Soil chemical properties and plant species diversity along a rainfall gradient in semi-arid grassland of South Africa

Dingaan, Mamokete N.V.; Tsubo, Mitsuru; Walker, Sue; Newby, Terry

doi:10.5091/plecevo.2017.1260

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Given the efficient propagation of alien species, native species could be influenced by the alien species in numerous ways, including the induced changes in the physical habitats, via competitive suppression, or via some other trophic interaction [48,49]. Surprisingly, our result revealed that the species richness of alien species decreased with the increase in the annual precipitation, and it was contrary to most of the previous studies [50,51]. This result persuaded us to hypothesize that the native species were better adapted to colonizing high rainfall environments than the alien species, since Japan has a typically humid, temperate marine climate.…”

Section: Driving Factors Affecting Different Types Of Vegetationcontrasting

confidence: 99%

Effect of Urbanization on Vegetation in Riparian Area: Plant Communities in Artificial and Semi-Natural Habitats

Cao

Natuhara

2019

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Riparian areas are local hot spots of biodiversity that are vulnerable and easily degraded. Comparing plant communities in habitats with different degrees of urbanization may provide valuable information for the management and restoration of these vulnerable habitats. In this study, we explored the impact of urbanization on vegetation communities between artificial and semi-natural habitats within two rivers with different levels of development. We compared species richness, types of vegetation, and composition patterns of the plants in our study. In artificial habitats, the sites with relatively high levels of urbanization had the highest species richness, while in semi-natural habitats, the highest species richness was recorded in the less urbanized sites. Furthermore, every component of urbanization that contributed to the variation of species richness was examined in the current study. In artificial habitats, the proportion of impervious surface was the strongest predictor of the variation in species richness and was associated with the richness of alien, native, and riparian species. In semi-natural habitats, most of the richness of alien and native species were associated with the distance to the city center, and the number of riparian and ruderal species was significantly related to the proportion of impervious surface. Moreover, we found that a high level of urbanization was always associated with a large abundance of alien and ruderal species in both artificial and in semi-natural habitats. We recommend the methods of pair comparison of multiple rivers to analyze the impact of urbanization on plant species in riparian areas and have suggested various management actions for maintaining biodiversity and sustainability in riparian ecosystems.

show abstract

Section: Driving Factors Affecting Different Types Of Vegetationcontrasting

confidence: 99%

Effect of Urbanization on Vegetation in Riparian Area: Plant Communities in Artificial and Semi-Natural Habitats

Cao

Natuhara

2019

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Additionally, the CO 2 generated from soil water might result in the formation of an acidic compound, which lowers the pH of the soil (Dar et al, 2021;Weil, 2017). This result is consistent with the results of Giweta (2020), Osobamiro andAdewuyi (2018), andDingaan et al (2017).…”

Section: Rainfall and Phsupporting

confidence: 90%

Soil pH mapping as a function of land use, elevation, and rainfall in the lake tana basin, northwestern of ethiopia

Belay,

Selassie,

Tsegaye

et al. 2023

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Soil acidity has become a serious problem in the northern highlands of Ethiopia, limiting land productivity mainly that of crop yield. Research had been done to try to come up with results showing the area was affected by severe acidity, but based on few watersheds and districts in a haphazard way. The objective of this research was therefore to develop a comprehensive soil pH map that covers a broader area of 27 districts covering 2,810,055 ha of land to assess the degree of soil acidity in the Tana Sub‐basin, northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Using GPS (3‐m precision), 2652 soil point data were collected. Precipitation, elevation, and land use cover were taken into account when creating an interpolated soil pH map. Using adjacent probed pH values, ordinary kriging interpolation (R2 = 0.65; root‐mean‐square error = 0.37125) technique was used to estimate the unmeasured locations, while the spatial pH variability was mapped using the geostatistical (GS+10) software. All Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations soil pH categories, with 11.22%, 19.97%, 18.77%, 14.59%, 9.64%, and 6.29% of the soil samples being extremely acidic, strongly acidic, moderately acidic, slightly acidic, neutral, moderately alkaline and strongly alkaline, respectively, were observed. The interpolation result showed a moderate coefficient of variation (10.52%) indicating that the research area had medium variability. In addition, the nugget‐to‐total semivariance ratio ranged from 25% to 75%, indicating moderate geographic dependence. The pH semivariograms best fitted the exponential model, which means the one with maximum (R2 = 0.834) and with minimum residual sum of squares (1.819E‐06) value for mapping of pH. Our result showed that soil pH was inversely dependent on precipitation and altitude, while it varies with land use type. The research result/map could give useful tools for effective integrated land management to minimize soil acidification by policymakers, agriculturalists, and other stakeholder groups. We also recommended future routine updates on the size and distribution of surface soil acidity in the study area.

show abstract

“…The decrease in pH resulted in a slower decomposition rate of organic carbon and reduced the dominance of fast-growing species, which usually promoted the increase in species diversity (Gaberščik et al, 2018). Moreover, soil pH can alter species composition through differential fitness impacts on different plants (Dingaan et al, 2017) and can be an indicator of plant diversity. In fact, most Sphagnum species adapted to extremely acidic environments and were sensitive to Ca 2+ concentrations.…”

Section: Water Level Influenced Plant Diversity Not Only Directly But...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-environment factors dominate plant community structure and diversity in an ombrotrophic bog: The water level is the main regulating mechanism

Li¹,

Wang

He³

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the relationship between vegetation and the environment is critical to manage bog ecosystems. However, information on how environmental factors influence the species composition and diversity in the ombrotrophic bog of Northeast China is lacking. Here, we investigated species compositions and environmental characteristics (water level, water conductivity, soil moisture content, bulk density, pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorous) from five sample sites along the water level gradients (the water level is below the surface, near the surface, and above the surface). Plant communities presented a patchy distribution pattern along the environmental gradients and could be divided into five types of communities. Moreover, the distribution of plant communities was mainly determined by water level, water conductivity, soil moisture content, pH, and organic carbon, which significantly explained 32.2%, 30.9%, 29.7%, 29.1%, and 22.5% of the variation in floristic composition. Among these factors, water level was the dominant factor influencing the distribution of plant communities. The partial least squares path model analysis showed that water level could influence plant diversity through different pathways, which could directly affect plant diversity and indirectly affect by changing water chemistry and soil properties. Additionally, soil pH contributed most to the indirect effects of water level on plant diversity. Thus, this study highlighted the high dependence of plant communities on water level and environmental factors driven by water level in ombrotrophic bogs, which provided some valuable implications for regional vegetation restoration and plant community stability.

show abstract

Soil chemical properties and plant species diversity along a rainfall gradient in semi-arid grassland of South Africa

Cited by 23 publications

References 0 publications

Effect of Urbanization on Vegetation in Riparian Area: Plant Communities in Artificial and Semi-Natural Habitats

Effect of Urbanization on Vegetation in Riparian Area: Plant Communities in Artificial and Semi-Natural Habitats

Soil pH mapping as a function of land use, elevation, and rainfall in the lake tana basin, northwestern of ethiopia

Multi-environment factors dominate plant community structure and diversity in an ombrotrophic bog: The water level is the main regulating mechanism

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About