IS A GRASSLAND COMMUNITY COMPOSED OF COEXISTING SPECIES WITH LOW AND HIGH SPATIAL MOBILITY

Patterns of grasslands species mobility were compared between communit ies and within plant species. Data from high spatial resolution perman ent plots with fine scale recording system, experiment with removal of the dominant recorded also at a fine scale were used. The permanent p lots showed large variation within a community in the patterns of spec ies mobility. The species mobility was partly dependent on the site an d was higher in a more nutrient rich and climatically more favourable community. Mobility also varied within species. In some species (Nardu s stricta, Anthoxanthum spp.) it differed between communities (it was higher in more nutrient rich and climatically more favourable communit y) and did not respond to removal of the dominant species. In another species, Festuca rubra, mobility also differed between plots; in contr ast, it did not show consistent variation attributable to community ty pe and showed strongly increased spatial persistence in plots with the dominant species removed. In this species the mobility seems to be de pendent on the competitive pressure of the coexisting species.