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M J Crawley

Publications and source records attributed to M J Crawley.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Contrasting effects of rabbit exclusion on nutrient availability and primary production in grasslands at different time scales.

Herbivores influence nutrient cycling and primary production in terrestrial plant communities. However, both empirical and theoretical studies have indicated that the mechanisms by which herbivores influence nutrient availability, and thus their net effects on primary production, might differ between time scales. For a grassland in southeast England, we show that the effects of rabbits on primary production change over time in a set of grazed plots paired with exclosures ranging from 0 to 14 years in age. Herbivore exclusion decreased net aboveground primary production (APP) in the short term, but increased APP in the long term. APP was closely correlated with N mineralization rates in both grazed and ungrazed treatments, and accumulation of litter within the grazing exclosures led to higher N mineralization rates in exclosures in the long run. Rabbit grazing did not influence litter quality. The low contrast in palatability between species and the presence of grazing-tolerant plants might prevent rabbits from favoring unpalatable plant species that decompose slowly, in contrast to results from other ecosystems. Our results indicate that it is essential to understand the effects on N cycling in order to predict the effect of rabbit grazing on APP. Rabbits might decrease N mineralization and APP in the long term by increasing losses of N from grasslands.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Determinants of species richness in the Park Grass Experiment.

The Park Grass Experiment at Rothamsted in southeast England was started in 1856, making it the longest-running experiment in plant ecology anywhere in the world. Experimental inputs include a range of fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and organic manures) applied annually, with lime applied occasionally, and these have led to an increase in biomass and, where nitrogen was applied in the form of ammonium sulfate, to substantial decreases in soil pH. The number of species per plot varies from three to 44 per 200 m(2), affording a unique opportunity to study the determinants of plant species richness and to estimate the effect sizes attributable to different factors. The response of species richness to biomass depends on the amount and type of nitrogen applied; richness declined monotonically with increasing biomass on plots receiving no nitrogen or receiving nitrogen in the form of sodium nitrate, but there was no relationship between species richness and biomass on plots acidified by ammonium sulfate application. The response to lime also depended on the type of nitrogen applied; there was no relationship between lime treatment and species richness, except in plots receiving nitrogen in the form of ammonium sulfate, where species richness increased sharply with increasing soil pH. The addition of phosphorus reduced species richness, and application of potassium along with phosphorus reduced species richness further, but the biggest negative effects were when nitrogen and phosphorus were applied together. The analysis demonstrates how multiple factors contribute to the observed diversity patterns and how environmental regulation of species pools can operate at the same spatial and temporal scale as biomass effects.

Biodiversity↗
PubMed2003

Contrasting dynamics in the same plant-herbivore interaction.

Long-term studies of two-species interactions under field conditions are unusual; most long-term field studies are of single species dynamics (1-6). Concurrent long-term studies on the dynamics of the same two interacting species in different locations are very rare. This result has led to the tacit assumption that different cases of the same two-species interaction would involve essentially quantitative differences (e.g., context-specific differences in the numeric values of demographic parameters like fecundity or death rates). Here, we show that for one of the best-known two-species systems (ragwort and cinnabar moth), this finding does not hold. The interaction between the plant and its herbivore is fundamentally different in coastal dunes in The Netherlands and in grasslands in Southeast England. In the first case, the dynamics are cyclic and the interaction involves both direct and delayed density dependence; in the second case, the insect has little impact on plant dynamics and there are no time lags in density dependence. The difference is caused by differences in the importance of seed-limitation in plant recruitment in the two locations.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Age, sex, density, winter weather, and population crashes in Soay sheep.

Quantifying the impact of density, extrinsic climatic fluctuations, and demography on population fluctuations is a persistent challenge in ecology. We analyzed the effect of these processes on the irregular pattern of population crashes of Soay sheep on the St. Kilda archipelago, United Kingdom. Because the age and sex structure of the population fluctuates independently of population size, and because animals of different age and sex respond in different ways to density and weather, identical weather conditions can result in different dynamics in populations of equal size. In addition, the strength of density-dependent processes is a function of the distribution of weather events. Incorporating demographic heterogeneities into population models can influence dynamics and their response to climate change.

Aging↗
PubMed2001

Scale dependence in plant biodiversity.

The relationship between the number of species and the area sampled is one of the oldest and best-documented patterns in community ecology. Several theoretical models and field data from a wide range of plant and animal taxa suggest that the slope, z, of a graph of the logarithm of species richness against the logarithm of area is roughly constant, with z approximately 0.25. We collected replicated and randomized plant data at 11 spatial scales from 0.01 to 10(8) square meters in Great Britain which show that the slope of the log-log plot is not constant, but varies systematically with spatial scale, and from habitat to habitat at the same spatial scale. Values of z were low (0.1 to 0.2) at small scales (<100 square meters), high (0.4 to 0.5) at intermediate scales (1 hectare to 10 square kilometers), and low again (0.1 to 0.2) for the largest scale transitions (e.g., East Berks to all of Berkshire). Instead of one process determining changes in species richness across a wide range of scales, different processes might determine plant biodiversity at different spatial scales.

Ecosystem↗
PubMed1998

Top-down versus bottom-up and the Ruritanian bean bug.

In a recent article, Hunter uses the late George Varley and George Gradwell's long-term data on the winter moth (Operophtera brumata) and green tortrix (Tortrix viridana) populations to propose a method of quantifying the relative importance of top-down effects (because of natural enemies) and bottom-up effects (because of resource competition) in influencing population dynamics. We believe this approach is deeply flawed. Using Varley and Gradwell's winter moth study, we show that the problems with Hunter's analysis lie in his misinterpretation of the population dynamics and his inappropriate use of statistical techniques. We also emphasize the importance of distinguishing clearly between two quite different things: firstly, top-down and bottom-up regulation of populations and secondly, the much simpler task of categorizing factors affecting changes in population density as either top-down or bottom-up processes.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1997

Burial and seed survival in Brassica napus subsp. oleifera and Sinapis arvensis including a comparison of transgenic and non-transgenic lines of the crop.

The creation of transgenic plants through genetic engineering has focused interest on how the fitness of a plant species may be altered by small changes in its genome. This study concentrates on a key component of fitness: persistence of seeds overwinter. Seeds of three lines of oilseed rape (Brassica napus subsp. oleifera DC Metzger) and of charlock (Sinapis arvensis L.) were buried in nylon mesh bags at two depths in four habitats in each of three geographically separated sites: Cornwall, Berkshire and Sutherland. Seeds were recovered after 12 and 24 months. Charlock exhibited much greater seed survival (average 60% surviving the first year and 32.5% surviving the second year) than oilseed rape (1.5% surviving the first year and 0.2% surviving the second) at all sites. Charlock showed higher survival at 15 cm burial than 2 cm burial at certain sites, but oilseed rape showed no depth effect. Different genetic lines of oilseed rape displayed different rates of seed survival; non-transgenic rape showed greater survival (2%) than the two transgenic lines, one developed for tolerance to the antibiotic kanamycin (0.3%) and one for tolerance to both kanamycin and the herbicide glufosinate (0.25%). The absolute and relative performances of the different genetic lines of oilseed rape were context specific, illustrating the need to test hypotheses in a wide range of ecological settings.

Brassica↗