Ecological and biodiversity gradients across alpine dry grassland habitats: implications for an endangered species

Abstract

Dry grasslands are of great interest for nature conservation in Europe, because they have a central role in the conservation of numerous rare and endangered species. In this study carried out in the Brenta mountain group (Italian alps), we investigated the effect of environmental factors mainly controlled by topography, on the biodiversity trends across different dry grassland habitats where the threatened alpine stenoendemic Erysimum aurantiacum grows. Plant community data and ecological factors were analysed by means of a multi‐habitat CCA approach and by analysis of biodiversity gradients in 7 natural and semi‐natural habitats. We found that species turnover and biodiversity patterns vary as a function of multi‐factorial ecological gradients. For the single habitats, elevation gradient was the main factor explaining compositional variation, followed by inclination and proportion of exposed rock surface. Despite its endangered status, E. aurantiacum showed a relatively high degree of ecological plasticity across these semiarid grassland habitats that probably allows it to survive in different environments, including in some cases those impacted by human activities. This prompts for habitat‐ more than species‐level conservation actions. According to their characteristics and threats, habitat‐specific management practices are recommended for long term conservation of plant species communities in the different ecological niches.

Inducing competition: intensive grassland seeding to control Ambrosia artemisiifolia

“…and Ostrya carpinifolia Scop. woodlands and by natural/semi‐natural arid grassland hosting high biodiversity (Gilardelli et al ., ).…”

“…ex J. & C. Presl (Gilardelli et al ., ) located in a site close to the experimental site, outside the quarry area (Municipality of Serle). We collected hayseed during May 2012 using a brush harvester.…”

Restoring Limestone Quarries: Hayseed, Commercial Seed Mixture or Spontaneous Succession?

“…The experimental site was located on the 'Botticino extractive basin' (Brescia, Lombardy, Italy), which is the second biggest Italian extractive basin after the Carrara quarries and is famous worldwide for the extraction of the limestone, commercially known as 'Botticino marble'. The vegetation in the hills around the extractive basin is dominated by Quercus pubescens and Ostrya carpinifolia woodlands and by natural/semi-natural arid grassland with high biodiversity (Festuco-Brometalia community; Gilardelli et al, 2013).…”

Landscape changes, traditional ecological knowledge and future scenarios in the Alps: A holistic ecological approach

“…It has been widely described that deforestation (and LUC) affects local biodiversity distribution and richness (Orlandi et al 2016), resilience of ecosystems to climate change (Brambilla et al 2015), water availability (Glavan et al 2013) and carbon sequestration (Schulp et al 2008, Achard et al 2014. Nevertheless, what is nowadays occurring in the Alpine mountain environment -the recovery of forests at the expense of open areas and the associated impressive change in biodiversity patterns -should not be viewed only as a renaturalization process with positive consequences, not only for the mentioned TEK loss but also because the short and long term effects on fauna and flora biodiversity are debated and sometimes considered negative or doubtful at least for some groups or species (Strebel and Bühler 2015, Pornaro et al 2013, Gilardelli et al 2013, Tattoni 2011.…”