%0 Generic %A Riesch, Friederike %A Stroh, Hans Georg %A Tonn, Bettina %A Isselstein, Johannes %D 2018 %T Soil pH and phosphorus drive species composition and richness in semi-natural heathlands and grasslands unaffected by twentieth-century agricultural intensification %U https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Soil_pH_and_phosphorus_drive_species_composition_and_richness_in_semi-natural_heathlands_and_grasslands_unaffected_by_twentieth-century_agricultural_intensification/7000769 %R 10.6084/m9.figshare.7000769.v1 %2 https://tandf.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/12844223 %2 https://tandf.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/12844226 %2 https://tandf.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/12844229 %2 https://tandf.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/12844232 %2 https://tandf.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/12844235 %K Acidification %K Ellenberg indicator values %K military training area %K Natura 2000 %K open habitat conservation %K plant community composition %K plant functional strategies %X

Background: Increased soil phosphorus (P) caused by agricultural intensification has been associated with decreased plant species richness (SR) in central Europe. How plant communities and soil P gradients are related in unimproved open habitats remains unclear.

Aims: The aim of this article was to characterise the relationship between soil chemical parameters and plant species composition and richness in unimproved open habitats.

Methods: The influence of soil chemical parameters (pH, P, K, Mg) on species composition was assessed, using data from 40 heathland and 54 grassland plots, by non-metric multidimensional scaling and permutational multivariate analysis of variance. The relationship between soil chemical parameters and SR was tested by linear mixed effects models.

Results: A direct relationship between heathland community composition and pH was observed, explaining 10% of variation in species composition, while P, Mg and pH together explained 17% of variation in grassland composition. In heathlands, SR increased with increasing pH, whereas in grasslands, SR decreased with increasing soil P.

Conclusions: Soil chemical parameters were substantially related to plant community composition and richness. In an area spared from a century of agricultural intensification, reduced pH appeared to constrain SR in heathlands, while even slight P increases (<10 mg kg−1) depressed plant SR in semi-natural grasslands.

%I Taylor & Francis