Topographically controlled soil moisture drives plant diversity patterns within grasslands

Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold; Arge, Lars; Bøcher, Peder Klith; Dalgaard, Tommy; Ejrnæs, Rasmus; Odgaard, Mette Vestergaard; Svenning, Jens‐Christian

doi:10.1007/s10531-013-0442-3

Cited by 133 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…2) in dry grasslands from North-Eastern Romania in almonst all investigated scales, results in concordance with findings from the study realized in the dry grasslands from Transylvania (Romania) (Turtureanu et al, 2014). This is probably due to local topography and to the underlying process of decrease in water availability in soil, concomitant with increase of slope and solar radiation, leading to the decline of plant diversity (Moeslund et al, 2013) by filtering the plant species which can grow on these dry sites. Also, high values of the heat load index are specific to the steep slopes which could be affected by erosion, with negative effect on plant species richness (Turtureanu et al, 2014).…”

Section: Diversity -Environment Relatioshipssupporting

confidence: 90%

Plant Diversity-Environment Relationships in Xeric Grasslands of North-Eastern Romania

Mardari¹

2016

Appl Ecol Env Res

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Abstract. Dry grasslands are plant communities with major importance for biodiversity. In this study, xeric grasslands of the order Festucetalia valesiacae from North-Eastern Romania were analyzed, in 45 nested series, at seven grain sizes (0.0001-100 m 2 ), sampled in 5 plant communities within above mentioned phytosociological unit. The aim was to test the relative importance of different environmental factors on species richness (α-diversity) and species turnover (β-diversity), the last one expressed as the exponent of the power-law species-area relationship, and to detect which is the influence of spatial scale on diversity-environment relationship. Generalized linear models were used to assess the relative importance of predictors in shaping diversity in all seven spatial scales. The results showed that diversityenvironment relationships were dependent on the scale of analysis, different factors being influential at different spatial scales. Local environmental conditions and land use practices were more related to species richness while general soil characteristics explained a larger proportion of spatial species turnover. In conclusion, diversity-environment relationships in the xeric grasslands from North-Eastern Romania are scale dependent, with local factors more important at small spatial scales and soil parameters more important for larger scales.

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Section: Diversity -Environment Relatioshipssupporting

confidence: 90%

Plant Diversity-Environment Relationships in Xeric Grasslands of North-Eastern Romania

Mardari¹

2016

Appl Ecol Env Res

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“…In addition to habitat size and isolation, the topography of the landscape may have a direct impact on species composition and richness. This is shown for plant species composition, richness and the functional composition over 258 grassland plots (Moeslund et al 2013). This is further supported by a study on grasshoppers: south-facing pastures maintained a greater Orthoptera diversity than north facing pastures (Weiss et al 2013); The authors further highlight that abundance is positively correlated with bare ground (and in consequence grazing might be better than mowing).…”

Section: Effects Of Abiotic and Biotic Factors On Species Diversitymentioning

confidence: 52%

European grassland ecosystems: threatened hotspots of biodiversity

et al. 2013

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Biodiversity is not homogenously distributed over the globe, and ecosystems differ strongly in the number of species they provide. With this special issue we highlight the ecology and endangerment of one of the most diverse ecosystem of Europe: the European grassland ecosystems. The selected 16 contributions describe interactions from below-ground to the atmosphere and focus on (1) effects of abiotic and biotic on species diversity, (2) the impact of various factors along spatial and temporal gradients, (3) the

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“…While a range of edaphic, topographic, historical and stochastic processes may act as drivers of species diversity within grazed semi-natural grasslands (e.g., [6,7]), many studies show that local plant species richness is influenced by present-day variation in grazing intensity [8] and by the historical continuity of grazing management (e.g., [9]). The activity of grazing animals influences the availability of essential resources, such as light and soil nutrients (the resource availability hypothesis) [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airborne Hyperspectral Data Predict Fine-Scale Plant Species Diversity in Grazed Dry Grasslands

et al. 2016

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Semi-natural grasslands with grazing management are characterized by high fine-scale species richness and have a high conservation value. The fact that fine-scale surveys of grassland plant communities are time-consuming may limit the spatial extent of ground-based diversity surveys. Remote sensing tools have the potential to support field-based sampling and, if remote sensing data are able to identify grassland sites that are likely to support relatively higher or lower levels of species diversity, then field sampling efforts could be directed towards sites that are of potential conservation interest. In the present study, we examined whether aerial hyperspectral (414-2501 nm) remote sensing can be used to predict fine-scale plant species diversity (characterized as species richness and Simpson's diversity) in dry grazed grasslands. Vascular plant species were recorded within 104 (4 mˆ4 m) plots on the island of Öland (Sweden) and each plot was characterized by a 245-waveband hyperspectral data set. We used two different modeling approaches to evaluate the ability of the airborne spectral measurements to predict within-plot species diversity: (1) a spectral response approach, based on reflectance information from (i) all wavebands, and (ii) a subset of wavebands, analyzed with a partial least squares regression model, and (2) a spectral heterogeneity approach, based on the mean distance to the spectral centroid in an ordinary least squares regression model. Species diversity was successfully predicted by the spectral response approach (with an error of ca. 20%) but not by the spectral heterogeneity approach. When using the spectral response approach, iterative selection of important wavebands for the prediction of the diversity measures simplified the model but did not improve its predictive quality (prediction error). Wavebands sensitive to plant pigment content (400-700 nm) and to vegetation structural properties, such as above-ground biomass (700-1300 nm), were identified as being the most important predictors of plant species diversity. We conclude that hyperspectral remote sensing technology is able to identify fine-scale variation in grassland diversity and has a potential use as a tool in surveys of grassland plant diversity.

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Topographically controlled soil moisture drives plant diversity patterns within grasslands

Cited by 133 publications

References 49 publications

Plant Diversity-Environment Relationships in Xeric Grasslands of North-Eastern Romania

Plant Diversity-Environment Relationships in Xeric Grasslands of North-Eastern Romania

European grassland ecosystems: threatened hotspots of biodiversity

Airborne Hyperspectral Data Predict Fine-Scale Plant Species Diversity in Grazed Dry Grasslands

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