Methods of species pool determination as predictors of survival in seeding and transplanting experiments

Community composition is limited by a species’ ability to reach, establish, and survive on a site. Establishment and survival are constrained by both abiotic conditions and biotic interactions that operate together on local scales. They decide which species from the pool will form the community. For this reason, it is very important to clearly define the species pool, against which the community composition is compared. 
The effect of biotic and abiotic factors can be assessed experimentally, and the species pool by using estimation methods based on broad-scale observational data. We compared success of five species pool estimation methods in predicting establishment and survival in a seed/transplant addition experiment. 

In four different locations, we added resident and non-resident species to plots with and without competition and tested the ability of the species to thrive in both competition-free gaps (constrained mainly by abiotic conditions) and in intact vegetation (complete c..., Study site
The seed/transplant addition experiment was conducted in four species-rich oligotrophic meadows in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. These four localities formed a moisture gradient. The wettest location, Ohrazení (48°57´N, 14°35´E, 510 m a.s.l.), is a wet meadow characterized as Molinion. Vrcov (48°55′N, 14°39′E, 510 m a.s.l.) is a mesic meadow characterized as Alopecurion with some elements of Molinion. Zvíkov (48°59′N, 14°36′E, 500 m a.s.l.) is a mesic meadow characterized as Arrhenatherion (association Poo-Trisetetum). The driest location, Závraty (48°56´N, 14°23´E, 460 m a.s.l.), is a relatively dry grassland with the lowest productivity (Table S2 in Appendix S1) characterized as Arrhenatherion (association Ranunculo bulbosi-Arrhenatheretum elatioris). All these localities were extensively managed with a single mowing term at the end of June with the exception of Vrcov, where the meadow was mown twice a year (June and September). The localities were a maximum of 20 km apart..., R Studio, R, Microsoft Excel