Beta diversity declines while native plant species richness triples over 35years in a suburban protected area

Beauvais, Marie-Pierre; Pellerin, Stéphanie; Lavoie, Claude

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2015.12.040

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…The shorter, more open vegetation that we observed on mowed subplots (Figure ) might have also increased seed dispersal (Soons, Heil, Nathan, & Katul, ), reducing spatial turnover by allowing species to mix among mowed subplots (Cadotte & Fukami, ; Kneitel & Miller, ). Unmowed grassland might readily lose species that are sensitive to excessive biomass and readily gain species from the reserve‐level pool that are mowing sensitive (Beauvais, Pellerin, & Lavoie, ; Koleff & Gaston, ; Schultz, Reid, Lodge, & Hunter, ), increasing β‐diversity. It would thus be unwise to homogeneously mow an entire reserve because high turnover in unmowed areas suggests there might be a suite of mowing‐sensitive species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual mowing maintains plant diversity in threatened temperate grasslands

Smith

Barrett

Milner

2018

Applied Vegetation Science

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Questions: Disturbance regimes shaped the evolution of grasslands but grazing exclusion and fire suppression have caused unprecedented increases in grassland biomass and biodiversity declines. Mowing reduces biomass but is not widely practiced in conservation reserves because of concerns about facilitating exotic plant invasion and altering ecosystem function. We asked whether regular mowing affected (1) the diversity of native and exotic functional groups, (2) spatial turnover in vegetation composition (β-diversity), (3) vegetation attributes relating to biomass and structural heterogeneity, (4) community composition and (5) the distribution and abundance of individual native and exotic species.Location: Five temperate grassland reserves, south-eastern Australia, encompassing C 3 and C 4 dominated communities.Methods: Vegetation within reserves had been cut to 10 cm, once per year, for 10 years in late spring/early summer to maintain access tracks. We surveyed plant communities in mowed areas and nearby (<5 m) unmowed control areas (40 subplots per reserve, 200 total) and used linear mixed-effects models to examine the effects of mowing. Results:Of 24 functional groups, the richness of 16 native and exotic groups significantly increased with mowing. In 14 of these cases, effects were consistent across C 3 -and C 4 -dominated grassland. Mowing reduced spatial turnover, but this did not reduce species richness at any spatial scale. When accounting for species abundance and evenness (Shannon diversity), effects of mowing were generally positive for native species and neutral for exotic species. Mowing increased native perennial grass cover and bare earth, decreased exotic perennial grass cover and litter, and changed community composition. Mowing reduced vegetation height but not structural heterogeneity. Mowing positively affected six individual native species and no exotic species.One native (Asperula conferta) and two exotic (Avena spp. and Nassella neesiana) species were found in lower abundance on mowed plots. Conclusions:Annual mowing can be a useful conservation tool for threatened temperate grasslands but should be heterogeneous to ensure the persistence of mowingsensitive native species. Good vehicle hygiene is essential and localized complementary management (e.g., herbicide) might be required to reduce exotic forbs and grasses. K E Y W O R D S community ecology, disturbance regime, functional ecology, invasive species, meadow, prairie, savanna, slashing 208 | Applied Vegetation Science SMITH eT al.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual mowing maintains plant diversity in threatened temperate grasslands

Smith

Barrett

Milner

2018

Applied Vegetation Science

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“…In nature, both determination processes (e.g., competitive habitat filtering hierarchy among species and interspecific niche partitioning) and stochastic processes (e.g., historical contingency, ecological drift, and dispersal limitation) influence community assemblages [137][138][139]. Following anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation, homogenized environmental conditions reduce the variability of species assemblages at the landscape level; that is, there is less functional distinctiveness between plant communities in these disturbed regions, and thus a reduction in beta diversity [140][141][142][143]. Crucially, there is a growing body of evidence which reveals that the decreased cover of primary forests results in a serious reduction in beta diversity [144][145][146][147].…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Understorey Vegetation: Colonization and the Availability and Heterogeneity of Resources

