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Science 29 August 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5330, pp. 1296 - 1299
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5330.1296
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Reports

The Influence of Island Area on Ecosystem Properties

David A. Wardle, *dagger Olle Zackrisson, Greger Hörnberg, Christiane Gallet

Island area is frequently a major determinant of the species composition of biological communities; community structure, in turn, often has important effects on ecosystem-level properties. Fifty islands of varying area were selected in an archipelago in the northern Swedish boreal forest zone, in which larger islands burn more frequently than smaller ones through wildfire arising from lightning strike, thus inducing a significant relationship between island area and plant species composition. This relationship was found to be a major factor in determining several ecosystem-level properties of these islands, including standing biomass, plant litter decomposition, nitrogen mineralization, terrestrial carbon partitioning, humus accumulation, and plant nitrogen acquisition.

D. A. Wardle, O. Zackrisson, G. Hörnberg, Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Faculty of Forestry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-901 83 Umeå, Sweden.
C. Gallet, Laboratoire Dynamique des Ecosystemes d'Altitude, Centre Interdisciplinaire des Science de la Montagne Université de Savoie, F-73376 Le Bourget-du-Lac Cedex, France.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wardled{at}landcare.cri.nz

dagger    Present address: Landcare Research, Post Office Box 69, Lincoln 8152, New Zealand.

Volume 277, Number 5330, Issue of 29 August 1997, pp. 1296-1299
©1997 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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