Root hemiparasitic plants are associated with high diversity in temperate grasslands

Abstract

Questions Is the incidence of root hemiparasitic plants in non‐forest vegetation associated with high diversity? Are root hemiparasites more associated with species‐rich vegetation than other species? Location Czech Republic. Methods Plot size‐corrected species richness, Shannon diversity and Pielou's evenness were computed for a representative set of 18 101 vegetation plots representing all main types of terrestrial open (non‐forest) habitats of the country. Null models of species richness assuming occurrence of a random species with given occurrence frequency, reflecting higher incidence probability in species‐rich plots, were constructed for 16 common root hemiparasitic species. The null model distribution of species richness was subsequently compared with the actual mean species richness of plots containing the respective root hemiparasites. Median values of plot Shannon diversity and evenness were computed for each species in the database. Values obtained for plots containing individual root hemiparasites were compared with distribution of values for other species in the database. Results The occurrence of 11 of 16 root hemiparasites studied was associated with high species richness significantly more than under random expectations; three species were negatively associated. Three root hemiparasites were among the top 5% of all species associated with high species richness and Shannon diversity, and eight were among the top 25%. Almost 50% of the top 1% most species‐rich plots contained at least one root hemiparasitic species. Conclusions We demonstrated a positive association between the incidence of most root hemiparasites and diversity of non‐forest terrestrial plant communities at a broad landscape scale. This finding scales up the results of experimental studies that showed some root hemiparasites act as ecosystem engineers, increasing vegetation diversity. Root hemiparasites should be regarded as important biodiversity indicators and potential drivers of biodiversity. As such, conserving their wild populations or promoting their establishment should become a goal of nature conservation and ecological restoration.

Multi-driver and multi-scale assessment of vine community structure and composition across a complex tropical environmental matrix

“…In contrast to Climate1 , landscape Variety —the number of land use types within our windows of analyses—was linearly and negatively related to vine patch richness, diversity, and evenness. These results also differ from those reported for lianas [37, 38] and other parasites [9, 62, 63] describing a positive relationship between parasite diversity and host or habitat diversity. Three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses may help interpret these results while offering general insights into vine-vine and host-parasite interactions at regional scales.…”

Effects of drought and N level on the interactions of the root hemiparasite Rhinanthus alectorolophus with a combination of three host species

“…; Press & Phoenix ; Fibich et al . ). Competitive grass species are often more strongly reduced by hemiparasites than less competitive herb species (Gibson & Watkinson ; Pywell et al .…”

Native parasitic plants: Biological control for plant invasions?

“…From a human perspective, they have traditionally been viewed as pests, and many are indeed weeds that damage agricultural crops or timber trees. In ecology, parasitic plants are frequently viewed as just a curiosity despite empirical evidence demonstrating that they are a significant component of natural vegetation worldwide affecting biodiversity and ecosystem processes and services (Westbury et al, 2006;Quested, 2008;Hartley et al, 2015;Watson, 2016;Fibich et al, 2017). Based on the evidence…”