Abstract
Impact of Soil Type and Treatment on the Survival of Perennials in the Ground Layer .
Soil is of great importance to the survival of plants, not only providing a stable location to live but also providing the essential nutrients required to grow and reproduce. Similarly, the plants of the ground layer are very important to an ecosystem providing ground cover to reduce erosion and in local EEC’s accounting for large amounts of diversity. Our study examined the survival of six perennial species (mostly forbs) over one and a half years and has related their survival to combinations of soil types and treatments used; spoil, subsoil, OGM and mulch. The study found that there was no universal treatment that benefited every species with the strongest result coming from the addition of mulch which increased the survival of 5/6 species but decreased survival in one species. The study concludes that each species has a niche that it is best suited to and therefore, even though all species come from one community, they will survive best in different soil conditions. Therefore the use of broad scale homogenous soil types and treatments may not be the best way to increase plant diversity and the creation of smaller patch landscapes would be a better restoration method.
Co-authors: Carmen Castor and Yvonne Nussbaumer
Impact of Soil Type and Treatment on the Survival of Perennials in the Ground Layer .
Soil is of great importance to the survival of plants, not only providing a stable location to live but also providing the essential nutrients required to grow and reproduce. Similarly, the plants of the ground layer are very important to an ecosystem providing ground cover to reduce erosion and in local EEC’s accounting for large amounts of diversity. Our study examined the survival of six perennial species (mostly forbs) over one and a half years and has related their survival to combinations of soil types and treatments used; spoil, subsoil, OGM and mulch. The study found that there was no universal treatment that benefited every species with the strongest result coming from the addition of mulch which increased the survival of 5/6 species but decreased survival in one species. The study concludes that each species has a niche that it is best suited to and therefore, even though all species come from one community, they will survive best in different soil conditions. Therefore the use of broad scale homogenous soil types and treatments may not be the best way to increase plant diversity and the creation of smaller patch landscapes would be a better restoration method.
Co-authors: Carmen Castor and Yvonne Nussbaumer