6.4 Reliability of functioning of natural grasslands

Publications
Bartha, S., R. Canullo, S. Chelli & G. Campetella (2020) Unimodal Relationships of Understory Alpha and Beta Diversity along Chronosequence in Coppiced and Unmanaged Beech Forests. Diversity 12(3): 101
Chelli, S., E. Simonetti, Wellstein C. ... S. Bartha & R. Canullo (2019) Effects of climate, soil, forest structure and land use on the functional composition of the understory in Italian forests. J. of Veg. Sci. 30(6): 1110-1121.
Chelli, S., G. Ottaviani, E. Simonetti ... S. Bartha ... G. Campetella (2019) Climate is the main driver of clonal and bud bank traits in Italian forest understories. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 40: 125478
Kun, R., S. Bartha, Á. Malatinszky, Zs. Molnár, A. Lengyel & B. Dániel (2019) “Everyone does it a bit differently!”: Evidence for a positive relationship between micro-scale land-use diversity and plant diversity in hay meadows. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 283: 106556
Stotz, G.C., J.F. Cahill, J.A. Bennett ... S. Bartha ... M. Zobel & L.H. Fraser (2019) Not a melting pot: Plant species aggregate in their non‐native range. Global Ecology and Biogeography - DOI: 10.1111/geb.13046
Terziyska, T., J.L. Tsakalos, S. Bartha, I. Apostolova, D. Sopotlieva, Z. Zimmermann, G. Szabó & C. Wellstein (2019) Species and functional differences between subalpine grasslands with and without dwarf shrub encroachment. Plant Biosystems, DOI: 10.1080/11263504.2019.1651780

We measure the fine scale spatial patterns of ecosystem functional attributes (e.g. biomass and soil respiration) together with the patterns of diversity in natural grasslands. The spatial and temporal variability of these attributes refers to the reliability of the ecosystem. Low relative variability means high predictability, high consistency, i.e. high reliability. According to our hypothesis the highest reliability appears in community of high structural complexity which are not only rich in species but also well organized in space. In this way we are searching for early warning signals to managers about processes threatening ecosystem services in the future.