Trait filtering effects
Effects of prairie dog disturbance were captured only by C4 cover and
graminoid cover, whereby graminoid cover was mediated by an interaction
with season and C4 differences were explained by grassland type and
prairie dog disturbance but not by an interactive effect. Grassland type
had an effect on almost all traits except for annual cover, forb cover
and leaf area which were influenced mostly by season (Table 2).
There was strong evidence of higher perennial cover in mountain
grasslands compared to arid and agricultural grassland types (Fig 3a).
Erect and graminoid cover was higher in mountain grassland compared to
all other grassland types (Fig 3b-c). There was weak evidence of
prostate cover being higher in calcic grasslands compared to
agricultural sites (Appendix S3, Table S2). Annual cover, forb cover and
CWM leaf area revealed strong evidence of increasing during the wet
season (Fig 3e-g). There was only weak evidence of C3 species cover
having a higher response to the wet season (Appendix S3, Table S2).
There was moderate evidence of C4 cover being higher in mountain
grassland and compared to agricultural and arid grassland types which
had a lower C4 cover (Fig 3d). There was also strong evidence of C4
cover being higher in WOP sites (Fig 3h). There was no evidence of
graminoid cover having differences between seasons for WP sites. On the
contrary, WOP sites showed contrasting effects between seasons, having
almost double graminoid cover during the dry season, revaling moderate
evidence of a positive effect compared to the WP sites (Fig 3i). There
was no evidence of CWM vegetation height having an effect on any of the
grassland types, sites or seasons conditions (Appendix S3, Table S2).