Does the intensive grazing and aridity change the relations between the dominant shrub <i>Artemisia kopetdaghensis</i> and plants under its canopies?

Rahmanian, Soroor; Ejtehadi, Hamid; Farzam, Mohammad; Hejda, Martin; Memariani, Farshid; Pyšek, Petr

doi:10.1002/ece3.8124

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…This result was consistent with the significant effects of Artemisia on plant biodiversity structure, especially on taxonomic diversity (Bahalkeh et al, 2021;Rahmanian et al, 2021)…”

Section: Plant Biodiversity Through the Presence Of Nurse Plants And ...supporting

confidence: 87%

“…It seems that an increased taxonomic diversity in Artemisia patches and functional and phylogenetic diversity in Stipa patches are influenced by the presence of a wide range of plant species or by some specific plant species with different functional identities and distant evolutionary relatedness. However, some recent studies have shown negative or neutral effects of Artemisia patches on plant biodiversity structure, especially on taxonomic diversity (Bahalkeh et al, 2021 ; Rahmanian et al, 2021 ). These contrasting results are likely to be contingent on different environmental conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, our findings and some previous studies (Jankju et al, 2008; Perring et al, 2015) confirm that allelopathic effects of Artemisia plant in one successional stage may facilitate the presence of plants in the next successional stage. In this regard, although there is an explanation about excluding some plant species via Artemisia's allelopathic effects (Jankju, 2013; Rahmanian et al, 2021), a vast suitable area beneath Artemisia due to niche partitioning will provide an increase in species richness (Bashirzadeh et al, 2022). However, niche partitioning in the Artemisia patches in our study was only observed under moderate disturbance conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plant–plant interactions determine natural restoration of plant biodiversity over time, in a degraded mined land

Bashirzadeh

Shefferson

Farzam

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Restoration of degraded environments is essential to mitigate adverse impacts of human activities on ecosystems. Plant–plant interactions may provide effective means for restoring degraded arid lands, but little is understood about these impacts. In this regard, we analyzed the effects of two dominant nurse plants (i.e., Artemisia sieberi and Stipa arabica ) on taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity across different ages of land abandonment (i.e., control, recent, and old ages) in a limestone mine site in Iran. In addition, we considered two spatial scales: i) the plot scale (i.e., under 1m2 plots) and ii) the vegetation‐patch scale (i.e., under the canopies of nurse plants), to assess nurse plant effects, land abandonment ages, and their relative importance on biodiversity facets by performing Kruskal–Wallis H test and variation partitioning analysis. Our results indicated an increase in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity at the plot scale, when considering the presence of nurse plants under old ages of land abandonment. Such significant differences were consistent with the positive effects of Artemisia patches on taxonomic diversity and Stipa patches on functional and phylogenetic diversity. In addition, we found a larger contribution from nurse plants than land abandonment age on biodiversity variation at both spatial scales studied. Therefore, these results indicate the importance of plant–plant interactions in restoring vegetation, with their effects on the presence of beneficiary species and their functional and phylogenetic relatedness depending on the nurse life forms under the stress‐gradient hypothesis.

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“…This result was consistent with the significant effects of Artemisia on plant biodiversity structure, especially on taxonomic diversity (Bahalkeh et al, 2021;Rahmanian et al, 2021)…”

Section: Plant Biodiversity Through the Presence Of Nurse Plants And ...supporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plant–plant interactions determine natural restoration of plant biodiversity over time, in a degraded mined land

Bashirzadeh

Shefferson

Farzam

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Previous studies conducted on plant-plant interactions in Artemisia steppes from arid northeast Iran observed a neutral community-level response with contrasting species-level responses in low grazing conditions (Bahalkeh et al, 2021). By contrast, using only a communitylevel approach, Rahmanian et al (2021) found competition in low grazing conditions and facilitation in high grazing conditions in a semi-arid climate. However, there are no studies that assessed plant-plant interactions along a grazing gradient at both the community and species-group levels in Artemisia steppes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Species‐group responses improve our understanding of the effects of community dominants on subordinate species along a grazing gradient

