Introduction
Management factors | Meanings and scales of management factors |
---|---|
Type of grassland management (T) | Mowing (M) Grazing (G) Combined (mowing and grazing combined within a year or between years, C) |
Herbage removal intensity (I) | Low: 0.5 standard livestock unit (SLU) per hectare grazing, or mowed once a year Medium: 0.5–0.8 SLU/ha grazing, or mowed once a year with subsequent grazing in the same year High: > 0.8 SLU/ha grazing livestock |
Spatio-temporal complexity of management (C) | Low: permanent grazing in a single grazing unit (no variance in grazing pressure within and between years) Medium: grazing with standard within-year sequence of two grazing units, or one mowing with 10% left uncut, or mowing once a year combined with subsequent grazing High: mowing and grazing combined between years, or grazing with a varying sequence of four grazing units between years |
-
Which management factors and combinations of them have a significant effect on plant diversity?
-
Do these management factors separately and in combination significantly affect dominance relations (species number and total cover) among PFT groups?
-
What priority do management factors have in how they affect diversity indices, PFT group covers and PFT species numbers, and how do they apply to conservation?
Materials and methods
Study area
Sampling protocol
Applied terms and data analysis
Plant functional type | Trait category | Attributes of variables | Species number in different categories from the total (176) | Optimal percentage cover intervals in plots (2 m × 2 m) | Optimal species number interval in plots (2 m × 2 m) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Forb species | Growth form | Non-grassy herbs | 126 | 20–40% | 20–25 |
Grass species | Growth form | Species only from the Poaceae family | 23 | 60–70% | 7–8 |
Disturbance-tolerant species | Life history | Plants native to the Hungarian flora with a wide range of perturbation tolerance | 49 | 0–5% | 7–8 |
Generalist species | Life history | Plants native to the Hungarian flora with great area and relatively great spreading capacity | 73 | 25–30% | 10–15 |
Natural competitor species | Life history | Plants native to the Hungarian flora with great competive abilities in plant communities | 18 | 0–10% | 4–5 |
Ruderal competitor species | Life history | Plants native to the Hungarian flora with great competive abilities in ruderal plant communities | 5 | 0–3% | 0–2 |
Specialist species | Life history | Plants native to the Hungarian flora with special habitat needs and a narrow range of tolerance | 6 | 1–20% | 1–6 |
Protected species | Life history | Rare plants native to the Hungarian flora with mostly very special habitat needs, protected by Hungarian law | 10 | 1–20% | 1–10 |
Results
Management factors with strong explanatory power on the dependent variables
Estimators | T | I | C | T + I | T + C | I + C | T + I + C | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Species number | AICc | 968.047 | 951.616 | 950.913 | 942.692 | 949.420 | 942.945 | 938.220* |
R2 | 0.125 | 0.488 | 0.492 | 0.547 | 0.498 | 0.541 | 0.554 | |
Shannon diversity | AICc | 73.029 | 71.761 | 66.891* | 72.150 | 70.899 | 71.208 | 74.672 |
