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The distribution of four grassland plant species in relation to landscape history in a Swedish rural area

2007; Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board; Volume: 44; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

1797-2442

Mikael Mildén, Sara A. O. Cousins, Ove Eriksson,

Lichen and fungal ecology

Milden, M., Cousins, S. A. O. & Ove Eriksson, O. 2007: The distribution of four grassland plant species in relation to landscape history in a Swedish rural area. — Ann. Bot. Fennici 44: 416–426. It is commonly agreed that landscape history is important for species distributions today. Here, we studied present-day regional population distribution and performance of four grassland species, the perennials Ranunculus bulbosus and Succisa pratensis, and the monocarpic “biennials” Carlina vulgaris and Tragopogon pratensis, in a Swedish rural landscape. We analysed the management history of their population patches, using vegetation maps from 1945 and 2001. Distributions of Succisa pratensis reflected the grassland occurrences in 1945 and Tragopogon pratensis was associated with the road network 60 years ago. Performance in different habitats also suggested an impact of land use on species distributions. For Ranunculus bulbosus and Carlina vulgaris the impact of landscape history was less obvious. Our results indicate that present-day distributions of some grassland species partly may be a legacy of previous semi-natural grassland patterns in rural Sweden, an insight that has valuable implications for assessments of long-term vulnerability of grassland species.