Species richness – standing crop relationships along four lakeshore gradients: constraints on the general model

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1609-1617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene C. Wisheu ◽  
Paul A. Keddy

The applicability of a model describing the relationship between species richness and standing crop and litter was tested in each of four lakeshore habitats within Wilsons Lake, Nova Scotia. The shapes of the curves describing the species richness – standing crop relationships in the four habitats were significantly different. Standing crop and litter values were positively correlated with measured indices of soil fertility (loss on ignition and silt and clay content) and negatively correlated with disturbance as determined by the location of the shrub zone and overwinter damage to wooden pegs. Sites with high standing crop had a lower proportion of biomass composed of evergreen and isoetid species than the proportion in sites where standing crop was low. The among habitat variation observed in this study, and the variation in published values of standing crop values yielding maximum species richness, limit the accuracy of predictions from this model. Steps for refinement are suggested.


2015 ◽  
Vol 147 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sei-Woong Choi

AbstractThe influence of soil properties on the diversity of plants and moths (Lepidoptera) were examined in two South Korean high mountain forest localities (Mount Hallasan and Mount Jirisan) and one seashore mountain forest locality (Mount Seungdalsan). Six sites at each locality were included in the study. Soil physical and chemical properties and plant data were obtained from 20×20 m quadrats at every moth sampling site. Moth community data were obtained from the 18 sites. Stepwise regression analysis identified total tree basal area and tree species richness as significant determinants of moth species richness, and plant diversity index as a significant determinant of moth abundance. Total tree basal area was closely related to organic matter (OM), clay content, NaCl concentration, and pH, and plant diversity was closely related to clay content. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination between plant and moth species across 18 sites and 17 soil variables showed that soil fertility factors (OM, total nitrogen content, and cation exchange capacity) were major variables. Our results indicate that soil, plants, and moths communities in temperate forests form a close, interacting network that is primarily affected by the bottom-up impact of soil fertility.



2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Orbitelli Longato ◽  
Iuri Emmanuel de Paula Ferreira ◽  
Gilmar Perbiche-Neves

Abstract Aim We analyzed the relationship between zooplankton species richness and the area of 34 natural and 55 artificial lakes in Brazil (total of 89), with area varying between 0.01 to 2,430 km2. Methods A total of 33 studies were found in the specialized bibliography, containing data from zooplankton sampled in the limnetic areas, here analyzed through descriptive statistics, nonparametric group comparisons, Spearman correlation, and non-linear regression. Results The relationship between zooplankton richness and area in Brazilian lakes depend both on the size and type of the environments. Contradicting aspects of the biogeographic theory, in small environments (up to 6 km2) there is no significant influence of the area on the richness, whether it is natural (ponds) or artificial (dams, reservoirs). The natural lakes present greater richness and habitat variation independent of the size, possibly due to a more diverse composition of niches. Large natural lakes are scarce in Brazil but, with dams, area and zooplankton richness are positively correlated on an intermediate scale, up to 39 km2, critical point of size from which species’ richness stabilizes. Conclusions For the artificial lakes of large or intermediate size in Brazil, area and richness of microcrustaceans have a point from which richness starts to stabilize, as would be expected by the biogeographic theory. But in small size environments there is no evidence confirming this association. Also, it is observed that the natural lakes present higher and more variable values for richness than the artificial ones.



Vegetatio ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 79 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 99-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwayne R. J. Moore ◽  
Paul A. Keddy


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 780-787
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Hassan Hayatu ◽  
Abdullahi Mohammed ◽  
Barroon Ahmad Isma’eel ◽  
Sahabi Yusuf Ali

Soil fertility determines a plant's development process that guarantees food sufficiency and the security of lives and properties through bumper harvests. The fertility of soil varies according to regions, thereby determining the type of crops to be planted. However, there is no repository or any source of information about the fertility of the soil in any region in Nigeria especially the Northwest of the country. The only available information is soil samples with their attributes which gives little or no information to the average farmer. This has affected crop yield in all the regions, more particularly the Northwest region, thus resulting in lower food production.  Therefore, this study is aimed at classifying soil data based on their fertility in the Northwest region of Nigeria using R programming. Data were obtained from the department of soil science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The data contain 400 soil samples containing 13 attributes. The relationship between soil attributes was observed based on the data. K-means clustering algorithm was employed in analyzing soil fertility clusters. Four clusters were identified with cluster 1 having the highest fertility, followed by 2 and the fertility decreases with an increasing number of clusters. The identification of the most fertile clusters will guide farmers on where best to concentrate on when planting their crops in order to improve productivity and crop yield.



2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-72
Author(s):  
István Patay ◽  
Virág Sándor

Clod crushing is a principal problem with soils of high clay content. Therefore, there is a need for determining the conditions for clod breaking and clod crushing. The objective of the work was to develop a special purpose tool for single clod breaking both by rigid support of the clod and by a single clod supported by soil and to develop a machine for clod crushing. Furthermore, the purpose was to determine the relationship between the specific energy requirement for clod crushing in the function of soil plasticity and the soil moisture content by the means of the developed tool and machine. The main result of the experiments is summarized in a 3D diagram where the specific energy requirement for soil clod crushing is given in the function of the moisture content and the plasticity index for different clay soils.





Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 195 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-223
Author(s):  
Mark A. Lee ◽  
Grace Burger ◽  
Emma R. Green ◽  
Pepijn W. Kooij

AbstractPlant and animal community composition changes at higher elevations on mountains. Plant and animal species richness generally declines with elevation, but the shape of the relationship differs between taxa. There are several proposed mechanisms, including the productivity hypotheses; that declines in available plant biomass confers fewer resources to consumers, thus supporting fewer species. We investigated resource availability as we ascended three aspects of Helvellyn mountain, UK, measuring several plant nutritive metrics, plant species richness and biomass. We observed a linear decline in plant species richness as we ascended the mountain but there was a unimodal relationship between plant biomass and elevation. Generally, the highest biomass values at mid-elevations were associated with the lowest nutritive values, except mineral contents which declined with elevation. Intra-specific and inter-specific increases in nutritive values nearer the top and bottom of the mountain indicated that physiological, phenological and compositional mechanisms may have played a role. The shape of the relationship between resource availability and elevation was different depending on the metric. Many consumers actively select or avoid plants based on their nutritive values and the abundances of consumer taxa vary in their relationships with elevation. Consideration of multiple nutritive metrics and of the nutritional requirements of the consumer may provide a greater understanding of changes to plant and animal communities at higher elevations. We propose a novel hypothesis for explaining elevational diversity gradients, which warrants further study; the ‘nutritional complexity hypothesis’, where consumer species coexist due to greater variation in the nutritional chemistry of plants.



2013 ◽  
Vol 353-356 ◽  
pp. 735-739
Author(s):  
Xiao Ming Zhang ◽  
Shu Wen Ding ◽  
Shuang Xi Li

Development of slope disintegration is close to soil mechanic characteristics such as shear strength indices. Soil grain diameter and water content were tested. Soil direct shear test was conducted to analyze the relationship between shear strength indices and the influencing factors. The experimental data indicate that clay content and the range affect soil cohesion value and the scope. Soil cohesion increases with bulk density before 1.6g/cm3. But it decreases when the bulk after that. The results could provide a scientific basis for control of slope disintegration.



PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. e0124327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Mecenero ◽  
Res Altwegg ◽  
Jonathan F. Colville ◽  
Colin M. Beale


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irem Demirkan ◽  
Ravi Srinivasan ◽  
Alka Nand

PurposeThis paper explores the role of effective resource and knowledge management capabilities on product innovation capabilities of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the authors research the role of the human resource investments in the form of employee training in developing firm's innovation capabilities and how SMEs manage these investments when we account for the boundary conditions such as the level of employee education, SME size and the frequency of investments in research and development (R&D).Design/methodology/approachThe authors use survey data conducted by The Centre for European Economic Research (Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung – ZEW). The final sample for analysis includes 983 SMEs from Germany that belong to 13 different industries. The authors use hierarchical OLS regression to test the hypotheses presented in this paper.FindingsThe authors find a positive association between increased investments in employee training and product innovation capabilities in the context of SMEs. More specifically, the authors’ findings support that (1) the relationship between employee training and innovation capabilities is weaker in industries with greater proportion of employees with university degrees, (2) the effectiveness of investments in employee training is lower among larger SMEs than smaller SMEs, and (3) continuous R&D weakens the relationship between training expenditure and innovation capabilities. While on the one hand the authors’ findings contribute to the debate of whether employee training is necessary for SMEs by affirming this notion, on the other hand the authors show that investments in employee training have differing implications for small and large SMEs within boundary conditions. Moreover, these findings have practical implications for the managers of all SMEs in terms of management of their knowledge resources.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ research makes important contributions to the study of innovation in SMEs. First, the authors contribute evidence to the debate whether employee training is necessary for SMEs by showing that employee training is particularly important for SMEs that are smaller in size, have lower proportion of employees with university degrees and when they invest in research and development in a targeted manner. The authors also demonstrate that investments in employee training is not a waste, rather such investments can increase the likelihood of survival for many of these firms through its positive impact on product innovation.Practical implicationsFor managers of SMEs, the authors’ findings suggest that while investments in employee training are important, the managers of particular SMEs with above-mentioned qualities should be persistent in such investments and must make deliberate efforts to reap the benefits in terms of innovative capabilities. Unlike large firms, who have the financial means to carry out investments in an abundant manner, SMEs appear to be more enterprising with their scarce resources when we also consider the role of investments in human resources.Originality/valueThe authors’ research makes important contributions to the study of innovation in SMEs. First, the authors contribute evidence to the debate whether employee training is necessary for SMEs by finding that employee training is particularly important for SMEs that are smaller in size, have lower proportion of employees with university degrees and when they do not invest in R&D continuously. The authors also demonstrate that investments in employee training is not a waste, but such investments can increase the likelihood of survival for many of these firms.



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