Is species richness of small spring fens influenced by the spatial mass effect?
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Community Ecology |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Botany |
| Keywords | Carpathians; Coexistence; Grassland; Source-sink dynamics; Species pool; Vegetation; Vicinism |
| Description | Species composition of island habitats is, among others, shaped by the mass effect of nearby ill-adapted populations. We investigated small calcareous spring fens scattered within species-rich grasslands in a region in which particular locations differ in climatic and edaphic conditions. Fens in colder, moister and less calcareous north-eastern (NE) locations harboured more plant species from surrounding grasslands and displayed higher similarity with the surroundings than the fens in warmer, drier and more calcareous south-western (SW) locations. Fen species richness correlated significantly with surrounding species richness in the NE locations, whereas no correlation was found for the SW locations. We demonstrated that the mass effect does not always significantly shape the species composition of island habitats and that the landscape species pool may not influence extreme habitats. |
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