Life form and life history explain variation in population processes in a grassland community invaded by exotic plants and mammals.

ABSTRACT: The existence of general characteristics of plant invasiveness is still debated. One reason we may not have found these characteristics is because we do not yet understand how processes underlying population dynamics contribute to community composition in invaded communities. Here I modify Ricker stock-recruitment models to parameterize processes important to community dynamics in an invaded grassland community: immigration, maximum intrinsic growth rate, self-regulation, and limitation by other species. I then used the parameterized models in a multi-species stochastic simulation to determine how processes affected long-term community dynamics. By parameterizing the models using the frequency of the 18 most common species in the grassland, I determined that life history and life form are

SUBMITTER: Nelis LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3423431 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature