Back into the past: Resurveying random plots to track community changes in Italian coastal dunes

Sperandii, Marta Gaia; Bazzichetto, Manuele; Gatti, Flavia; Acosta, Alicia Teresa Rosario

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.09.039

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License demand for coastal areas for leisure purposes (Langa, 2007;Teixeira et al, 2016) exert great pressure on the dunes, stripping them of vegetation (Langa, 2007;Sperandii et al, 2019) and causing the aggravation of coastal erosion processes (Maueua et al, 2007;Bar et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) promote the growth of the pioneer dune plant of coastal areas

Tivane¹,

Victorino²,

Guilundo³

et al. 2020

Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) promote the growth of the pioneer dune plant of coastal areas

Tivane¹,

Victorino²,

Guilundo³

et al. 2020

Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.

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“…In spite of their high biodiversity value and complex ecosystem functioning, coastal dunes are among the most threatened ecosystems worldwide [33,34]. In the Mediterranean areas, the loss and degradation of coastal dune ecosystems have been particularly severe in the last few decades [34][35][36], with the main threats being urban expansion [10,37,38], coastal erosion [39] and invasion by alien species [40][41][42][43]. In order to prevent these and other endangered habitats from further degradation, all European Member States adopted the Council Directive 92/43/EEC (hereafter Habitats Directive, HD).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capturing Coastal Dune Natural Vegetation Types Using a Phenology-Based Mapping Approach: The Potential of Sentinel-2

et al. 2019

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Coastal areas harbor the most threatened ecosystems on Earth, and cost-effective ways to monitor and protect them are urgently needed, but they represent a challenge for habitat mapping and multi-temporal observations. The availability of open access, remotely sensed data with increasing spatial and spectral resolution is promising in this context. Thus, in a sector of the Mediterranean coast (Lazio region, Italy), we tested the strength of a phenology-based vegetation mapping approach and statistically compared results with previous studies, making use of open source products across all the processing chain. We identified five accurate land cover classes in three hierarchical levels, with good values of agreement with previous studies for the first and the second hierarchical level. The implemented procedure resulted as being effective for mapping a highly fragmented coastal dune system. This is encouraging to take advantage of the earth observation through remote sensing technology in an open source perspective, even at the fine scale of highly fragmented sand dunes landscapes.

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“…However, using null models to reproduce average extinction and colonization rates, it is possible to identify communities and habitats that have changed in exceptional ways (Legendre, 2019). Given the widespread evidence of threats to coastal dunes (Defeo et al, 2009;Malavasi et al, 2013;Pakeman et al, 2017a) and some first records of biodiversity alterations in these ecosystems (Pakeman et al, 2017b;Sperandii et al, 2019), we predict large compositional or dominance changes, coupled with biodiversity losses beyond expectations in many communities, although the pattern and extent of change are likely to differ among habitat types. Second, we asked how the dominant ecological functions changed and if functional diversity changes mirrored taxonomic changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this context, assessing and monitoring how coastal dune habitats change through time is particularly urgent. Though recent studies suggested that indeed changes are occurring across Mediterranean sandy habitats, they either did not directly compare historical and recent surveys (Prisco et al, 2016; or only assessed one facet of diversity (Del Vecchio et al, 2015;Sperandii et al, 2019), and never tested if observed changes were beyond average fluctuations (e.g. sensu Legendre, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, we first asked how much vegetation changed in the last 15 years and tested how much of this change was greater than expected by chance. Even under natural conditions, a certain degree of temporal change is to be expected because of natural stochasticity, succession and species-specific extinction and colonization processes, all of which are highly dynamic in coastal dune K E Y W O R D S coastal dunes, EU Habitats, multi-faceted, null model, plant population and community dynamics, resurveying study, temporal changes habitats (Maun, 2009;Sperandii et al, 2019). However, using null models to reproduce average extinction and colonization rates, it is possible to identify communities and habitats that have changed in exceptional ways (Legendre, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Getting the measure of the biodiversity crisis in Mediterranean coastal habitats

et al. 2020

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1. Assessing temporal changes in plant communities is a core aim of temporal ecology and a shared priority of global conservation agendas which is particularly urgent in threatened ecosystems. Mediterranean coastal dunes harbour some of the most threatened habitats in Europe. Yet, surprisingly, studies capturing the recent temporal dynamics of biodiversity in these systems by accounting for multiple diversity facets and different aspects of community structure are missing. 2. Here, using data from a resurveying study, we provide a first comprehensive, habitat-based, multi-faceted assessment of recent (10-15 years) temporal changes in threatened Mediterranean coastal dunes. To this aim, we quantified taxonomic and functional changes in plant communities using indices capturing multiple biodiversity features, and we explored trends at both the community level and the species level. We compared observed biodiversity changes across habitats (to look for evidence of generalized biodiversity loss) and across facets (to infer the potential loss of unique functions), and tested their significance using a null model. Overall, we predicted large compositional shifts and biodiversity loss beyond expectations in many communities, although with differences among habitat types. 3. Our results reveal severe shifts in the taxonomic profile of the communities, mostly driven by a non-random species loss, and little temporal overlap in functional space, implying large changes in both community structure and ecological strategies of the investigated habitats. This, together with the disappearance of c. 23% of historical plots and with substantial losses in focal species, suggests that intense degradation processes are occurring in coastal dune habitats, particularly on the upper beach and on shifting dunes. 4. Synthesis. This study provides the first evidence of large, often non-random, taxonomic and functional changes occurring in Mediterranean coastal dune plant communities in a surprisingly short time-span. Along with furthering our knowledge of the recent dynamics affecting these endangered ecosystems, our results also pinpoint the types of habitats that are most at risk, helping to direct future conservation efforts and management. Future research should now be directed at more precisely testing potential drivers of these changes.

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Back into the past: Resurveying random plots to track community changes in Italian coastal dunes

Cited by 18 publications

References 39 publications

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) promote the growth of the pioneer dune plant of coastal areas

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) promote the growth of the pioneer dune plant of coastal areas

Capturing Coastal Dune Natural Vegetation Types Using a Phenology-Based Mapping Approach: The Potential of Sentinel-2

Getting the measure of the biodiversity crisis in Mediterranean coastal habitats

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