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Habitat characteristics, stage structure and reproduction of colline and montane populations of the threatened species Arnica montana

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Abstract

Arnica montana, a characteristic plant of nutrient-poor grasslands, has strongly declined during the last decades, particularly at lower altitudes. To gain insights into the underlying reasons for this decline, we recorded differences in size, stage structure and reproductive traits between 21 colline populations of A. montana in the Ardennes-Eifel region (280–600 m a.s.l.) and 10 montane populations in the Vosges Mountains (1,200 m a.s.l.). Community composition of the Violion caninae vegetation at colline sites and Nardion strictae vegetation at montane sites indicated that temperature and moisture were the main abiotic factors differentiating between low and high altitudinal relevées. The proportion of flowering rosettes decreased with altitude, indicating a shift from sexual reproduction to clonal growth. In contrast to expectation, Ellenberg values for nutrient availability as well as the proportion of young rosettes and population size did not differ between colline and montane populations. However, population size decreased with nutrient availability, indicating eutrophication as the reason for population decline. In small populations, plant density, the proportion of flowering rosettes, the number of flowerheads per rosette and the number of seeds per flowerhead were lower, indicating less suitable conditions. Thus, preventing further eutrophication in both colline and montane populations will be crucial for the conservation of the species. Reduced reproduction may not be important for the population dynamics of this clonal plant in the short term, but could affect genetic diversity and survival in the long term.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Gaëtan Botin of Natagora in Belgium, and Gerd Ostermann and Steffen Caspari in Germany for their help to locate populations. The present project was supported by the National Research Fund, Luxembourg. Permissions were obtained to collect A. montana protected by law in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Interactions Ecotoxicologie Biodiversité Ecosystèmes (LIEBE), CNRS UMR 7146, Université de Lorraine, Campus Bridoux, Rue du Général Delestraint, 57070, Metz, France

    Tiphaine Maurice & Serge Muller

  2. Department of Population Biology, Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, 25 Rue Münster, 2160, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Guy Colling

  3. Department of Ecology, Plant Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Philipps-Universität, 35032, Marburg, Germany

    Diethart Matthies

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  1. Tiphaine Maurice
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  2. Guy Colling
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Correspondence to Tiphaine Maurice.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 3.

Table 3 Indicator values of species characteristic for colline (CIV) and montane sites (MIV) with A. montana (Dufrêne and Legendre 1997)
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Maurice, T., Colling, G., Muller, S. et al. Habitat characteristics, stage structure and reproduction of colline and montane populations of the threatened species Arnica montana . Plant Ecol 213, 831–842 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-012-0045-1

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