Authors: John Connolly Peter Wayne
Publish Date: 2004/11/20
Volume: 142, Issue: 3, Pages: 450-457
Abstract
A method is proposed for assessing the relative importance of species identity neighbour species influence and environment as determinants of change in community biomass composition in twospecies shortterm competition experiments The method is based on modelling the differences in relative growth rates RGR of species hence called the RGRD method Using a multiple regression approach it quantifies the effects of initial species’ abundance species identity and environment on RGRD and hence on change in community biomass composition The RGRD approach is relatively simple to use and deals readily with statistical difficulties associated with correlated responses between species from the same stand It can be easily adapted to analyse sequential harvest data An example based on data from twospecies mixtures of the annual species Stellaria media and Poa annua is used to illustrate the method The main determinant of change in community biomass composition was species identity reflected in the difference in growth rates between the species Change in community composition was not in general significantly affected by the influence of neighbours or fertiliser level The unimportance of the influence of neighbours in affecting the composition of these communities contrasts with the strong role of intra and interspecific competition in determining the size of individuals of both species Connolly et al in Oecologia 82513–526 1990Thanks are due to Fakhri Bazzaz for hosting JC during repeated visits to his laboratory and for his encouragement and constructive comments We also thank David Gibson and Teresa Sebastia for helpful comments We wish to thank two anonymous referees for very useful comments on earlier drafts This work was partly supported by EPA Ireland programme AGBIOTA grant 2001CD/B1M1 by an Enterprise Ireland International Collaboration Programme grant in 2001 and by the EU Concerted Action COST 852
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