN:0269-8463
1365-2435
DOI:10.2307/2389882