Population Dynamics and Neighbourhood Effects in Establishing Swards of Festuca Rubra

Abstract

The majority of seeds of F. rubra L. sown onto bare ground in Oct. germinated immediately, leaving a small residual seed bank. From Nov.-Aug., cohorts of genets and tillers exhibited mainly exponential decay. For genets, the early cohorts dominated the population by Aug.; for tillers, the later cohorts dominated the population. The main period of tiller production was April-July. Considerable migration of seedlings on the group (up to 15 cm) was recorded; the agencies responsible were probably rain and frost. Performance of individual plants as measured by tiller production became increasingly positively correlated with available growing space as growth proceeded. A significant positive correlation emerged between the mean distance of a plant to its immediate neighbors and its performance. Performance of a plant and the total performance of its neighbors became negatively correlated. The sum of the number of tillers produced by a plant and its nearest neighbor became increasingly positively correlated with the distance between them. The value of correlation analysis to investigate the dependence of plant performance on independent variables is discussed.