Zusammenfassung
1. The effects of litter on seedling emergence (e.g. during succession
from grassland to woodland) may not only depend on litter amount and
environmental conditions but may also be related to litter types. We
tested the effect of litter types, litter cover and soil moisture on
the emergence of four congeneric pairs of grassland and woodland
species.
2. We carried out a controlled pot experiment (Experiment I) using
litter and species from two habitats (grassland vs. woodland), three
levels of litter cover (low, medium, high) and two levels of
water-addition (leading to constantly humid or intermittently dry
substrate). Amounts of litter were adjusted to result in the same
relative light reduction for both litter types. Consequently, we
applied 2 g, 4 g and 8 g of grassland litter and 0.5 g, 1 g and 2 g of
woodland (oak) litter per pot.
3. To separate the shade effect of litter from its mechanical plus
chemical effects we exposed additional pots with seeds of the same
species to deep sh
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