title: Effects of long- and short-term management on the functional structure of meadows through species turnover and intraspecific trait variability.
abstract: The functional structures of communities respond to environmental changes by both species replacement (turnover) and within-species variation (intraspecific trait variability; ITV). Evidence is lacking on the relative importance of these two components, particularly in response to both short- and long-term environmental disturbance. We hypothesized that such short- and long-term perturbations would induce changes in community functional structure primarily via ITV and turnover, respectively. To test this we applied an experimental design across long-term mown and abandoned meadows, with each plot containing a further level of short-term management treatments: mowing, grazing and abandonment. Within each plot, species composition and trait values [height, shoot biomass, and specific leaf area (SLA)] were recorded on up to five individuals per species. Positive covariations between the contribution of species turnover and ITV occurred for height and shoot biomass in response to both short- and long-term management, indicating that species turnover and intraspecific adjustments selected for similar trait values. Positive covariations also occurred for SLA, but only in response to long-term management. The contributions of turnover and ITV changed depending on both the trait and management trajectory. As expected, communities responded to short-term disturbances mostly through changes in intraspecific trait variability, particularly for height and biomass. Interestingly, for SLA they responded to long-term disturbances by both species turnover and intraspecific adjustments. These findings highlight the importance of both ITV and species turnover in adjusting grassland functional trait response to environmental perturbation, and show that the response is trait specific and affected by disturbance regime history.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic. martin.volf@prf.jcu.cz.|Institute of Entomology, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic. martin.volf@prf.jcu.cz.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Volf
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Entomology, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Conor
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Redmond
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ágnes J
authors.initials: ÁJ
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Yoann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Le Bagousse-Pinguet
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Entomology, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biella
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Götzenberger
authors.affiliation: DAPHNE-Institute of Applied Ecology, z.s., Žumberk 71, 53836, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Lidická 25/27, 60200, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Záboj
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hrázský
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135, 37982, Třeboň, Czech Republic.|Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 12844, Praha 2, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Štěpán
authors.initials: Š
authors.lastname: Janeček
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135, 37982, Třeboň, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jitka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klimešová
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lepš
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Šebelíková
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Tereza
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vlasatá
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135, 37982, Třeboň, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Bello
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D004777:Environment; D065948:Grassland; D010641:Phenotype; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000502:physiology; D013995:Time
keywords: Abandoned meadows; Mesic grassland; Plant height; Shoot biomass; Specific leaf area
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