Habitat Change and Plant Demography: Assessing the Extinction Risk of a Formerly Common Grassland Perennial

An important aim of conservation biology is to understand how habitat change affects the dynamics and extinction risk of populations. We used matrix models to analyze the effect of habitat degradation on the demography of the declining perennial plant Trifolium montanum in 9 calcareous grasslands in Germany over 4 years and experimentally tested the effect of grassland management. Finite population growth rates (lambda) decreased with light competition, measured as leaf-area index above T. montanum plants. At unmanaged sites lambda was < 1 due to lower recruitment and lower survival and flowering probability of large plants. Nevertheless, in stochastic simulations, extinction of unmanaged populations of 100 flowering plants was delayed for several decades. Clipping as a management technique rapidly increased population growth because of higher survival and flowering probability of large plants in managed than in unmanaged plots. Transition-matrix simulations from these plots indicated grazing or mowing every second year would be sufficient to ensure a growth rate >= 1 if conditions stayed the same. At frequently grazed sites, the finite growth rate was approximately 1 in most populations of T. montanum. In stochastic simulations, the extinction risk of even relatively small grazed populations was low, but about half the extant populations of T. montanum in central Germany are smaller than would be sufficient for a probability of survival of > 95% over 100 years. We conclude that habitat change after cessation of management strongly reduces recruitment and survival of established individuals of this perennial plant. Nevertheless, our results suggest extinction processes may take a long time in perennial plants, resulting in an extinction debt. Even if management is frequent, many remnant populations of T. montanum may be at risk because of their small size, but even a slight increase in size could considerably reduce their extinction risk.