Table 1.
Features of the seven alpine meadows distributed along the snowmelt gradient. The measurements were made at the time of peak standing biomass at the end of July 2004. The leaf eccentricity was calculated with an ellipsoidal leaf-distribution model (see Material and Methods)
| Mean snowmelt (Julian day) |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 130 | 140 | 150 | 160 | 170 | 180 | 190 | |
| n | 7 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 8 |
| Percentage cover of plant life form | |||||||
| Bunch graminoids | 59 ± 1·6 | 33 ±1·7 | 18 ± 0·9 | <1 | <1 | <1 | <1 |
| Other graminoids | 15 ± 1·4 | 12 ± 0·8 | 13 ± 0·5 | 28 ± 2·5 | 20 ± 1·1 | 39 ± 4·3 | 48 ± 4·8 |
| Erect forbs | 14 ± 0·6 | 30 ± 1·3 | 33 ± 1·0 | 36 ± 1·6 | 43 ± 2·1 | 52 ± 3·6 | 52 ± 4·8 |
| Large leafy rosette | 3 ± 0·3 | 17 ± 1·1 | 17 ± 0·9 | 22 ± 3·3 | 17 ± 2·3 | 4 ± 0·5 | <1 |
| Leaf eccentricity | 0·5 | 1·5 | 1·6 | 2·7 | 2·3 | 2·5 | 3·1 |
| Leaf area index* | 0·8 ± 0·09 | 1·5 ± 0·06 | 2·5 ± 0·35 | 1·2 ± 0·10 | 1·12 ± 0·01 | 2·0 ± 0·09 | 2·4 ± 0·18 |
| Ntot (mmol m−2) | 133 ± 4·0 | 218 ± 10·3 | 356 ± 10·2 | 148 ± 6·1 | 159 ± 5·9 | 257 ± 7·4 | 275 ± 16·7 |
| Above-ground phytomass (g m−2) | 435 ± 154 | 486 ± 65 | 443 ± 89 | 352 ± 77 | 402 ± 45 | 398 ± 67 | 370 ± 36 |
Means ± s.e. are shown.
*n = 3 for LAI.