Disentangling effects of disturbance severity and frequency: Does bioindication really work?

Pielech, Remigiusz; Czortek, Patryk

doi:10.1002/ece3.7019

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Deeper insights into the disturbance regimes shaping riparian ecosystems revealed that different components of ecological disturbances can show opposing trends. At the coarse spatial scale, the disturbance severity increases downstream whereas the disturbance frequency decreases along rivers (Lepori & Hjerdt, 2006; Pielech & Czortek, 2021). Recent analyses revealed that many traits show different responses to the severity and frequency of ecological disturbances (Herben et al., 2018; Midolo et al., 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among them, the longitudinal (upstream–downstream) gradient is frequently discussed in biodiversity studies. Some vital physical properties change continuously along this gradient, including water velocity, width of the channel, light availability, accumulation to erosion ratio, and disturbance regimes, among others (Lite et al., 2005; Naiman et al., 2005; Pielech & Czortek, 2021). These factors shape the riverine biodiversity and are responsible for species turnover along the longitudinal gradient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Along the river: Longitudinal patterns of functional and taxonomic diversity of plants in riparian forests

Surmacz,

Foremnik,

Pielech

2024

J Vegetation Science

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QuestionsThe River Continuum Concept (RCC) predicts a gradual shift of functional adaptations of organisms along the longitudinal (upstream–downstream) gradient, as well as the maximization of the biotic diversity in mid‐reaches. Although this theoretical framework was originally developed for stream macroinvertebrates, we tested whether such a pattern can also be observed in riparian plant communities.LocationThe study was conducted in the upper catchments of the San and Wisłoka Rivers in southeastern Poland. In both catchments, very well preserved riparian forests occur continuously along both rivers.MethodsWe studied the cover of plant species in riparian forests across two river networks. We analyzed the taxonomic and functional diversity indices, as well as community‐weighted means of functional traits in relation to the plots' positions in the catchments.ResultsThe functional richness and divergence displayed unimodal patterns of increasing values in the mid‐reaches. The patterns of taxonomic diversity were similar, but some plots in the lowest reaches were more diverse than expected, forming an additional increase in diversity. The observed patterns were largely in line with the predictions of RCC. We discovered a significant decrease in the specific leaf area and an increase in the height of herbaceous plants in communities along a longitudinal gradient. There was also a shift in the dispersal syndromes, toward a higher importance of zoochory in the lower reaches.ConclusionsThe study shows that plant communities in natural riparian forests show continuous species turnover along the longitudinal gradient that, along with the longitudinal shift of abiotic factors, creates patterns that are known from theoretical predictions.

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