![]() Received: FebruAccepted: DecemPublished: February 3, 2017Ĭopyright: © 2017 Elschot et al. PLoS ONE 12(2):Įditor: Yohay Carmel, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, ISRAEL bottom-up control on vegetation composition in a tidal marsh depends on scale. ![]() Top-down control exerted by herbivores was found to be a secondary process and operated at much smaller spatial and temporal scales.Ĭitation: Elschot K, Vermeulen A, Vandenbruwaene W, Bakker JP, Bouma TJ, Stahl J, et al. In summary, we conclude that the vegetation composition within this tidal marsh was primarily controlled by the bottom-up factor of sediment accretion, which operates at large spatial as well as temporal scales. decades), high rates of sediment accretion surpassing the rate of local sea-level rise were found to drive long-term vegetation succession and increased cover of several climax vegetation types. several square kilometres) and temporal scales (i.e. However, we found that the patches reverted back to the initial vegetation type within 12 years. In our study, such activities by Greylag geese allowed them to exert top-down control by setting back vegetation succession. At the local scale, Greylag geese grub for below-ground storage organs of the vegetation, thereby creating bare patches of a few square metres within the marsh vegetation. We used a highly dynamic marsh system with a large population of the Greylag goose ( Anser anser) to investigate the potential importance of spatial and temporal scales on these processes. In this study, we hypothesize that top-down control by goose foraging and bottom-up control by sediment accretion on vegetation composition within an ecosystem can co-occur but operate at different spatial and temporal scales. The relative impact of top-down control by herbivores and bottom-up control by environmental conditions on vegetation is a subject of debate in ecology.
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