Grasslands

Question 1

What is a heliophile?

Answer 1

Sun loving species

Question 2

What is the elm decline?

Answer 2

Occurred at boundary between sub zones VIIa/b, Atlantic/Sub Boreal boundary
establishment of neolithic farming in Britain, decline due to disease, selective cropping and pollarding

Question 3

What is the landnam clearance?

Answer 3

Similar time to elm decline, temporary forest clearance in Denmark, shown in pollen count as a decree of trees and an increase in grass and herbs
Cleared for pastures
5 peaks of plantago pollen, suggesting 5 clearances

Question 4

What are the neolithic clearances?

Answer 4

More extensive and permanent deforestation, associated with well populated areas

Question 5

What are the Bronze Age clearances?

Answer 5

Continuation of landnam clearances with increased intensity

Question 6

What are the iron age clearances?

Answer 6

climactic deforestation, marked an increase in precipitation, continuation of Bronze Age clearances

Question 7

How are grassland managed?

Answer 7

By grazing or mowing, which is partial defoliation

Question 8

What is adpressed growth?

Answer 8

Close to the ground or stem, e.g. negatively phototrophic rosettes, not easily grazed

Question 9

What are the adaptations of grassland plants?

Answer 9

Intercalary meristem, adpressed growth, low palatability and ephemeral life history

Question 10

What is an example of a plant with adpressed growth?

Answer 10

Plantago lanceolata

Question 11

How are plants adapted for low palatability?

Answer 11

Spines, woody tissues, distastefulness and chemical toxins

Question 12

What are ephemerals?

Answer 12

Grow rapidly in periods of limited grazing, short life cycle, exploit patches of bare soil

Question 13

What is a calcifuge species?

Answer 13

Species growing on acidic soils e.g. Nordus stricta

Question 14

What is a calcicole species?

Answer 14

Species growing in calcareous soils e.g. Scabiosa columbaria

Question 15

What is an example of a species that can grow in a range of soil ph?

Answer 15

Festuca ovina

Question 16

What is the major impact of pH on plant distribution?

Answer 16

the influence on availability of other ions

Question 17

What type of grassland occurs in Peak District?

Answer 17

limestone grassland, very species rich

Question 18

What is the characteristic soil of limestone grasslands?

Answer 18

Rendzina

Question 19

What are rendzina soils?

Answer 19

Immature, high pH and low fertility, thin due to purity of the bedrock , little residue on dissolution

Question 20

What is a toposequence?

Answer 20

A sequence of soils in which distinctive soil characteristics are related to topographic situation

Question 21

What is a podzol?

Answer 21

An infertile, acidic soil

Question 22

What soils and species would you expect on a plateau?

Answer 22

Podsol pH<5, Low fertility,

Deschampsia flexuosa, Calluna vulgaris, Festuca ovina

Question 23

What soils and species would you expect on a slope?

Answer 23

Rendzina, pH>7, low fertility,

Festuca ovina

Question 24

What soils and species would you expect on a valley bottom?

Answer 24

Brown earth/alluvium

pH 5.5-7.5, high fertility

Question 25

What does Grime’s classic “hump-backed curve” show?

Answer 25

between crop-mass 300 - 900 g m-2, =
corridor of high potential species richness
Calcareous (limestone or chalk) grasslands have intermediately low nutrient status = high alpha diversity

Question 26

How is pH a driver of species richness?

Answer 26

helps account for variation in richness within the crop- mass corridor of 300 - 900 g m-2
Low pH soils invariably species poor,

Question 27

What is the reservoir effect?

Answer 27

fewer species adapted to grow in acid soils that calcareous soils