Dominant plant species loss: a synthesis of community and ecosystem consequences
Dominant plant species with high abundance and biomass are major contributors to nutrient and energy pools in many ecosystems. Therefore, the loss of dominant plant species can result in a reduction of ecosystem function, particularly if the remaining species in the community do not have similar functional roles. Many efforts have been made to document the effect of dominant species loss. These include observational data from communities where the dominant species has declined, comparative studies of mono- vs. polyculture assemblages, as well as synthetic assemblage and removal experiments. Although a theoretical framework for dominant species loss is well established, there have been few attempts to synthesize these existing datasets to increase our ability to make generalizations and predictions, as well as provide a more mechanistic understanding of the processes leading to observed responses. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers interested in the impacts of dominant plant species loss to discuss how to build general removal effects model based on cross-site analyses of long-term LTER datasets and species removal experiments and to explore new research opportunities within the LTER network.