Species richness of 11 invertebrate taxa showed a bimodal response pattern along a transect from pine plantation to short grass steppe, with a peak of species richness at the habitat edge as well as in the grassland interior (Bieringer et al. 2013). Abandonment,

eutrophication, and habitat management Abandonment and eutrophication are the main problems facing open and oligotrophic grasslands. Re-cutting of abandoned grassland significantly diminished the living biomass of dominant grasses increasing thus plant species diversity by facilitating establishment of less competitive species as shown in studies on grasslands of the Mediterranean Basin (Bonanomi et al. 2013). However, the nitrogen enrichment at levels comparable to https://www.selleckchem.com/products/jsh-23.html atmospheric deposition hampered the positive effects of grassland management. Contrastingly, abandoned grasslands were more species-rich than ARS-1620 solubility dmso managed ones; moreover they harboured distinct assemblages and more grassland specialist

species (Wiezik et al. 2013). The restoration of formerly intact grasslands showed positive effects on Orthoptera assemblages over time (Rácz et al. 2013). The authors showed that species richness doubled and abundance increased almost ten-fold in the restored grasslands 4 years after restoration. The relevance of scale dependence was highlighted by Lauterbach et al. (2013). Effects of abandonment, eutrophication and habitat fragmentation were strongly ISRIB ic50 scale-dependent: eutrophication and habitat loss had more marked effects on a regional scale, but habitat fragmentation may be the main driver of species threat on the local scale. Effects on the

intraspecific level The three final contributions highlight the impact of intraspecific processes (physiology and genetics) of organisms living in grassland habitats. The contribution of Wellstein et al. (2013) demonstrates that the intraspecific trait variation of four grassland plants along with abiotic environmental variation shows a significant phenotypic adaptation to diverging environmental conditions. A second review incorporating 28 studies (20 species, 224 traits, including genetic, vegetative and reproductive traits) showed that various grassland management regimes affect the selection pressure in eltoprazine plants differently (Pluess 2013). The third and last work highlights the effect of species’ ecology on the genetics in grassland butterflies (Habel et al. 2013a). The authors found that generalist species with wide distributions and high abundances show rather high genetic diversity accompanied by low genetic differentiation, while species with specific habitat demands are characterised by comparatively low genetic diversities and high genetic differentiation. These patterns strongly mirror the distribution pattern due to their ecology and opposite population feature.