New insights on plant communities and flora of the southern paramos of the Iberian Range (Spain)

Comparative assessment of satellite‐ and drone‐based vegetation indices to predict arthropod biomass in shrub‐steppes

“…This may be because phytophagous arthropod biomass reaches its maximum values in autumn and minimum values in winter (Table 4 ), when the NDVI reaches its minimum and maximum values, respectively (Appendix S8 ). In any case, in shrub‐steppe habitats where bare ground cover is especially high and shrubs with pointed and thin leaves predominate (Zurdo et al, 2021 ), NDVI seems to show an inverse behavior compared with green channel–based VIs, perhaps due to its higher level of reflectance for green wavelengths (Gitelson et al, 1996 ; Sripada et al, 2006 ). In a previous work, Sweet et al ( 2015 ) showed that estimates of NDVI calculated at 1‐m 2 quadrats by a field portable spectroradiometer correlated positively with arthropod biomass.…”

“…These areas are of conservation interest owing to the steppe bird community they hold, particularly Dupont's lark, and include several European habitats of interest (Zurdo et al, 2021 ). The plant communities are dominated by continental scrublands and mixed grassland–scrublands, such as Genista pumila , G. scorpius , Thymus spp., Satureja intricata , dry perennial grasslands, and xerophytic grasslands on carbonate substrates (Sainz Ollero & van Staalduinen, 2012 ; Zurdo et al, 2021 ). Crops, plowed fields, and pine afforestations are interspersed in the area, though they were explicitly excluded from the study.…”

“…These areas are of conservation interest due to the steppe bird community they hold, particularly the Dupont's lark, as well for including several European habitats of interest (Zurdo et al 2021).…”

“…Plant communities are dominated by continental scrublands and mixed grassland-scrublands such as Genista pumila, G. scorpius, Thymus spp. and Satureja intricata, dry perennial grasslands, and xerophytic grasslands on carbonate substrates (Sainz Ollero and van Staalduinen 2012, Zurdo et al 2021). Crops, ploughed fields and pine afforestations are interspersed in the area, though they were explicitly excluded from the study.…”

“…Natural steppe habitats are one of the most rare and threatened habitats in Europe (Sainz Ollero, 2013 ). In Spain, the Iberian “paramos” represent an important habitat of Iberian steppes (Sainz Ollero, 2013 ) and hold singular communities of plants, arthropods, and birds (Traba et al, 2013 ; Zurdo et al, 2021 ), which are intimately interrelated. Several studies detected significant relationships between plant structure, arthropod availability, and threatened insectivorous bird species in these Iberian “paramos,” which point to a complex system of multiple interactions where plant structure and composition modulates arthropod biomass and composition, which in turn affects the abundance and space use of insectivorous birds (Gómez‐Catasús et al, 2019 ; Reverter et al, 2019 ; Smith et al, 2020 ).…”