Components of plant diversity as ecological indicators reflecting the effects of conservation management and degradation in different climatic conditions

Abstract

Additive partitioning of species diversity is a valuable approach for quantifying the spatial patterns of biodiversity sampled in hierarchically scaled studies. This approach may provide key insights into vegetation community restoration following terrestrial ecosystems degradation in different climatic conditions. The scale-dependence of plant diversity in relation to different plant functional groups (e.g., herbaceous and woody) is still little understood. This research aims to investigate the influence of management options (protected vs. non-protected) and climatic conditions (semiarid vs. Mediterranean) on different components of diversity in both herbaceous and woody species derived from local and regional scales (i.e., plot and site, respectively).In the studied areas, a total of 64 plots (1000 m 2 ) at local scale and 128 micro-plots (1 m 2 ) among 16 sites at regional scale were selected for sampling the woody and herbaceous species data, respectively, by using a hierarchical sampling design. Diversity components of local (α1, β1) and regional (α2, β2) scales were extracted according to additive partitioning method. Differences in diversity component (α1, α21, β1 and β2) and floristic composition between management options and climatic conditions were evaluated using GLMM and DCA. The results indicate that all components of total species (both herbaceous and woody) diversity (α1, α2, β1 and β2) were significantly influenced by management options (p < 0.05) with greater values in the protected areas than the non-protected areas. However, the climatic conditions only had significant effects on β2, with greater values in the Mediterranean compared to semi-arid areas. Moreover, the separate analysis of herbaceous and woody species indicated that management options have a greater significant effect on different diversity components compared to the climatic condition. Detrended correspondence analysis showed that floristic variations along the axes are strongly affected by management in both climatic conditions. This indicates that protection measures mostly increased plant species diversity at the local and regional scales, which is independent of the climatic condition.

Assessing the response of rare and common plant species to human induced rangeland degradation at a landscape scale in western Iran

“…More specifically, human induced degradation by intensive grazing interacting with environmental, soil and topographic variables are recognized as important factors that influence plant diversity and rangeland condition (Faramarzi et al, 2010;Heydari et al, 2021;Klimek et al, 2008). Climatic and topographic variables are the main drivers of species and endemics distribution at the larger landscape scale (Abdelaal et al, 2020;Arroyo-Rodríguez et al, 2013).…”

“…The occurrence of common and rare species is related to grazing intensity (Erfanzadeh et al, 2015; Klimek et al, 2008), environmental variables (Dawson et al, 2012; Klimek et al, 2008), geographical ranges (Murray et al, 1999) and landscape change (McCune, 2016). More specifically, human induced degradation by intensive grazing interacting with environmental, soil and topographic variables are recognized as important factors that influence plant diversity and rangeland condition (Faramarzi et al, 2010; Heydari et al, 2021; Klimek et al, 2008). Climatic and topographic variables are the main drivers of species and endemics distribution at the larger landscape scale (Abdelaal et al, 2020; Arroyo‐Rodríguez et al, 2013).…”

“…Measuring plant species richness is an important prerequisite for the conservation and management of biodiversity in a natural ecosystem. In general, the diversity of species within and between the different spatial units of a landscape varies (Crist et al, 2003; Erfanzadeh et al, 2015; Heydari et al, 2021; Huston, 1999; Ricklefs, 1987). In the present study, the contribution diversity (CD) of species (Lu et al, 2007) derived from additive partitioning diversity (Crist et al, 2003; Lande, 1996; Veech et al, 2002) is used to analyze the diversity components of rare and common species at a multi‐spatial scale (Lu et al, 2007).…”

Interactive response and spatial heterogeneity of alpine grassland biodiversity to soil, topography, climate, and human factors on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

“…As global climate warming and human activities intensify, the activities of vegetation diversity are also significantly enhanced (Heydari et al, 2021; Tucker et al, 2001). The change in vegetation diversity has been a hot topic in ecological research and is the core concerns for Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems Program (GCTE) and International Biology Program (IBP) (Lombard, 1996; Zheng et al, 2021).…”