Impact of farm size and topography on plant and insect diversity of managed grasslands in the Alps

Marini, Lorenzo; Fontana, Paolo; Klimek, Sebastian; Battisti, Andrea; Gaston, Kevin J.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.10.034

Cited by 104 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…For instance, the soil bacterial communities along the Changbai Mountain in China were driven by the soil total carbon and nitrogen, the C:N ratio, and dissolved organic carbon, which changed across the elevation strata (19), whereas in the Colorado Rockies, soil pH and elevation were strongly negatively correlated with each other (3). Elevational differences may also relate to human impact, as was shown in a study by Marini and coworkers (20) on the effect of farm size in the Italian Alps. In addition, Geremia and coworkers (10) showed that anthropogenically managed alpine grasslands had different soil bacterial communities than those of natural alpine grasslands.…”

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confidence: 85%

Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Yashiro

Pinto‐Figueroa

Buri

et al. 2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

107

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Mountain ecosystems are characterized by a diverse range of climatic and topographic conditions over short distances and are known to shelter a high biodiversity. Despite important progress, still little is known on bacterial diversity in mountain areas. Here, we investigated soil bacterial biogeography at more than 100 sampling sites randomly stratified across a 700-km 2 area with 2,200-m elevation gradient in the western Swiss Alps. Bacterial grassland communities were highly diverse, with 12,741 total operational taxonomic units (OTUs) across 100 sites and an average of 2,918 OTUs per site. Bacterial community structure was correlated with local climatic, topographic, and soil physicochemical parameters with high statistical significance. We found pH (correlated with % CaO and % mineral carbon), hydrogen index (correlated with bulk gravimetric water content), and annual average number of frost days during the growing season to be among the groups of the most important environmental drivers of bacterial community structure. In contrast, bacterial community structure was only weakly stratified as a function of elevation. Contrasting patterns were discovered for individual bacterial taxa. Acidobacteria responded both positively and negatively to pH extremes. Various families within the Bacteroidetes responded to available phosphorus levels. Different verrucomicrobial groups responded to electrical conductivity, total organic carbon, water content, and mineral carbon contents. Alpine grassland bacterial communities are thus highly diverse, which is likely due to the large variety of different environmental conditions. These results shed new light on the biodiversity of mountain ecosystems, which were already identified as potentially fragile to anthropogenic influences and climate change. IMPORTANCEThis article addresses the question of how microbial communities in alpine regions are dependent on local climatic and soil physicochemical variables. We benefit from a unique 700-km 2 study region in the western Swiss Alps region, which has been exhaustively studied for macro-organismal and fungal ecology, and for topoclimatic modeling of future ecological trends, but without taking into account soil bacterial diversity. Here, we present an in-depth biogeographical characterization of the bacterial community diversity in this alpine region across 100 randomly stratified sites, using 56 environmental variables. Our exhaustive sampling ensured the detection of ecological trends with high statistical robustness. Our data both confirm previously observed general trends and show many new detailed trends for a wide range of bacterial taxonomic groups and environmental parameters.

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mentioning

confidence: 85%

Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Yashiro

Pinto‐Figueroa

Buri

et al. 2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

107

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“…This may be because complex landform changes the climatic regime occurring in a range of longitudes and latitudes and creates climatic diversity, which is advantageous for plant diversity. A similar impact of landform on plant diversity of managed grasslands was reported in the Alps and in an Ecuadorian mountain rainforest [46,47]. Ecological systems are dynamic on evolutionary scales of time and space and the processes on all temporal and spatial scales contribute to shaping ecological systems at all levels [2,48,49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Scale Expansion of Community Investigations and Integration of the Effects of Abiotic and Biotic Processes on Maintenance of Species Diversity

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2011

International Journal of Ecology

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Information on the maintenance of diversity patterns from regional to local scales is dispersed among academic fields due to the local focus of community ecology. To better understand these patterns, the study of ecological communities needs to be expanded to larger scales and the various processes affecting them need to be integrated using a suitable quantitative method. We determined a range of communities on a flora-subregional scale in Yunnan province, China (383210.02 km 2 ). A series of species pools were delimited from the regional to plot scales. Plant diversity was evaluated and abiotic and biotic processes identified at each pool level. The species pool effect was calculated using an innovative model, and the contribution of these processes to the maintenance of plant species diversity was determined and integrated: climate had the greatest effect at the flora-subregional scale, with historical and evolutionary processes contributing ∼11%; climate and human disturbance had the greatest effect at the local site pool scale; competition exclusion and stress limitation explained strong filtering at the successional stage pool scale; biotic processes contributed more on the local community scale than on the regional scale. Scale expansion combined with the filtering model approach solves the local problem in community ecology.

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“…The decreasing diversity is mainly depending on farm size because of management intensity at field scale. Positive effect were find in case of slope grassland topography while negative influence in case of farm size on species richness, orthopterans and butterflies (Marini et al, 2009). In EU countries agro-environmental programs were launched in order to stop or even reverse the decline of biodiversity (Kleijn and Sutherland, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Cut Mowing and Grazing Effects With Grey Cattle on Plant Species Composition in Case of Pannon Wet Grasslands

Házi¹

2012

Appl Ecol Env Res

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Abstract. Examined area can be found at Balaton Uplands National Park (Hungary). 5 sample areas were examined in Badacsonytördemic: 1: 32 hectare under-grazed pasture, 2: 38 hectare overgrazed pasture, 3: 34 hectare hayfield, 4: trampled area, 5: beaten track. Livestock population was 118 in the monitored pastures. Sampling was executed along five 52m long circular transects, within 5cm × 5cm interlocking quadrates. Based on the data we can state that the curve of the drinking area was the highest of speciesarea examinations however weed appeared because of degradation which provided more species. According to species-area examinations overgrazed areas were richer in species then other examined areas. Based on diversity data drinking area considered degraded, while meadow and overgrazed areas was considered as proper state. Diversity of meadow was larger, but dominance of economically useful species was smaller. The amount of less valuable species -Carex hirta -increased.

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Impact of farm size and topography on plant and insect diversity of managed grasslands in the Alps

Cited by 104 publications

References 33 publications

Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Local Environmental Factors Drive Divergent Grassland Soil Bacterial Communities in the Western Swiss Alps

Scale Expansion of Community Investigations and Integration of the Effects of Abiotic and Biotic Processes on Maintenance of Species Diversity

Cut Mowing and Grazing Effects With Grey Cattle on Plant Species Composition in Case of Pannon Wet Grasslands

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