Another paper from the La Palma summer school

2013-01-18

The student’s research project with the title “An 11-yr exclosure experiment in a high-elevation island ecosystem: introduced herbivore impact on shrub species richness, seedling recruitment and population dynamics“ used a exclosure experiment set up by the National Park “Caldera de Taburiente” on La Palma. Plots that were fenced in 2000 spanning elevational gradients were used to assess the effect of non-native herbivores such as goats and rabbits on the species richness and seedling recruitment of the dominating shrub species in the subalpine zone. In addition, a quantification of a unique vegetation pattern was intended, which consisted of a seemingly random distribution of alive, semi-living and dead individuals of the dominant Nitrogen-fixing shrub species (Adenocarpus viscosus ssp. spartioides). Selective herbivore browsing was found to lead the virtual mono-dominance of this species as all other shrub species were on the brink of extinction due to the non-native herbivores.

The paper is the result of two different but related group projects from different years and was initiated by Prof. Carl Beierkuhnlein (Biogeography) and Prof. Anke Jentsch (Disturbance Ecology) as well as their employees in close cooperation with the National Park director Ángel Palomares Martínez. Severin Irl and Manuel Steinbauer, both co-authors of the paper, praise the exceptional dedication and the interdisciplinary work also under difficult circumstances that the students showed: “Even snow, ice and storms, which are present above 2000 m also on the subtropical Canary Islands, did not stop the students from collecting the data in the field!” The University of Bayreuth and the Elite Network Bavaria (ENB) financially supported the summer school.

Jana Messinger, who in the mean time has started her PhD in the Ecological-Botanical Garden of the University of Bayreuth, was enthusiastic about the summer school: “For me it really was a great introduction into science! I really profit from my experience in my current work.” Nobody expected that in the end the work would be published in a scientific journal making it an even bigger surprise, as Wolfgang Babel sums it up: “The hard work in the field really paid off in the long run!”

Research on La Palma is on of the focuses of both departments. Prof. Anke Jentsch even attempts to further promote the topic of invasion biology on oceanic islands and has recently won international partners on Hawaii, in Chile and in Switzerland: “In the future we want to conduct more research projects belonging to this topic on La Palma but possibly also on other islands.” This year the summer school is taking place again and some promising invasion biological topics are among the projects!

About the picture:
Ice and snow on the Roque de los Muchachos, with more than 2400 m the highest peak of La Palma, after a surprisingly harsh winter storm. In the front some individuals of Adenocarpus viscosus ssp. spartioides can be seen at the edge of the Caldera, while the white cap of el Teide on the neighboring island of Tenerife is barely visible on the horizon. This picture was actually selected as cover photo for the December issue of the Journal of Vegetation Science and therefore placed at a very prominent place. Here you find the cover: Journal of Vegetation Science December 2012, Volume 23, Issue 6