Floristic diversity of meadow steppes in the Western Siberian Plain: effects of abiotic site conditions, management and landscape structure

Mathar, Wanja; Kämpf, Immo; Kleinebecker, Till; Kuzmin, Igor V.; Tolstikov, Andrei V.; Tupitsin, Sergey; Hölzel, Norbert

doi:10.1007/s10531-015-1023-4

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…Low-intensity grazing and hay making were found to support specialist species, and an increase in landscape heterogeneity was beneficial to these insects. This is in line with the findings of Buri et al (2013), Humbert et al (2012) and Mathar et al (2016) for plant community composition and diversity patterns of grassland in the Western Siberian forest steppe. The joint analysis of local site conditions, functional traits, and management in relation to the surrounding landscape revealed that beside the general differences in community structure, there are major effects of land use and landscape-scale habitat transformation on the local plant diversity.…”

Section: Land-use Change and Land Managementsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Across the Siberian and Central Asian steppes, the Virgin Lands Campaign of the Soviet Union led to Fig. 1 Simplified map of the Palaearctic steppe biome (with main steppe ecoregions after Wesche et al 2016) with localisation of the studies included in this Special Issue: (1) Kuzemko et al (2016); (2) Polyakova et al (2016); (3) Sutcliffe et al (2016); (4) Dembicz et al (2016); (5) Kajtoch et al (2016); (6) Weking et al (2016); (7) Mathar et al (2016); (8) Lameris et al (2016); (9) Wang and Wesche (2016); (10) Addison and Greiner (2016); (11) Niu et al (2016); (12) Novenko et al (2016); (13) Deák et al (2016); (14) Ambarlı et al (2016); (15) Kamp et al (2016); (16) Brinkert et al (2016); (17) Kämpf et al (2016). Reviews summarising data across countries are indicated by large asterisks (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Step(pe) up! Raising the profile of the Palaearctic natural grasslands

Török¹,

Ambarlı

Kamp

et al. 2016

Biodivers Conserv

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Palaearctic steppes are primary grasslands dominating the landscape of the Eurasian Grassland Belt from Central and Eastern Europe to Northern China across the temperate zone of Eurasia. We also include structurally and floristically similar habitats in North Africa, Anatolia, and Iran. The biota of the steppes are diverse, including many endemic species. As a result of the high rate of anthropogenic conversion and widespread degradation, the Palaearctic steppes have become one of the most endangered terrestrial biomes of the world. These facts underline the importance of sustaining landscape-scale biodiversity in steppes and stress the necessity of their conservation and restoration. Literature about the ecology, biodiversity, and conservation of Palaearctic steppes is not easily accessible for an international audience. Therefore, summarising the current state of knowledge as well as knowledge gaps is very timely. This Special Issue on ''Palaearctic steppes: ecology, biodiversity and conservation'', comprises 17 research papers from many different regions throughout the biome, as well as a broad review synthesising current knowledge.

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Section: Land-use Change and Land Managementsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Step(pe) up! Raising the profile of the Palaearctic natural grasslands

Török¹,

Ambarlı

Kamp

et al. 2016

Biodivers Conserv

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“…Previous studies (Chytrý et al ., ; Mathar et al ., ; Polyakova et al ., ) suggested that a positive or unimodal relationship between fine‐scale plant species richness and soil pH is not a universal trend in continental Asian dry grasslands as seems to be the case in Europe (Schuster & Diekmann, ; Tyler, ; Löbel et al ., ; Merunková et al ., ). Given the prevailing base‐rich soils (Selvaradjou et al ., ), the species‐pool hypothesis (Taylor et al ., ; Eriksson, ; Zobel, ) would predict a positive richness–pH relationship in dry grasslands in continental Asia, but Asian regions in our study, in contrast to European regions, showed a negative or no relationship between species richness and soil pH.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between plant species richness and soil pH vanishes with increasing aridity across Eurasian dry grasslands

Palpurina

Wagner

Wehrden

et al. 2016

Global Ecol. Biogeogr.

