Co-occurrence patterns and abiotic stress in sand-dune communities: Their relationship varies with spatial scale and the stress estimator

Maltez-Mouro, Sara; Maestre, Fernando T.; Freitas, Helena

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2009.10.003

Cited by 24 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Similar results were found by Maltez‐Mouro et al. () studying plant co‐occurrence patterns on yellow coastal dunes in Portugal. In the literature about plant interactions on coastal dunes, the SGH has been highlighted mainly in temperate ecosystems and there is little information about plant interactions in tropical and subtropical ecosystems.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

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The importance of plant life form on spatial associations along a subtropical coastal dune gradient

Castanho

Oliveira

Prado

2012

J Vegetation Science

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Questions Does the spatial association between isolated adult trees and understorey plants change along a gradient of sand dunes? Does this association depend on the life form of the understorey plant? Location Coastal sand dunes, southeast Brazil. Methods We recorded the occurrence of understorey plant species in 100 paired 0.25 m2 plots under adult trees and in adjacent treeless sites along an environmental gradient from beach to inland. Occurrence probabilities were modelled as a function of the fixed variables of the presence of a neighbour, distance from the seashore and life form, and a random variable, the block (i.e. the pair of plots). Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) were fitted in a backward step‐wise procedure using Akaike's information criterion (AIC) for model selection. Results The occurrence of understorey plants was affected by the presence of an adult tree neighbour, but the effect varied with the life form of the understorey species. Positive spatial association was found between isolated adult neighbour and young trees, whereas a negative association was found for shrubs. Moreover, a neutral association was found for lianas, whereas for herbs the effect of the presence of an adult neighbour ranged from neutral to negative, depended on the subgroup considered. The strength of the negative association with forbs increased with distance from the seashore. However, for the other life forms, the associational pattern with adult trees did not change along the gradient. Conclusions For most of the understorey life forms there is no evidence that the spatial association between isolated adult trees and understorey plants changes with the distance from the seashore, as predicted by the stress gradient hypothesis, a common hypothesis in the literature about facilitation in plant communities. Furthermore, the positive spatial association between isolated adult trees and young trees identified along the entire gradient studied indicates a positive feedback that explains the transition from open vegetation to forest in subtropical coastal dune environments.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…; Maltez‐Mouro et al. ; Santoro et al. ), few of them were conducted in subtropical or tropical coastal dunes (see Franks ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of plant life form on spatial associations along a subtropical coastal dune gradient

Castanho

Oliveira

Prado

2012

J Vegetation Science

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“…These regions maintain herbaceous communities presenting high values of plant richness (Cowling et al, 1999;M altez-Mouro et al, 2010;Ovalle et al, 2006;Pineda and Montalvo, 1995). In the present paper we analysed the spatial patterns of herbaceous species co-occurrence in grasslands in two Mediterranean regions (Spain and central Chile) subjected to similar environmental conditions and cultural regimes within a silvopastoral system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Non-random co-occurrence of native and exotic plant species in Mediterranean grasslands

et al. 2016

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“…The dunes of the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula have been recognized as a priority area for conservation due to the large number of rare or endemic species (Lomba et al 2008;Maltez-Mouro et al 2010). Moreover, coastal dunes are one of the most threatened systems due to human disturbance, such as urbanization and tourism, and climatic changes (Meulen and Salman 1996;Heslenfeld et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Biogeographic patterns of spiders in coastal dunes along a gradient of mediterraneity

et al. 2011

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The Iberian Peninsula is recognized for its high levels of species richness, rarity and endemicity. Our main aim was to study biogeographic patterns of spiders in coastal dunes along a gradient of mediterraneity. Distance-decay of similarity, nestedness and co-occurrence metrics were used to explore spider' distribution patterns. A similarity analysis was performed in order to obtain a hierarchical classification of sites. Indicator species analysis was conducted to identify indicator species for the various clustering levels of the site typology. The differentiation among assemblages was further explored by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and analysis of similarities (ANOSIM). Assemblages' similarity among sites decreased with climatic/geographic distance. The observed values of nestedness metrics (T and NODF) were not significant, while the co-occurrence metrics (C-score and Checkerboard units) were higher than expected by chance. Cluster analysis showed that spider' assemblages were structured along a gradient from North to South, forming four geographically distinct clusters. ANOSIM tests and NMDS supported the biogeographic patterns identified by cluster analysis. Several indicator species were found for the different levels of the hierarchic site typology. Spider assemblages revealed a high degree of biogeographical structure along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The coast is a ''biogeographic crossroad'', encompassing faunistic elements of different origins. The hierarchic typology of sites is generally consistent with the major biogeographic regions and the thermoclimatic belts recognized for the region.Our results indicate that the climatic gradient and historic factors played a key role in the current spiders' biogeographic patterns.

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Co-occurrence patterns and abiotic stress in sand-dune communities: Their relationship varies with spatial scale and the stress estimator

Cited by 24 publications

References 30 publications

The importance of plant life form on spatial associations along a subtropical coastal dune gradient

The importance of plant life form on spatial associations along a subtropical coastal dune gradient

Non-random co-occurrence of native and exotic plant species in Mediterranean grasslands

Biogeographic patterns of spiders in coastal dunes along a gradient of mediterraneity

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