Abstract
Species turnover and mobility on a scale of 25 m2 was studied in a montane meadow, which had been transplanted to a location 200 m away from the initial site in the Harz Mountains. The transplantation was performed to preserve this grassland area, which otherwise would have been destroyed by a road construction project.
The frequency of 18 endangered species was recorded annually from 1992 to 1996 in 122 quadrats, having a size of 5 × 5 m and being arranged in a coherent block with a total area of 3,000 m2. Many species showed considerable dynamics in settling in the quadrats.
The species mobility was expressed as turnover rate, as persistence and as increase in cumulative species frequency. Mean turnover rates in quadrats over the study period ranged from 0.0% to 20.9% forRanunculus platanifolius andViola tricolor, respectively. The lowest annual persistence was found forLilium martagon with 0.582, followed byViola tricolor with 0.625. For the majority of species, persistence with regard to the first year did not decrease during the investigational period; exceptions were the decreasing persistence ofPolygala vulgaris, Thesium pyrenaicum andViola tricolor. In all cases, the cumulative frequencies were significantly lower than would had been expected on a random basis. Even the most mobile species showed cumulative frequencies which closely approximated the lowest possible values, thus supporting the minimum mobility model which proceeds from allocating occurrences to the cells in which the species previously occurred.
In general, mobility on a scale of 25 m2 was much lower than had been demonstrated by various authors on smaller scales. However, mobility studies on a large scale are useful because they focus on certain aspects of mobility such as life span of individuals and seed dispersal. For the investigated species can be concluded that the low mobility rate was not sufficient for their establishment in new grid cells to a considerable extent.
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Bruelheide, H. Population dynamics of endangered species in a transplanted montane meadow. Folia Geobot 35, 179–189 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02803096
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02803096