Response of quantitative plant traits to vegetation succession in Mediterranean rangeland ecosystems

The aim of this paper was to assess quantitative plant traits response to vegetation succession in Mediterranean rangeland ecosystems. Four vegetation types, with four replicates each, representing sequential stages of secondary succession in Mediterranean rangeland ecosystems were studied in the Lagadas county of Thessaloniki, N. Greece: abandoned arable field, grassland, open shrubland and dense shrubland. Ten quantitative plant functional traits were measured for the most abundant species of each plot. Furthermore, species frequency was measured on the herbaceous layer in order to aggregate plant functional traits to community level. At the community level, leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf carbon concentration (LCC) and vegetative and reproductive plant height (VPH, RPH) increased with vegetation succession. On the contrary, specific leaf area (SLA) decreased. Stem dry matter content (StDMC), leaf phosphorus concentration (LPC) and onset of flowering had a unimodal response. It was concluded that weighted quantitative plant traits of the dominant species in grassland communities respond with certain patterns to vegetation succession after grazing extensification or banning.