The comparison of Grime’s strategies of plant taxa in Hacı Osman Forest and Bafra Fish Lakes in the central Black Sea region of Turkey

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to compare Grime’s strategies in 91 plant taxa occurring from the eastern to the western part of the central Black Sea region of northern Turkey (Samsun). To do this, 45 sample plots were taken from different community types (from swamp forests to halophytic communities), and the strategies of plant species were compared with each other. Many tree and shrub species present in Hacı Osman Forest, a protected swamp forest, exhibited a purely competitive (C) strategy; some other tree and shrub species exhibited secondary strategies such as competitive/competitive stress-tolerant (C/CS) and competitive/competitive ruderal (C/CR). The ecological features of Hacı Osman Forest and Galeriç Forest are similar, and species of either forest tended to adopt stress-tolerant strategies. Coastal dune species within the study area exhibited transient strategies. Finally, it was evaluated that the CSR classification model can be successfully applied to determine the responses of plant species to changing land use patterns and disturbance factors, even for woody shrub and tree species, although our data were not entirely consistent with Grime’s succession theory.

The main aim of this study was to compare Grime’s strategies in 91 plant taxa occurring from the eastern to the western part of the central Black Sea region of northern Turkey (Samsun). To do this, 45 sample plots were taken from different community types (from swamp forests to halophytic communities), and the strategies of plant species were compared with each other. Many tree and shrub species present in Hacı Osman Forest, a protected swamp forest, exhibited a purely competitive (C) strategy; some other tree and shrub species exhibited secondary strategies such as competitive/competitive stress-tolerant (C/CS) and competitive/competitive ruderal (C/CR). The ecological features of Hacı Osman Forest and Galeriç Forest are similar, and species of either forest tended to adopt stress-tolerant strategies. Coastal dune species within the study area exhibited transient strategies. Finally, it was evaluated that the CSR classification model can be successfully applied to determine the responses of plant species to changing land use patterns and disturbance factors, even for woody shrub and tree species, although our data were not entirely consistent with Grime’s succession theory.