| A wet prairie restoration in Kansas is the focus of Chapter One, in which Spartina pectinata was transplanted in three planting strategies with the same area (0.66 m2): twenty small plugs, four medium-sized plugs, and a single large plug. Three years after planting, overall plug survival was 89.8%. The treatment with many small plugs produced the greatest area (3.99 m2), compared to medium (1.18 m2) and large (0.79 m2) plug treatments. Large plugs are recommended to promote high stem density of S. pectinata. Restored populations of S. pectinata were shorter and less dense than in populations in pristine wet prairie or the source locations of the transplanted plugs.; In Chapter Two, naturally patchy meadows of the Carex utriculata vegetation alliance were studied along small and large streams in the Gallatin Range of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to determine how environmental and spatial variation affected this wetland plant community. Small-stream sites were more diverse, more moist, and had less flood disturbance and greater groundwater inputs. Large-stream sites were less diverse, had greater fluctuations in soil moisture, and were larger in area. Soil moisture most strongly influenced small-stream communities, while soil moisture fluctuation and area influenced large-stream communities. Variation in Carex utriculata alliance species richness is largely due to hydrologic regime. Diversity of large-stream sites is apparently reduced by greater flood disturbance along larger rivers.; Species pools along environmental gradients in Swiss wetlands were the focus of Chapter Three. Plant species richness data in 38 montane to alpine fens was used to determine the presence of species pool effects between two spatial scales and along productivity, pH, moisture, and elevation gradients. Several methods of testing for species pool effects were utilized. A number of findings were inconsistent with the species pool concept: the correlation between small- and large-scale richness was smaller than expected, small- and large-scale richness were asymptotic indicating niche-limitation, richness decreased with increasing biomass indicating competition effects, and richness patterns differed between scales along some environmental gradients, especially moisture. Apparently some process or processes other than large-scale control of small-scale richness is affecting diversity in Swiss wet meadows. |
