SPATIOTEMPORAL DYNAMICS IN MOUNTAIN GRASSLANDS - SPECIES AUTOCORRELATIONS IN-SPACE AND TIME

Permanent plots with a fine scale recording system were used to trace the spatiotemporal process within two mountain grasslands in the Krkon ose Mts., Czech Republic. The analysis used autocorrelation over incre asing lags in space and/or time. Moran's I was used to measure the aut ocorrelation. There was a lot of variation between species both in spa tial and temporal correlograms. The spatiotemporal pattern of species correlated well with the growth form of the species and the degree of its clonality. Clonally-growing species tended to have high clumping a t distances of a few cells, whereas rosette species often did not show any clumping. The type of clonal growth (compact vs. long spacers) is well correlated with the temporal correlogram (species mobility). The re is a relation between low mobility and high clumping at low distanc es. Attempts to explain the mechanisms of species coexistence in these grasslands should take into account the particular structure of the f ine-scale dynamics of these communities of predominantly clonal plants .