Environment or management? Relative importance for floristic composition of sub‐Mediterranean hay meadows in Central Italy

Abstract

Questions:What are the separate and combined effects of natural and management factors on floristic assemblage in sub-Mediterranean hay meadows? How are hay meadow dynamics affected by the environment excluding management?Location: Central Apennines, Italy.Methods: Vegetation was studied in 66 hay meadows by random plots, recording four groups of explanatory variables: management, soil, topography, and space. Using partial ordinations, the explanatory variables of the variation in floristic composition and plant traits were divided into sets. Then, to emphasize the relationship between purely environmental variables and vegetation, we considered only the partial ordination executed with soil and topographic variables using management and spatial data as covariables. Results:The soil variables had the highest marginal explanatory power. Organic matter was the main driver of floristic composition, indicating a gradient associated also with soil moisture. The pure effect of spatial variables was very important, reflecting historical processes. On the contrary, management and topography variables sets were relatively weak predictors. Partial ordination showed that two topographic variables, slope and height above the plain, had an important weight in the hay meadow floristic assemblage, influencing soil fertility. Conclusions: This analysis (a) confirms the determining function of soil fertility and moisture in driving plant species composition and traits; (b) focuses on the marginal power of current management when past traditional agro-pastoral activity undergoes changes in mode and intensity; (c) highlights the role of spatial variables and site history; and (d) improves knowledge about topographical factors as drivers of species composition. The maintenance of hay meadow mosaics requires preservation of grasslands in complete topographical catenae and prevention of the abandonment of parcels on steep slopes. Considering the spatial variability of the studied communities, it is necessary to include a high number of geographically and ecologically different areas in a conservation network.

Lathyro asphodeloidis-Klaseetum lycopifoliae, a new plant association in the alliance Cynosurion cristati Tüxen, 1947 in Central Apennines

“…The vegetation of the study area is mowed once a year, usually at the end of July, and only occasionally it is grazed by a few animals after mowing. For details on management and its implications on flora composition, see Giallonardo et al (2019).…”

Drivers of diversity of arable plant communities in one of their european conservation hotspots

“…Investigating the influence of different sets of variables on biotic communities is crucial to understand community variation across time and space, and to define conservation strategies (Maccherini et al 2011;Barbato et al 2019;Giallonardo et al 2019;Hu et al 2022). Environmental and geographic features are pivotal for the survival of arable plant species (Walker et al 2007;Fanfarillo et al 2020b).…”

Assessing the Relative Importance of Climate and Soil for Vegetation Patterns in a Semiarid Land of Central Mexico

“…Species distribution along environmental gradients reflects the effects of several factors at different scales (Givnish, 1999). At present, ecologists have abandoned the notion that community organization is driven by a single monolithic factor, and most reviews on this topic concluded that multiple processes must be invoked in order to explain community organization (Dunson & Travis, 1991); moreover, some authors emphasize the role played by management or environmental variables (Giallonardo et al, 2019) or the spatial factor (spatial distribution of samples) in combination with environmental variables to explain changes in the composition of communities (Bauman et al, 2019;Truchy et al, 2019). At a global perspective about arid environments, vegetation types coincide with the pattern of the water resources of the habitat, not only the water resources of a particular habitat that are controlled by the local topography, also the physical and chemical attributes of the soil are important for it (Abd El-Ghani et al, 2017).…”