Bahalkeh,

Abedi,

Dianati Tilaki

et al. 2024

Applied Vegetation Science

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QuestionsPlant communities have been shown to include several functional groups of species that may have contrasting responses to the effects of dominant neighbours, although potentially balancing at the community level. We aimed to assess the potential of species‐group vs community‐level responses of subordinate species to explain variation in the effects of the dominant shrub Artemisia sieberi on understorey species along a grazing intensity gradient in arid steppes of northeast Iran. We also aimed to assess whether species‐group responses help explain variation in community composition.LocationsAn Artemisia steppe community in Golestan National Park (northeast Iran).MethodsWe used the relative interaction index (RII) to quantify the effects of a shrub on the cover of the 12 most frequent subordinate species. We conducted a first principal component analysis (PCA) on species RII followed by cluster analysis to group species depending on their responses to the shrub, and a second PCA on subordinate species composition.ResultsAt the community level, subordinate species showed strong competition at the low grazing level, weak facilitation at the intermediate level and weak competition at the high grazing level; a unimodal pattern with a switch back to competition in extremely disturbed conditions that is inconsistent with ecological theories. However, species‐group analyses showed contrasting subordinate species responses, supporting either the decrease in competition with increasing disturbance scenario or the collapse of facilitation, but never a switch back to competition as predicted by recent facilitation theory along resource gradients. Moreover, these contrasting species‐group responses significantly explained community composition.ConclusionsOur study provides new evidence, along a grazing intensity gradient, that communities include different species groups with contrasting responses to dominant species.

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“…Functional diversity was assessed based on 10 qualitative and quantitative traits that were considered as important functional traits of plant taxa in severe environments, and associated with the presence of nurse species (Perez‐Harguindeguy et al, 2013; Rahmanian et al, 2021). These functional traits were plant height, seed mass, leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), life form, life span, clonality, thorniness and palatability (Rafiee et al, 2022).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nurse shrubs influence plant biodiversity across environmental gradients in rocky outcrops and surrounding rangelands

Rafiee

Bashirzadeh

Zare

et al. 2023

J Vegetation Science

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Question Rocky outcrops generally restrict recruitment and survival of plant species due to their environmental conditions including low soil moisture, nutrient shortages and microclimate harshness. Under such severe conditions, nurse plants may play critical roles in preserving plant biodiversity. Although the nurses' effects on plant biodiversity are fully understood in different major biomes, the relative effects of abiotic factors and nurse plants as important factors have rarely been studied in rocky outcrops, and compared to those in the surrounding rangelands. Therefore, we sought to assess the effects of two dominant shrub species (Artemisia aucheri and Prunus pseudoprostrata) on all biodiversity components including taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity across some environmental gradients such as precipitation and soil gradients in rocky outcrops and their surrounding rangelands. Location The study was conducted on six sites located in rocky outcrops and their surrounding rangelands across a precipitation gradient (160–910 mm) and under different soil fertility levels in northern Iran. Methods We established 80 1‐m2 (1 m × 1 m) plots in each site with respect to the presence of nurse shrubs, and measured biodiversity components within the plots using Rao Q entropies (q0, q1 and q2) and mean pairwise distance (MPD) indices. The relative interaction index (RII) was also calculated to quantify the interaction type and intensity. Finally, variation partitioning analysis was performed to determine the relative importance of biotic interactions and abiotic factors such as precipitation, electrical conductivity (EC) and phosphorus on structuring biodiversity components. Results Plant–plant interactions and abiotic factors consistently influenced different components of biodiversity in rocky outcrops and their surrounding rangelands. However, nurse shrubs showed stronger effects on plant biodiversity than abiotic factors by providing suitable microenvironments to harbor less‐tolerant plant species under the severe conditions of outcrops. In addition, microhabitats beneath nurse shrubs significantly responded to soil EC and precipitation gradients, with a decrease in competition intensity under intermediate levels of the gradients. In contrast, nurse shrubs negatively affected different components of biodiversity, with a decrease in biodiversity under intermediate levels of environmental gradients in surrounding rangelands. Conclusions Our findings show critical roles of nurse shrubs for maintaining plant biodiversity in rocky outcrops depending on their growth form and the biodiversity component considered. In this case, nurse shrubs could reduce double environmental filtering, consistent with establishing a functional paradox trade‐off to support a wide range of plant species with functionally divergent relatedness.

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Does the intensive grazing and aridity change the relations between the dominant shrub Artemisia kopetdaghensis and plants under its canopies?

Cited by 5 publications

References 64 publications

Plant–plant interactions determine natural restoration of plant biodiversity over time, in a degraded mined land

Plant–plant interactions determine natural restoration of plant biodiversity over time, in a degraded mined land

Species‐group responses improve our understanding of the effects of community dominants on subordinate species along a grazing gradient

Nurse shrubs influence plant biodiversity across environmental gradients in rocky outcrops and surrounding rangelands

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