Wang

Huang

et al. 2019

Forests

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Understorey vegetation comprises a major portion of plant diversity and contributes greatly to nutrient cycling and energy flow. This review examines the mechanisms involved in the response of understorey vegetation to stand development and the overstorey canopy following disturbances. The overall abundance and diversity of the understorey is enhanced with the availability and heterogeneity of light, soil nutrients, soil moisture, and substrates. Vascular plants are positively impacted by the availability and heterogeneity of light and soil nutrients, whereas non-vascular vegetation is more strongly influenced by colonization time, soil moisture, and substrates, and is decreased with a higher proportion of broadleaf overstorey. The availability of resources is a prominent driver toward the abundance and diversity of understorey vegetation, from the stand initiation to stem exclusion stage under a single-species dominated overstorey. However, resource heterogeneity dominates at the later stages of succession under a mixed overstorey. Climate and site conditions modify resource availability and heterogeneity in the understorey layer, but the extent of their influences requires more investigation. Forest management practices (clearcutting and partial harvesting) tend to increase light availability and heterogeneity, which facilitates the abundance and diversity of understorey vascular plants; however, these factors reduce the occurrence of non-vascular plants. Nevertheless, in the landscape context, anthropogenic disturbances homogenize environmental conditions and reduce beta-diversity, as well, the long-term effects of anthropogenic disturbances on understorey vegetation remain unclear, particularly compared with those in primary forests.

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“…However, to better understand the drivers of beta diversity changes and to disentangle the relative importance of different community assembly processes underlying the changes (e.g., environmental filtering or dispersal), analyses of abundance data (species and their attributes) and of the spatial patterns of changes are needed (Laliberté, Paquette, Legendre, & Bouchard, ; Legendre, De Cáceres, & Borcard, ; Legendre & Gauthier, ; Vellend et al., ). Resampling historical vegetation data can also provide information on which strategies should be adopted for the preservation of diversity or on the long‐term efficiency of management and conservation practices (Beauvais, Pellerin, & Lavoie, ; DeCandido et al., ; Koch et al., ). For example, because extirpations overly affected the native flora of New York City compared to the exotic one, DeCandido et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, Beauvais et al. () showed that converting a suburban forest into a protected area helps preserve its native flora, despite natural and anthropogenic disturbances, when exotic species are adequately managed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in spatial structures of plant communities lead to functional homogenization in an urban forest park

Bergeron

Lavoie

Domon

et al. 2019

Applied Vegetation Science

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Aims:We investigated whether biotic homogenization of plant communities occurs over three decades in a small urban protected forest, and what the possible drivers are underlying the observed changes.Location: A 96 ha temperate forest, Montréal, Canada. Methods:We surveyed vegetation and explanatory variables (ecological conditions, disturbances, spatial structure) in 62 plant communities in 1980 and 2011. We collected plant attributes to identify functional groups (FGs). We evaluated changes in beta diversity using tests for homogeneity of multivariate dispersions. We used space-time interaction models to assess changes in FGs spatial structures. We used multivariate analyses to identify relationship between spatial patterns and explanatory variables, and variation partitioning analyses to identify the drivers involved in beta diversity changes. Results: Beta diversity declined only in the herb-shrub communities. About 35% of their FGs had significantly changed their spatial distribution over time. Those that contracted their distribution were mainly composed of plants with wind-dispersed seeds or with low to intermediate vegetative propagation capabilities, while those that expanded were plants with fleshy fruits or extensive vegetative propagation capabilities. In 1980, communities were structured into small isolated clumps, while in 2011, clumps expanded and coalesced near disturbed areas. In 1980, the spatial assembly processes relied essentially on endogenous factors while in 2011 exogenous factors, such as disturbances, became more influential. Multivariate analyses suggested that edge effect, past agricultural disturbances, and beaver activities facilitated the decrease of beta diversity (homogenization process). Conclusions: The homogenization of herb-shrub communities likely resulted from changes in their clumped spatial structure. FGs with the most adapted attributes to disperse under urban forest conditions were those that expanded spatially. Structural changes seem to have begun with an unpredictable stage governed by dispersal limitation processes, followed by a predictable stage mostly driven by land-use legacy and disturbances. K E Y W O R D S biotic homogenization, bird-dispersed plant, land-use changes, plant community, plant functional group, resampling study, spatial ecology, urban forest, vegetative propagation | 257 Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article. Appendix S1. Ecological distances between quadrats and replicates Appendix S2. Plant attributes, sources and methods Appendix S3. Functional groups derived from cluster analysis Appendix S4. Effect of the space-time interaction of each taxon Appendix S5. Examples of taxa spatial distribution changes Appendix S6. Effect of the space-time interaction of functional groups Appendix S7. Examples of functional group spatial distribution changes How to cite this article: Bergeron A, Lavoie C, Domon G, Pellerin S. Changes in spatial structures of plant communities lead to...

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Beta diversity declines while native plant species richness triples over 35years in a suburban protected area

Cited by 24 publications

References 71 publications

Annual mowing maintains plant diversity in threatened temperate grasslands

Annual mowing maintains plant diversity in threatened temperate grasslands

Forest Understorey Vegetation: Colonization and the Availability and Heterogeneity of Resources

Changes in spatial structures of plant communities lead to functional homogenization in an urban forest park

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