On the measurement of diversity-productivity relationships in a northern mixed grass prairie (Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada)

Csillag, F. and Kertész, M. and Davidson, A. and Mitchell, S. (2001) On the measurement of diversity-productivity relationships in a northern mixed grass prairie (Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada). Community Ecology, 2 (2). pp. 145-159. ISSN 1585-8553

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Abstract

For the investigation of diversity-productivity relationships under natural conditions, we present an operationally feasible measurement scheme explicitly considering the spatial organization of vegetation. We hypothesised that the spatial arrangement of the coexistence of species influences patch-level productivity. To characterise diversity, co-occurrences of species were recorded along oval transects allowing scaling by aggregation between 5 cm and 25 m. Productivity was characterised by field radiometric measurements, calibrated for leaf area and biomass, arranged in a sampling scheme scalable between 20 cm and 50 m. All data were collected along a slight resource gradient in the Stipa-Bouteloua (upland) community of the northern mixed-grass prairie in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. We found a wide range of correlations (Kendall's . between -0. 2 and 0. 9) between various measures of diversity (species richness, local species combinations) and productivity (average and variability of leaf-area index) as a function of sampling unit size. For field assessment of patch-level composition and functioning, we recommend to use samples at the spatial resolution corresponding to the maximum number of local species combinations as an appropriate scale for comparison. We demonstrate how our sampling methodology can be considered for possible process-oriented inference about diversity and productivity. To characterise diversity-productivity relationships for long-term monitoring and prediction of plant community structure and functioning, scalable, repeatable, non-destructive observations should be applied.

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