Effects of dominance and diversity on productivity along Ellenberg's experimental water table gradients.

ABSTRACT: Heinz Ellenberg's historically important work on changes in the abundances of a community of grass species growing along experimental gradients of water table depth has played an important role in helping to identify the hydrological niches of plant species in wet meadows. We present a previously unpublished complete version of Ellenberg's dataset from the 1950s together with the results of a series of modern statistical analyses testing for hypothesized overyielding of aboveground net primary production as a consequence of resource-based niche differentiation. Interactions of species with water table depth and soil type in the results of our analyses are qualitatively consistent with earlier interpretations of evidence for differences in the fundamental and realized niches of species. Arr

SUBMITTER: Hector A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3440424 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature