Despite its long tradition in our country, livestock grazing almost disappeared from Czech landscape. This form of land use has winded down in the middle of 20th century, when compulsory co-operative farming was introduced. Decrease of pasturage is especially visible on fragmented areas of steep slopes and in dry places. These areas are often highly valuable and protected for its nature richness. When a grazing management is introduced, its effects on plant species communities are not clear. Also the exact mechanisms of vegetation changes caused by grazing are often unknown. In 2005, administration of PLA Český kras reinstated grazing management as a mean of preservation of dry grassland ecosystems. As part of this project I studied, how generative regeneration contributes to vegetation changes. The aim of the present study is to ascertain: a) how is seedling recruitment and survival affected by grazing, b) what are limitations of generative reproduction, and c) what is the contribution of soil seed bank to vegetation changes. In 2005, monitoring of seedling recruitment and survival had started, repetitive sowing experiment was performed and species composition of persistent seed bank was analyzed. Grazing had a positive effect on seedling - both numbers of seedling and their species composition....

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Despite extensive international acceptance of the critical role of mammalian post-dispersal seed predation in many plant communities, in New Zealand we have limited knowledge of these predators’ influence on plant recruitment in our forests. The principle objective of my thesis was to determine the importance of exotic mammals as post-dispersal seed predators in a New Zealand conifer-broadleaf forest remnant. To address this goal, I used a series of field-based experiments where the actions of different post-dispersal seed predators were separated by wire-mesh exclosures. My study was conducted at Mount Peel Forest Park Scenic Reserve, South Canterbury, New Zealand. Being a human modified conifer forest currently dominated by broadleaf species, it is typical of forest remnants in New Zealand. This presented an opportunity to study a wide range of both potential post-dispersal seed predators and broadleaf tree species. My findings indicate that exotic mammals are not only post-dispersal seed predators at Peel Forest, but are responsible for the majority of post-dispersal predation events observed. Ship rats (Rattus rattus) were the dominant post-dispersal seed predators, while brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), house mice (Mus musculus) and native invertebrates were also important post-dispersal seed predators for several tree species. Through use of time-lapse video and cafeteria experiments I found that exotic mammalian seed predators, when compared to native invertebrate seed predators, preyed upon larger-seeded plant species and were responsible for considerable seed losses of several tree species. However, exotic mammalian seed predators do share several foraging characteristics with native invertebrate seed predators, as predators foraged in similar habitats and responded in a similar way to changes in seed density. In investigating if post-dispersal seed predation by mammals had a flow-on effect to plant recruitment, I observed natural seedling densities at Peel Forest were significantly higher in the absence of mammalian seed predators, but I found no evidence that the presence of mammals significantly altered the overall species richness. At the community level, I did not find an interaction between habitat and exotic mammals, however I present evidence that for individual plant species a significant mammal : habitat interaction occurred. Consequently, even though my cafeteria experiment implied there was no significant difference in the overall amount of seed preyed upon within different habitats, the less favourable microsite conditions for germination under an intact continuous canopy allows mammals to exacerbate habitat-related patterns of seed mortality and have a noticeable effect on seedling establishment. In an effort to validate the use of manipulative experiments to predict the long-term effect of post-dispersal seed predation on plant dynamics, I attempted to link results of my cafeteria experiment with observed seedling abundance at Peel Forest. Seven tree species were used in this comparison and a strong correlation was observed. This result shows that the level of post-dispersal seed predation determined in the cafeteria experiment provided a good predictor of the effect of mammalian post-dispersal seed predation on seedling establishment. To fully gauge the impact of mammalian post-dispersal seed predators on seedling establishment, the relationship between these seed predators and the type of recruitment limitation experienced by a plant species was also investigated. By using a combination of seed addition, plot manipulations and seed predator exclusion I was able to investigate this relationship. I found evidence that seed limitation at Peel Forest is positively correlated with seed size, and that while mammalian post-dispersal seed predators can further reduce plant recruitment of plant species experiencing seed limitation, the influence of mammals in determining plant recruitment was limited for plant species experiencing microsite limitation. My study has proven that exotic mammals are now the dominant post-dispersal seed predators at Peel Forest, the amount of seed preyed upon varies among plant species, and post-dispersal seed predation by mammalian species can lead to differences in seedling richness and abundance. I proved that the influence of exotic mammals on seedling establishment is also linked to habitat structure and recruitment limitations. When combined these observations suggest that exotic mammalian post-dispersal seed predators may play an important role in determining landscape abundance and distribution of plants at Peel Forest.

