Life Sciences Commons^™

Height And Clonality Traits Determine Plant Community Responses To Fertilization, Timothy L. Dickson, Gary G. Mittelbach, Heather L. Reynolds, Katherine L. Gross

Biology Faculty Publications

Fertilization via agricultural inputs and nutrient deposition is one of the major threats to global terrestrial plant richness, yet we still do not fully understand the mechanisms by which fertilization decreases plant richness. Tall clonal species have recently been proposed to cause declines in plant species richness by increasing in abundance in response to fertilization and competing strongly with other species. We tested this hypothesis in a fertilization experiment in a low productivity grassland by using a novel experimental manipulation of the presence vs. absence of clonal species and by examining the role of height within these treatments. We found …