Chrisoula KarakostaLaboratory of Rangeland Ecology

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Mini Project

Course: Restoration Summer School 2009

PhD theme : “Patterns of secondary succession in old fields of Northern

Greece”

Introduction

Problem Land use abandonment (agriculture)

Result Vegetation evolution through secondary succession

Study area: Taxiarxis-Xalkidiki, Greece

Research aim :

To study mechanisms of vegetation succession

on abandoned fields

The main questions of the research are:

i) Which factors control the succession pattern,

ii) Which development model describes better this successional pattern and outline,

iii) How do life form and species richness change along successional gradient,

iv) Which are the effects of land use change on plant functional traits (PFTs).

Methods – Data

- Old fields representing a gradient of land use abandonment (1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2007)

- Vegetation sampling (spring-summer) - Soil samples (autumn)- Topographic, geological and climatic data- Trait data measurements (spring-summer)

Methods – Data

Vegetation data

1. species composition (point method)

2. species cover (point method)

3. biodiversity indices (quadrat)

4. aboveground biomass (harvesting) -sorted out current years and old growth components

Soil data(depth: 2 lever0-5cm and 5-20cm)

Methods – Data

1. N, P, K, Ca, Mg concentration 2. pH, organic matter3. texture

Topographic data 1. Altitude2. Aspect3. slope

Geological data derived from a geological maps

Climatic data Collected from meteorological station

SLA=Specific leaf area

LDMC=Leaf dry matter content

LNC=Leaf nitrogen concentration

LPC=Leaf phosphorus concentration

LCC-Leaf carbon concentration

Stem traits:

StDMC=Stem dry matter content

Measurements on: the dominant species in each old field Leaf traits:

Methods – Data TRAIT MEASUREMENTS

Pending

-Laboratory work

Chemical analysis

-Data analysis

Data collection for species traits from

bibliography (life forms, life cycle,

Pollination mode, dispersal mode, Clonality,

etc.)

- Statistical analysis

Thank you

for your attention !!!