Juniper (Juniperus spp.) encroachment into sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) and bunchgrass communities has reduced understory plant cover and allowed juniper trees to dominate millions of hectares of semiarid rangelands. Trees are mechanically masticated or shredded to decrease wildfire potential and increase desirable understory plant cover. When trees are masticated after a major increase in tree population density and associated decrease in perennial understory cover, there is a risk that invasive annual grasses will dominate because they are highly responsive to the increased resource availability that commonly follows removal of the main resource user. To determine if tree mastication increases resource availability and subsequently favors invasive annual or perennial grasses, we compared soil temperature, water, and nutrient microenvironmental conditions and seedling establishment and growth. We used the major rangeland weed, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), to represent invasive annual grasses and Anatone bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) A. Löve), a natural accession of native bluebunch wheatgrass, to represent the perennial grasses of the sagebrush-bunchgrass plant community. These comparisons were made between and within paired-adjacent masticated and untreated areas at three locations in Utah dominated by Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma (Torr.) Little). Juniper tree mastication generally increased resource availability with masticated areas having greater soil temperature, soil water availability, and soil N supply rates than untreated areas. Prior to juniper tree mastication litter mounds were not found to be resource islands probably because juniper trees themselves were using subcanopy soil water and nutrients. After juniper tree mastication and elimination of these predominant resource users, litter mounds served as resource islands with greater soil water availability and N supply rates than bare interspaces during the critical time for seedling establishment in spring. Plant growth followed in line with greater resource availability after tree mastication with masticated areas having more productive although fewer invasive-annual and perennial grass seedlings than untreated areas. These results suggest that increases in resource availability and warmer spring temperatures associated with mastication will not necessarily favor invasive annual over perennial grass seedling establishment. Resilience of the sagebrush-bunchgrass community to return to dominance after juniper control will likely be greatly influenced by how much of the sagebrush-bunchgrass community remains following tree control and the intensity of propagule pressure by invasive species. If only invasive annuals remain when the trees are treated then invasive annuals would be expected to dominate the post-treatment plant community especially with their ability to establish inside litter mounds unless they were also controlled and perennial grasses planted at the time of treatment.

Of concern in this research were the ecological parameters associated with the establishment of a model invasive plant species, Imperata cylindrica, across a scale of ecological organization. Specifically, the study addressed the species’ ability to: differentially respond to abiotic and biotic constraints during seedling establishment, exhibit a novel underground competitive interference mechanism, and alter the decomposition dynamics in newly invaded ecosystems. Finally, the last portion of the research was centered around creating a predictive habitat model that will provide information on the most important variables responsible for creating habitat for this species. The population level seedling study indicated that soil characteristics and light availability play a significant role in seedling establishment. There were large trends in biomass allocation attributable to soil type with seedlings performing best in high nutrient soils representative of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley physiographic region. I. cylindrica seedlings also showed a positive response to increased seedling density during the initial stages of seedling establishment. The community level research examining a hypothesized novel interference mechanism deployed by I. cylindrica showed a significant and robust pattern of I. cylindrica damaging its own belowground tissue more often than that of its surrounding neighbors. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that I. cylindrica gains a competitive advantage by exposing the native plant assemblage to pathogen invasion (via ruptured tissue) as the plant would expose itself to these pathogens (to which it is evolutionarily naive) at much higher volumes. The ecosystem level examination of this globally important invasive species indicated that I. cylindrica invasion into native systems will significantly accelerate ambient rates of decomposition. Furthermore, fungal community composition in invaded areas was drastically altered as well as bacterial community functional activity in relation to several key enzymes responsible for the decomposition of plant tissue which were produced more abundantly in invaded areas.The landscape-scale analyses and modeling work validated decades of anecdotal evidence and indicated that anthropogenic disturbance factors associated with road maintenance and construction (soil disturbance and vegetation removal) are the principal factors responsible for creating habitat suitable for invasion by this species.

Historically, the Kentucky Inner Bluegrass blue ash-oak savanna-woodland was the primary ecosystem of the Inner Bluegrass Region (IBR) of Kentucky. After European settlement, the majority (>99%) of Bluegrass savanna was converted to agricultural and urban land uses. Currently remnant savanna tree species are failing to recruit. Therefore, a long-term restoration ecology project researching competition and disturbance on seedling establishment, survival, and growth has been established at Griffith Woods (the largest remaining savanna in Kentucky) in Harrison Co., KY. Fourteen native hardwood tree species (a total of 6,168 seedlings) have been experimentally planted. Light, soil, surrounding vegetation, and herbivory, factors thought to influence seedling survival, have been initially assessed. Results show that soils differed spatially in P, Ca, Mg, Zn, pH, N percent and soil organic matter percent. Light was significantly reduced by diffusive filtering through vegetation. Vegetation biomass was influenced by pH and Mg. Initial seedling survival was high, but significantly differed by species type, location, and soil pH, Mg, and Zn. This research demonstrates that under a similar range of conditions, native hardwood tree seedling establishment is possible. Therefore, the potential exists to restore Bluegrass savanna-woodland in order to return proper ecological functioning into a degraded landscape.

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