气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): High plant diversity and slow assembly of old-growth grasslands

CCPortal

DOI	10.1073/pnas.1922266117
	High plant diversity and slow assembly of old-growth grasslands
	Nerlekar A.N.; Veldman J.W.
发表日期	2020
ISSN	0027-8424
起始页码	18550
结束页码	18556
卷号	117 期号:31
英文摘要	Earth's ancient grasslands and savannas-hereafter old-growth grasslands-have long been viewed by scientists and environmental policymakers as early successional plant communities of low conservation value. Challenging this view, emerging research suggests that old-growth grasslands support substantial biodiversity and are slow to recover if destroyed by human land uses (e.g., tillage agriculture, plantation forestry). But despite growing interest in grassland conservation, there has been no global test of whether old-growth grasslands support greater plant species diversity than secondary grasslands (i.e., herbaceous communities that assemble after destruction of old-growth grasslands). Our synthesis of 31 studies, including 92 timepoints on six continents, found that secondary grasslands supported 37% fewer plant species than old-growth grasslands (log response ratio = -0.46) and that secondary grasslands typically require at least a century, and more often millennia (projected mean 1,400 y), to recover their former richness. Young (<29 y) secondary grasslands were composed of weedy species, and even as their richness increased over decades to centuries, secondary grasslands were still missing characteristic old-growth grassland species (e.g., long-lived perennials). In light of these results, the view that all grasslands are weedy communities, trapped by fire and large herbivores in a state of arrested succession, is untenable. Moving forward, we suggest that ecologists should explicitly consider grassland assembly time and endogenous disturbance regimes in studies of plant community structure and function. We encourage environmental policymakers to prioritize old-growth grassland conservation and work to elevate the status of old-growth grasslands, alongside old-growth forests, in the public consciousness. © 2020 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
英文关键词	Biodiversity; Disturbance; Land-use change; Meta-analysis; Succession
语种	英语
scopus关键词	article; biodiversity; consciousness; destruction; ecologist; forest; herbivore; human; human experiment; land use; nonhuman; plant community; plantation; savanna; species diversity; structure activity relation; synthesis; tillage; agriculture; classification; ecosystem; grassland; growth, development and aging; Poaceae; Agriculture; Biodiversity; Ecosystem; Grassland; Poaceae
来源期刊	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/160856
作者单位	Nerlekar, A.N., Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A and M University, College Station, TX 77843-2258, United States; Veldman, J.W., Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A and M University, College Station, TX 77843-2258, United States
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Nerlekar A.N.,Veldman J.W.. High plant diversity and slow assembly of old-growth grasslands[J],2020,117(31).
APA	Nerlekar A.N.,&Veldman J.W..(2020).High plant diversity and slow assembly of old-growth grasslands.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,117(31).
MLA	Nerlekar A.N.,et al."High plant diversity and slow assembly of old-growth grasslands".Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117.31(2020).