R2 | 0.160 | 0.225 | 0.380 | 0.352 | 0.383 | 0.377 | 0.392 | |
Simpson diversity | AICc | − 383.977 | − 383.636 | − 387.509* | − 382.706 | − 383.648 | − 383.277 | − 380.258 |
R2 | 0.147 | 0.128 | 0.272 | 0.255 | 0.280 | 0.271 | 0.301 |
Estimators | T | I | C | T + I | T + C | I + C | T + I + C | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Forb species cover (%) | AICc | 1385.231 | 1380.966* | 1384.790 | 1384.894 | 1388.249 | 1384.251 | 1385.187 |
R2 | 0.065 | 0.165 | 0.079 | 0.171 | 0.099 | 0.182 | 0.223 | |
Grass species cover (%) | AICc | 1467.300 | 1454.464 | 1463.378 | 1447.514 | 1454.573 | 1446.584* | 1458.212 |
R2 | 0.116 | 0.341 | 0.207 | 0.349 | 0.245 | 0.350 | 0.438 | |
Disturbance-tolerant species cover (%) | AICc | 1301.421* | 1305.392 | 1305.446 | 1305.481 | 1305.599 | 1308.373 | 1308.558 |
R2 | 0.199 | 0.052 | 0.033 | 0.206 | 0.205 | 0.115 | 0.244 | |
Generalist species cover (%) | AICc | 1296.816 | 1293.951 | 1289.503* | 1290.848 | 1291.935 | 1293.646 | 1291.994 |
R2 | 0.128 | 0.233 | 0.348 | 0.392 | 0.379 | 0.347 | 0.425 | |
Natural competitor species cover (%) | AICc | 1492.611 | 1490.755 | 1490.782 | 1481.689 | 1482.978 | 1481.190 | 1470.438* |
R2 | 0.087 | 0.121 | 0.115 | 0.163 | 0.136 | 0.158 | 0.189 | |
Ruderal competitor species cover (%) | AICc | 1237.739 | 1232.633 | 1235.012 | 1228.457 | 1229.791 | 1227.951 | 1220.754* |
R2 | 0.025 | 0.149 | 0.090 | 0.152 | 0.117 | 0.147 | 0.165 | |
Specialist species cover (%) | AICc | 624.490 | 622.625* | 623.085 | 622.966 | 624.113 | 623.490 | 622.875 |
R2 | 0.035 | 0.085 | 0.064 | 0.149 | 0.118 | 0.119 | 0.152 | |
Protected species cover (%) | AICc | 814.417 | 815.161 | 818.860 | 812.873 | 813.342 | 814.167 | 810.384* |
R2 | 0.168 | 0.146 | 0.012 | 0.210 | 0.197 | 0.162 | 0.212 |
Estimators | T | I | C | T + I | T + C | I + C | T + I + C | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Forb species number | AICc | 894.622 | 881.691 | 886.801 | 881.213* | 890.020 | 883.727 | 884.911 |
R2 | 0.084 | 0.486 | 0.410 | 0.524 | 0.425 | 0.505 | 0.523 | |
Grass species number | AICc | 644.068 | 643.017 | 642.585* | 646.095 | 646.695 | 645.810 | 648.362 |
R2 | 0.015 | 0.071 | 0.094 | 0.121 | 0.102 | 0.135 | 0.187 | |
Disturbance-tolerant species number | AICc | 771.976 | 766.332* | 766.359 | 768.323 | 769.468 | 768.201 | 772.074 |
R2 | 0.083 | 0.237 | 0.245 | 0.266 | 0.262 | 0.279 | 0.279 | |
Generalist species number | AICc | 810.551 | 803.455 | 780.598 | 777.411 | 780.935 | 777.034 | 773.002* |
R2 | 0.260 | 0.568 | 0.503 | 0.545 | 0.503 | 0.540 | 0.562 | |
Natural competitor species number | AICc | 598.535 | 597.091* | 598.422 | 601.337 | 602.691 | 600.888 | 604.408 |
R2 | 0.002 | 0.057 | 0.008 | 0.058 | 0.010 | 0.072 | 0.092 | |
Ruderal competitor species number | AICc | 407.871 | 404.273* | 406.821 | 408.322 | 410.863 | 408.067 | 406.300 |
R2 | 0.019 | 0.151 | 0.046 | 0.175 | 0.073 | 0.160 | 0.282 | |
Specialist species number | AICc | 349.383 | 345.074 | 340.268* | 342.316 | 345.085 | 343.524 | 344.688 |
R2 | 0.029 | 0.241 | 0.366 | 0.428 | 0.377 | 0.398 | 0.431 | |
Protected species number | AICc | 358.211 | 356.379* | 356.919 | 360.516 | 360.628 | 359.659 | 363.446 |
R2 | 0.036 | 0.084 | 0.061 | 0.132 | 0.127 | 0.136 | 0.139 |