Bachelor Thesis

SLA als Proxy für die Pflanzenreaktion gegenüber biotischen Interaktionen und der resultierenden Zusammensetzung von Pflanzengesellschaften

Carolin Kistner (01/2012-06/2012)

Support: Carl Beierkuhnlein, Camilla Wellstein

This thesis is deals with the question whether the specific leaf area (SLA), calculated as the ratio of leaf area to leaf dry mass (mm² mg-1), has an explanatory power concerning individual plants and their belonging to one of the functional groups grasses or legumes. In addition to that I focused on the dependency of SLA on site parameters. On 21 sites south of the national park Bavarian Forest, SLA samples of all plant species were collected as well as information of nine site parameters (exposition N-S (°), exposition W-O (°), height above sea level (m), coverage (%), plant height (cm), status of mowing (cm), soil type, pH value and soil water availability (%)). When filtering according to the general site-specific differences, a slight significance can be observed between the specific leaf area and the functional group of grasses. Applying the same model for the actually sampled site parameters, there is a slight significance between the specific leaf area and legumes. Consequently, attention has to be paid to possible determining factors of these two functional groups. Besides, a more precise classification of functional groups could be used. Different classifications could express more explicit results. Eight out of nine site parameters showed a significant correlation with the SLA (exposition W-O (°), height above sea level (m), coverage (%), plant height (cm), status of mowing (cm), soil type, pH value and soil water availability (%)), confirming the prevailing conviction of functional traits like the SLA having a high explanatory power in the way of changing environmental conditions.