Many species rich grasslands in Western Europe have been replaced by a more intensive agricultural land use or are threatened through atmospheric nitrogen deposition and phosphorous input. There are many ecological restoration projects of these semi-natural vegetations. Community assembly theory, however, suggests a crucial role for stochastic events causing communities to diverge, even when the initial environmental conditions are identical. These events may jeopardize restoration efforts. More specifically, the order of species colonization and the frequency of these colonization events is expected to have long lasting or even permanent effects on community composition. If so, this is especially important in ecological restoration, as target species are often rare and thus unlikely to soon colonize the target habitat, whereas opportunistic species, including exotic species, are often abundant and strong colonizers. The aim of this PhD is therefore to explore the effects of plant species colonization order on the temporal variation of community characteristics such as species diversity, species and trait composition, and biomass in grassland restoration.
Information and applications: http://phd.kuleuven.be/set/voorstellen_dbof.php
