Thèse-EliseBuisson-Chapitre3

Chapter 3 Resilience of La Crau The implications of seed rain and seed bank patterns for plant succession at the edges of abandoned fields in Mediterranean landscapes 1 2 1 3Elise Buisson , Thierry Dutoit , Franck Torre , Christine Römermann , 3Peter Poschlod 1 Institute of Mediterranean Ecology and Paleoecology, UMR/CNRS 6116 University P. Cézanne, FST Saint Jérôme, case 462 13397 Marseille Cedex 20 France 2 UMR INRA-UAPV 406, Écologie des Invertébrés Site Agroparc 84914 Avignon France 3 Institute of Botany, University of Regensburg Universitätsstrasse 31 D-93051 Regensburg, Germany Article published in Biological Conservation in Jan. 2005. Abstract Some environmental variables and above-ground vegetation, seed rain, ant-borne seeds and seed banks were studied on three abandoned fields, at the margins between these fields and a remnant patch of a native steppe vegetation of a high value for nature and species conservation. While the fields were the same size, were adjacent to the same patch of remnant steppe and were cultivated with the same crop, site-specific environmental variables contributed to 23% of the vegetation patterns; each site was characterised by its unique historical trajectory and thus, by a particular set of species. Distance from boundaries contributed to 10% of the vegetation patterns. Species characterising the surrounding steppe were found close to boundaries; species characterising abandoned fields were ...