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Plant Ecology Laboratory

Research in our lab focuses on diversity patterns in biological communities, and on the interactions underlying these patterns. The main questions we address are: how do communities vary along natural gradients and gradients of human impact? What are the major assembly rules shaping communities; and are they attributable to biotic interactions or environmental heterogeneity? What are the roles of different biotic interactions - including competition, facilitation, herbivory and symbiosis - in structuring communities? Read more

News archive - January

New paper claryfying the effect of mowing on floodplain meadows with different moisture regime

January 2012

Jaak-Albert Metsoja with collegues published a paper about the effects of mowing on dry and moist floodplain meadows. They compared the vegetation of mown and unmown floodplain meadows of Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve. Data was sampled in 2000 and 2010 at Rivers Pedja and Põltsamaa. They found that mowing increased the species richness of relatively drier plant communities on one of the study sites and changed the species composition and decreased spatial turnover on all sites and plant communities. The changes in species composition were most pronounced on relatively drier and more elevated plant communities and most subtle in the talll sedge communities of floodplain depressions. According to Indicator Species Analysis, the Ranunculus auricomus was an indicator of management in mesic and wet meadows, Carex cespitosa and Calamagrostis canescens indicated the unmanaged tall sedge and wet meadows respectively. Read more.

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