The importance of herbivore density and management as determinants of the distribution of rare plant species

Speed, James D. M.; Austrheim, Gunnar

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.030

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The northern mixed endemism cells may reflect lineages that immigrated from the east, which are limited by mild winters. Since the temperature variable in this study was highly correlated with other temperature variables in Norway (Speed & Austrheim, 2017), among them winter temperature, we argue that there would be a positive correlation between cold winter temperatures and northern mixed endemism cells. The southern mixed endemism cells contained lineages limited by both cold summers and winters, and the inhabiting plants may have immigrated from the west and south.…”

Section: Spatial Patterns and Potential Drivers Of Endemismmentioning

confidence: 58%

Differential patterns of floristic phylogenetic diversity across a post‐glacial landscape

Mienna

Speed

Bendiksby

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim In this study, we explored spatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity (PD) and endemism in the flora of Norway and tested hypothesized post‐glacial environmental drivers of PD, including temperature, precipitation, edaphic factors and time since glacial retreat. Location Norway. Taxon Vascular plants (Trachaeophyta). Methods We produced a multi‐locus maximum‐likelihood (ML) phylogeny using a combination of newly produced DNA sequences from herbarium specimens and sequences available from public repositories. We combined the phylogeny with species occurrence data to estimate PD and phylogenetic endemism across Norway, using a spatial randomization to judge statistical significance. We used multiple‐model inference to identify environmental variables that contributed the most to the patterns of PD. Finally, we estimated phylogenetic turnover and used this to identify Norwegian plant assemblages in terms of composition and evolutionary history. Results Our ML phylogeny contained 87% of all currently described native Norwegian vascular plants. Assemblages were phylogenetically overdispersed in warmer and wetter regions of Norway, as well as in regions with a longer post‐glacial history. In cold and dry regions, plant assemblages were phylogenetically clustered, and characterized by neo‐endemism, while the mild and wet regions were characterized by both paleo‐ and neo‐endemism. PD was positively correlated with summer temperature and habitat heterogeneity, and peaked in the southeast of Norway. Main conclusions Both contemporary ecological factors (climate and habitat heterogeneity), and post‐glacial history seem to have shaped the phylogenetic structure of the flora of Norway. The flora in the far north of Norway appear to be a result of recent diversification while the coastal regions are assemblages of deeper lineages. Our results suggest that there is an evolutionary signal in the distribution of the Norwegian vascular flora.

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Section: Spatial Patterns and Potential Drivers Of Endemismmentioning

confidence: 58%

Differential patterns of floristic phylogenetic diversity across a post‐glacial landscape

Mienna

Speed

Bendiksby

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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“…This is a set of 19 variables derived from monthly temperatures and precipitations to produce more ecologically relevant variables. We used the three bioclimatic variables that were closely associated with the first three axes in a principle component dimensionality reduction exercise; the three axes respectively represented 61.7, 19.9 and 7.4% of the total variation in the data set–a total of 89% [ 38 ]. The variables associated with these axes are annual precipitation, mean temperature of the warmest quarter (referred to as mean summer temperature) and the precipitation seasonality (the coefficient of variation of monthly precipitation).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting spatial, temporal and environmental patterns in observation and specimen based species occurrence data

et al. 2018

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Species occurrence data records the location and time of an encounter with a species, and is valuable for many aspects of ecological and evolutionary analyses. A key distinction within species occurrence data is between (1) collected and preserved specimens that can be taxonomically validated (i.e., natural history collections), and (2) observations, which are more error prone but richer in terms of number and spread of observations. In this study we analyse the distribution in temporal, spatial, taxonomic and environmental coverage of specimen- and observation based species occurrence data for land plants in Norway, a region with strong climatic and human population density gradients. Of 4.8 million species occurrence records, the majority (78%) were observations. However, there was a greater species richness in the specimen record (N = 4691) than in the observation record (N = 3193) and most species were recorded more as specimens than observations. Specimen data was on average older, and collected later during the year. Both record types were highly influenced by a small number of prolific contributors. The species most highly represented in the observation data set were widespread or invasive, while in the specimen records, taxonomically challenging species were overrepresented. Species occurrence records were unevenly spatially distributed. Both specimen and observation records were concentrated in regions of Norway with high human population density and with high temperatures and precipitation, but in different regions within Norway. Observation and specimen records thus differ in taxonomic, temporal, spatial and environmental coverage for a well-sampled group and study region, potentially influencing the ecological inferences made from studies utilizing species occurrence data. The distribution of observation data dominates the dataset, so inferences of species diversity and distributions do not correspond to the evolutionary or physiological knowledge of species, which is based on specimen data. We make recommendations for users of biodiversity data, and collectors to better exploit the complementary strengths of these distinct biodiversity data types.

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“…Food selection by large herbivores shapes the distribution of both plants and animals across the globe (McLaren and Peterson 1994, Maron and Crone 2006, Speed and Austrheim 2017. To manage our sustenance of such ecosystems, we need to know what the animals choose to eat, when, and where.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The complexity of interacting nutritional drivers behind food selection, a review of northern cervids

Felton

Wam

Stolter³

et al. 2018

Ecosphere

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Abstract. The research literature on food selection by large herbivores is extensive. Still, we are generally lacking in our knowledge of the influence of potentially interacting chemical contents of the food. We made a qualitative review of a systematic literature search of studies that empirically link chemical contents of food to the food selection by northern cervids (genera Alces, Capreolus, Cervus, Dama, Odocoileus, Rangifer). We found that although the majority of the 98 relevant studies measuring any given food constituent (energy, protein, fiber, minerals, plant secondary metabolites) provided support for it acting as a driver of food selection (in either a negative or positive way), there was little support for the traditional hypotheses of maximization or limitation of any single constituent. Rather, because of the animals' need to acquire an appropriate intake of several constituents at the same time, our review highlights how new empirical studies need to focus on several food constituents in synchrony: (1) Study designs should capture sufficient variation in the content of food constituents in order to tease apart their many co-variations; and (2) insights about nutritional drivers may be lost if one uses only composite currencies such as crude energy, crude fiber, ash, or tannins, which may mask contrasting selection patterns of the lumped constituents. Season had an apparent influence on the selection of some food constituents, particularly various fiber fractions. In contrast, our review revealed a lack of evidence that cervids more strongly select for protein in summer than they do in winter. Our overall conclusion of the review is that interacting chemical contents of food make the nutritional value of a given food type into a varying entity. To better elucidate this variation, we need new technologies that non-invasively capture nutrient intake of free-ranging animals, across seasons.

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The importance of herbivore density and management as determinants of the distribution of rare plant species

Cited by 18 publications

References 58 publications

Differential patterns of floristic phylogenetic diversity across a post‐glacial landscape

Differential patterns of floristic phylogenetic diversity across a post‐glacial landscape

Contrasting spatial, temporal and environmental patterns in observation and specimen based species occurrence data

The complexity of interacting nutritional drivers behind food selection, a review of northern cervids

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