Studies in the Quantitative Morphology and Ecology of Eriophorum Angustifolium Roth: II. Competition and Dispersion

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Abstract
Communities in the British Isles in which Eriophorum angustifolium occurs are briefly descr., and are classified according to structure; the part played by E. angustifolium is discussed. Cycles of colonization of secondary bare areas by this sp. are descr. for pools and peat cuttings, gullies and lakelets, and the "mud pools" of the Eriophorum vaginatum community. The type of dispersion of shoots of E. angustifolium in various communities was detd. by application of a method involving analysis of variance of counts of shoots in contiguous quadrats; when variance is graphed against block size, peaks are produced in the curve at block sizes approximately equal to areas of clumps. It is shown that in this rhizomatous sp. clumping of 1st generation rhizomes around parent shoots and of shoots of single whole plants may normally be expected, and that this clumping can be detected by the contiguous quadrat method. Results suggest that environmental factors are responsible for the elimination of E. angustifolium from small shrub communities, but that its elimination is effected by space competition in communities of tussock-forming species, and by competition for nutrients in pools dominated by Sphagnum spp. The concept of phase development is applied to individual plants and to the community as a whole; the various phases are descr. and their relationships are discussed.