Cusseddu V, Ceccherelli G, Bertness M. Hierarchical organization of a Sardinian sand dune plant community.
PeerJ 2016;
4:e2199. [PMID:
27478701 PMCID:
PMC4950538 DOI:
10.7717/peerj.2199]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2016] [Accepted: 06/09/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Coastal sand dunes have attracted the attention of plant ecologists for over a century, but they have largely relied on correlations to explain dune plant community organization. We examined long-standing hypotheses experimentally that sand binding, inter-specific interactions, abiotic factors and seedling recruitment are drivers of sand dune plant community structure in Sardinia, Italy. Removing foundation species from the fore-, middle- and back-dune habitats over three years led to erosion and habitat loss on the fore-dune and limited plant recovery that increased with dune elevation. Reciprocal species removals in all zones suggested that inter-specific competition is common, but that dominance is transient, particularly due to sand burial disturbance in the middle-dune. A fully factorial 2-year manipulation of water, nutrient availability and substrate stability revealed no significant proximate response to these physical factors in any dune zone. In the fore- and middle-dune, plant seeds are trapped under adult plants during seed germination, and seedling survivorship and growth generally increase with dune height in spite of increased herbivory in the back-dune. Sand and seed erosion leads to limited seed recruitment on the fore-dune while high summer temperatures and preemption of space lead to competitive dominance of woody plants in the back-dune. Our results suggest that Sardinian sand dune plant communities are organized hierarchically, structured by sand binding foundation species on the fore-dune, sand burial in the middle-dune and increasingly successful seedling recruitment, growth and competitive dominance in the back-dune.
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