Are pine savannas strongly or weakly structured by competition?
A two year removal experiment and its implications. Roth, Agatha-Marie1, Keddy, Paul*,1, Campbell, Daniel1, Dozier, Hallie2, Montz, Glen1, 1 Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA2 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA ABSTRACT- Plant communities can be strongly or weakly structured, that is with large numbers of non-zero entries or with many zero elements in the community matrix. Many removal studies show large numbers of non-zero elements, and species tend to be organized into competitive hierarchies. Here we ask to what degree competition organizes plant communities in wet longleaf pine savannas. These savannas have exceptional numbers of plant species including groups with Madrean, Caribbean and even South American biogeographic affinities. The Poaceae, Cyperaceae and Asteraceae show particularly large diversity, while families such as the Eriocaulaceae, Haemodoraceae, Melastomataceae, and Xyridaceae suggest biogeographic linkages to the Guyana Highlands of South Amer
