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What Are The Common Characteristics That All Four Land Areas Expressed On The Survivorship Curve?

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The common traits that all four land areas expressed on the survivorship curve were between type one, two and three. Most of the species found in the vegetable block, grazed and ungrazed pastures such as Vulpia are R selected. R selected are short lived, highly mobile, often density-independent and the survivorship is typically lower than K selected species (Parry, 1981). R selected are typically more frequent than K selected but are also unstable. The woodlot and some species in the ungrazed pasture are K selected species, such as Blackberry. These species are typically long lived, the mobility is often more sedentary, often density-dependent and the survivorship is typically medium to high (Parry, 1981). Shorter lived plants are …show more content…

In the middle of the graph (grazed and ungrazed) longer lived annual and biennial R species such as thistle, are found. As the curve then starts to decrease R selected species start to slowly drop out and longer living K species start to come into the population, as the perennials knock short lived annuals due to competing for resources. Refer to table one for a description of each plant species and their perenniality and lifecycle.
Diversity dependence depends on trophic cascades and the top down (natural enemies) or bottom up (resources available). Top down is the approach where species increase and so does peats and predators and as a result of increased pests the plant density decrease. Bottom up is the approach where the plant population increases, resources will run out, such as nutrients, water and light due to the competition of a higher populated area. The vegetable block would have higher nutrient contents due to added fertiliser during the season and low competition due to a lower plant population is shown by the higher percentage of bare ground demonstrated in figure two. This land area will also have a lower water due to tillage, which dries out the soil moisture. A resource that would be available in the woodland would be shade due to a highly populated area. As the smaller plant species would be in shade most of the time, it would result in a lower photosynthetic rate resulting in a slower development (Martins et al.,

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