Overview

Since 1961, scientists at the Unit of Comparative Plant Ecology (UCPE) based at the University of Sheffield have maintained a continuous programme of research in which the diverse landscapes of the South Pennines and adjoining lowlands to the east have been used as a test-bed for the development of generalising principles in fundamental and applied ecology. The main elements of this research are vegetation surveys (over 10,000 samples), a standardised database of plant functional traits and experiments in field plots and microcosms. In the first edition of this book, published in 1988, data assembled at UCPE were used to prepare accounts of the ecology of common British vascular plants. This second edition contains information relating to many less common species. Several new traits have been incorporated in the database and there is an additional chapter explaining the steps leading to the current widespread use of plant traits and plant functional types in efforts to predict and manage vegetation responses to changing conditions. It is increasingly apparent that particular traits of the dominant plant species are key drivers of ecosystem processes. Plants provide the entry points for nutrients, energy and carbon into the biomass and variation in their resource capture and biochemistry has strong effects on the remaining ecosystem components and processes. In Chapters 2 and 5 we have included twenty Panels that draw attention to ways in which there has been significant progress towards an understanding of the mechanisms connecting plant traits and plant functional types to variation in plant communities and ecosystems. Subjects addressed in the Panels include: The prescient contributions of Ramenskii (1938), Grubb (1977), Chapin (1980) and Hodgson (1986); The long debate concerning the existence and identity of primary plant functional types; Trait convergence and trait divergence in plant communities; Traits that drive ecosystems and traits that merely control entry and persistence in communities; Five mechanisms of plant co-existence; Plant community responses to extreme events and climate change; Evidence that plant functional types control the tempo of ecosystem functioning; How much will it cost to protect grassland diversity? And, what is happening to the British Flora?

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9781897604304

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