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Research group: Plant population ecology and ecophysiology
We focus on flowers and frequencies - the use of matrix models in
demography and population dynamics studies, biodiversity maintenance in
the cultural landscape, and ecology of hemiparasitic, clonal, and
carnivorous plants.
This leads us to the following projects:
Can simple changes in management regime preserve diversity and
threatened species in wooded hay meadows? (financed by FORMAS). On the Baltic island of Gotland,
traditionally managed, wooded hay meadows harbour an extremely rich
flora and fauna. But is the traditional way enough these days with, for
example, nitrogen deposition from the air? Together with Bengt
Carlsson and Lotta Wallin, I will intensify spring raking and do a second cut for hay
in October in a factorial experiment in three meadows. Our hope is that the low-statured, slender and weak
competitors will once again thrive here.
Closely coupled to this project is:
Mechanisms maintaining diversity in traditionally managed
grasslands: the role of hemiparasites (unfinanced, formerly financed by the Swedish
Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, MISTRA, and the
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, NV).
Here, we elucidate the role of hemiparasitic plants (some
of which are highly threatened), both in the field and in garden
experiments.
Ecophysiology and population biology of hemiparasitic plants
(unfinanced, formerly financed by the Swedish Council for Forestry and
Agricultural Sciences, SJFR).
This work is based in northern Sweden, at the Abisko
Scientific Research Station, and focuses on the population biology and
ecophysiology of four hemiparasitic species (Euphrasia
frigida, Rhinanthus
minor, Bartsia
alpina and Pedicularis
lapponica). I study host-specificity, intra-clonal translocation
of nutrients, population dynamics, and the impact of the hemiparasites
on the surrounding vegetation.
Population dynamics – demographic analyses of long-lived
species (unfinanced)
At Abisko, in northern Sweden, three species of carnivorous Pinguicula
are common. Starting in 1984, I have followed the fate of mapped individuals together with Bengt Carlsson. We
now plan to develop the analyses of the demographic data and construct
stochastic models to examine the effect of environmental variability on
the populations.
We will try to answer questions like: What does the
long-term population growth look like if the environmental conditions
that the plants have experienced during a 17-year period were repeated,
in the same order? How would this differ from the scenario that the
environmental conditions varied stochastically, but within the limits
set by what happened during the 17 years?
Supervising (PhD)
Mikael Niva, Uppsala: Shoot dynamics of Linnaea
borealis and its physiological causes.
Christina Borg, Uppsala: Environmental effects on
the dynamics of the shoot population of mountain birch trees (Staffan
Karlsson is main supervisor).
Anna-Karin Sjödin,
Södertörns högskola: Local adaptation in plant populations (Mikael
Lönn is external supervisor).
Lotta Wallin, Uppsala:
Senile populations – do they exist? Recent publications
- Svensson, B. M. & Carlsson, B. Å. (2003)
Significance of time of attachment, host type, and neighbouring
hemiparasites in determining fitness in two endangered grassland
hemiparasites. – Ann. Bot. Fenn. 40, in press.
- Svensson, B. M., Rydin, H. & Carlsson, B. Å. Clonal
plants in the community. – In: van der Maarel, E. (ed.), Vegetation
ecology. Blackwell, Oxford (in press).
- Wikberg, S. & Svensson, B. M. (2003) Ramet
demography in a ring-forming clonal sedge. – J. Ecol. 91: 847-854.
- Niva, M., Svensson, B. M. & Karlsson, P. S. (2003)
Nutrient resorption from senescing leaves of the clonal plant Linnaea
borealis in relation to reproductive state and resource availability.
– Funct. Ecol. 17: 438-444.
- Malmer, N., Albinsson, C., Svensson, B. M. and
Wallén, B. (2003) Interferences between Sphagnum and vascular
plants: effects on plant community structure and peat formation. –
Oikos 100: 469-482..
- Svensson, B. M., Seel, W. E., Nilsson, C. H. &
Carlsson, B. Å. (2001) Roles played by timing of seedling development
and probable host identity in determining fitness of an annual,
subarctic hemiparasitic plant. – Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research
33: 299-305.
- van Groenendael, J., Ehrlén, J. & Svensson, B. M.
(2000) Dispersal and persistence: population processes and community
dynamics. – Folia Geobotanica 35: 107-114.
- Ehrlén, J. and Svensson, B. M. (eds) (2000). Plant
interactions, dispersal and community structure. – Special
Features in Vegetation Science, Opulus Press, Uppsala.
- Carlsson, B. Å., Karlsson, P. S. & Svensson, B. M.
(1999) Alpine and subalpine vegetation. – Acta Phytogeographica
Suecica 84: 75-90.
- Kruuse af Verchou, A. & Svensson, B. M. (1999)
Reproductive strategy in the clonal forest herb Lamiastrum
galeobdolon as an effect of forest liming and plant size. – In:
Kruuse af Verchou, A. Reproductive strategies and liming responses
in forest field-layer flora. PhD thesis, Dept of Ecology, Plant
Ecology, Lund Univ.
- Kruuse af Verchou, A., Svensson, B. M. &
Carlsson, B. Å. (1999) Demographic cost of reproduction in the
clonal plant Lamiastrum galeobdolon: a field experiment. –
In: Kruuse af Verchou, A. Reproductive strategies and liming
responses in forest field-layer flora. PhD thesis, Dept of Ecology,
Plant Ecology, Lund Univ.
- Svensson, B. M. (1997) Växter som vill äta kött. –
Fauna och Flora 92(3): 3-10.
- Nilsson, C. H. & Svensson, B. M. (1997) Host
affiliation in two subarctic hemiparasitic plants: Bartsia alpina
and Pedicularis lapponica. – Écoscience 4: 80-85.
- Callaghan, T. V., Svensson, B. M. & Carlsson, B. Å.
(1996) Some apparently paradoxical aspects of the life cycles,
demography and population dynamics of plants from the subarctic Abisko
area. – Ecological Bulletins 45: 133-143.
- Karlsson, P. S., Svensson, B. M. & Carlsson, B.
Å. (1996) The significance of carnivory for three Pinguicula
species in a subarctic environment. – Ecological Bulletins 45:
115-120.
- Svensson, B. M. (1995) Competition between Sphagnum
fuscum and Drosera rotundifolia: a case of ecosystem
engineering. – Oikos 74:205-212.
- Svensson, B. M. (1995) Carbon allocation patterns
in two closely related stoloniferous Vaccinium species. –
Acta Œcologica 16:507-517.
- Malmer, N., Svensson, B. M. & Wallén, B.
(1994) Interactions between Sphagnum mosses and field layer
vascular plants in the development of peat-forming systems. – Folia
Geobotanica et Phytotaxonomica 29: 483-496.
- Svensson, B. M., Floderus, B. & Callaghan, T.
V. (1994) Lycopodium annotinum and light quality: growth
responses under canopies of two Vaccinium species. – Folia
Geobotanica et Phytotaxonomica 29: 159-166.
- Wikberg, S., Svensson, B. M. & Carlsson, B. Å.
(1994) Fitness, growth rate and flowering in Carex bigelowii,
a clonal sedge. – Oikos 70: 57-64.
- Svensson, B. M., Carlsson, B. Å., Karlsson, P. S.
& Nordell, K.O. (1993) Comparative long-term demography of three
species of Pinguicula. – Journal of Ecology 81: 635-645.
Teaching
I presently administrate two undergraduate course at Uppsala university:
Environmental science and
Conservation biology.
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