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Aim Soil pH is considered an important driver of fine‐scale plant species richness in terrestrial ecosystems. However, it is unclear to what extent this relationship is influenced by precipitation, which often directly affects both soil pH and species richness. We asked: (1) what is the relationship between fine‐scale vascular plant species richness and soil pH in regions with different levels of precipitation and (2) what are the relative effects of soil pH and precipitation on species richness? Location Dry grasslands in eight regions of northern Eurasia. Methods Species richness and soil pH were measured in 1055 10 m × 10 m plots and precipitation values were derived from global datasets. Relationships between variables were explored using general linear models, mixed‐effect models and partial regressions. Variation partitioning was used to assess the relative effect of each predictor on species richness. Results In wetter regions, soil pH range was broader, mean species richness was higher and the richness–pH relationship was unimodal. In drier regions, mean soil pH was higher and its range narrower, species richness was on average lower and less variable, and the richness–pH relationship was negative or absent. The richness–pH relationship persisted after controlling for the effect of precipitation, but precipitation, uniquely or together with soil pH, explained more variation in species richness in most regions than did pH alone. Main conclusions The relationship between plant species richness and soil pH in dry grasslands changes from unimodal, through negative, to none with decreasing regional precipitation in Eurasia. However, it seems that the species richness–soil pH relationship in dry grasslands over broad areas is substantially influenced and confounded by precipitation either indirectly, by shortening and shifting the pH gradient, or directly, by decreasing the negative effects of drought stress on richness.

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“…The southern TAs belong to the forest steppe ecozone, which is the transition zone between forested taiga and treeless steppe. While the Pre‐Taiga already features pine forests on sand and extensive mire growth (Wertebach et al ., ), the southern test areas partly show the typical macromosaic of birch forests intermingled with meadow steppes (Mathar et al ., ). Typical temperate steppe soils rich in organic carbon (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Soil carbon sequestration due to post‐Soviet cropland abandonment: estimates from a large‐scale soil organic carbon field inventory

Wertebach

Hölzel

Kämpf

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 triggered cropland abandonment on a continental scale, which in turn led to carbon accumulation on abandoned land across Eurasia. Previous studies have estimated carbon accumulation rates across Russia based on large-scale modelling. Studies that assess carbon sequestration on abandoned land based on robust field sampling are rare. We investigated soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks using a randomized sampling design along a climatic gradient from forest steppe to Sub-Taiga in Western Siberia (Tyumen Province). In total, SOC contents were sampled on 470 plots across different soil and land-use types. The effect of land use on changes in SOC stock was evaluated, and carbon sequestration rates were calculated for different age stages of abandoned cropland. While land-use type had an effect on carbon accumulation in the topsoil (0-5 cm), no independent land-use effects were found for deeper SOC stocks. Topsoil carbon stocks of grasslands and forests were significantly higher than those of soils managed for crops and under abandoned cropland. SOC increased significantly with time since abandonment. The average carbon sequestration rate for soils of abandoned cropland was 0.66 Mg C ha yr (1-20 years old, 0-5 cm soil depth), which is at the lower end of published estimates for Russia and Siberia. There was a tendency towards SOC saturation on abandoned land as sequestration rates were much higher for recently abandoned (1-10 years old, 1.04 Mg C ha yr ) compared to earlier abandoned crop fields (11-20 years old, 0.26 Mg C ha yr ). Our study confirms the global significance of abandoned cropland in Russia for carbon sequestration. Our findings also suggest that robust regional surveys based on a large number of samples advance model-based continent-wide SOC prediction.

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Floristic diversity of meadow steppes in the Western Siberian Plain: effects of abiotic site conditions, management and landscape structure

Cited by 20 publications

References 70 publications

Step(pe) up! Raising the profile of the Palaearctic natural grasslands

Step(pe) up! Raising the profile of the Palaearctic natural grasslands

The relationship between plant species richness and soil pH vanishes with increasing aridity across Eurasian dry grasslands

Soil carbon sequestration due to post‐Soviet cropland abandonment: estimates from a large‐scale soil organic carbon field inventory

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