Environmental control of species richness and composition in upland grasslands of the southern Czech Republic

Merunková, Kristina; Chytrý, Milan

doi:10.1007/s11258-012-0024-6

Cited by 62 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Although these species occurred at phosphorus-poorer sites as well, they reached only an additional cover value within the herb layer vegetation. Changes in dominant species at phosphorus-rich grassland sites are usually accompanied by changes in overall species composition and vegetation [61], but we did not observe this pattern in alder forests.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 94%

“…Similar soil phosphorus concentrations were also documented in temperate floodplain and swamp alder forests of the south-western Poland [59]. Diverse forms of soil phosphorus support niche differentiation and facilitate plant species coexistence [60], but plant species richness commonly declines along an increasing soil phosphorus gradient [15,61]. The negative species richness-phosphorus relationship was also found in the present study for native vascular plants.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

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Native and Alien Plant Species Richness Response to Soil Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Temperate Floodplain and Swamp Forests

Hrivnák

Slezák

Jarčuška

et al. 2015

Forests

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Soil nitrogen and phosphorus are commonly limiting elements affecting plant species richness in temperate zones. Our species richness-ecological study was performed in alder-dominated forests representing temperate floodplains (streamside alder forests of Alnion incanae alliance) and swamp forests (alder carrs of Alnion glutinosae alliance) in the Western Carpathians. Species richness (i.e., the number of vascular plants in a vegetation plot) was analyzed separately for native and alien vascular plants in 240 vegetation plots across the study area covering Slovakia, northern Hungary and southern Poland. The relationship between the species richness of each plant group and total soil nitrogen content, plant-available phosphorus and carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio was analyzed by generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with Poisson error distribution and log-link function. The number of recorded native and alien species was 17-84 (average 45.4) and 0-9 (average 1.5) species per plot, respectively. The GLMMs were statistically significant OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 3502(p ˂ 0.001) for both plant groups, but the total explained variation was higher for native (14%) than alien plants (9%). The richness of native species was negatively affected by the total soil nitrogen content and plant-available phosphorus, whereas the C/N ratio showed a positive impact. The alien richness was predicted only by the total soil nitrogen content showing a negative effect.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Native and Alien Plant Species Richness Response to Soil Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Temperate Floodplain and Swamp Forests

Hrivnák

Slezák

Jarčuška

et al. 2015

Forests

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“…Moisture gradient is considered to be the main determinant of compositional change in most European grassland communities (e.g. Merunková & Chytrý, 2012;Moeslund et al, 2013). Our study confirmed the importance of moisture for grassland diversity and suggests that both, topographically controlled soil moisture expressed by average Ellenberg indicator values and precipitation as a broad-scale surrogate for water availability are good predictors of species richness in mesic grasslands ( Table 3, Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

The Role of Surrounding Landscape in Determining Species Richness of Mesic Grasslands in Pannonian Basin and Carpathian Mountains

Janišová¹

2014

Appl Ecol Env Res

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Janišová: The role of surrounding landscape in determining species richness of mesic grasslands in Pannonian Basin and Carpathian Abstract. Alpha diversity of mesic grasslands of the Arrhenatheretalia order was related to the surrounding landscape structure. The following questions were addressed: i) Does structure of surrounding landscape affect local species richness? How important is the influence of surrounding landscape in comparison with influence of climatic-topographical and soil-geological variables? ii) Do the landscape effects differ in climatically distinct regions (Pannonian, Carpathian colline-submontane and Carpathian montane-subalpine)? iii) Which of the surrounding habitats contribute to species richness and which species immigrate to grasslands most frequently? Species data were extracted from Slovak vegetation plot database. Surrounding land-use (in terms of cover and diversity of various habitat types in plot neighbourhood of 4 km 2 ) was derived from CORINE land cover maps and National Grassland Inventory. Both, percentage cover and diversity of different habitat types in plot neighbourhood affected local species richness. In the Pannonian Basin, mesic grasslands had the lowest species richness but the landscape factors explained the highest proportion of its variance. In the montane-subalpine Carpathian region, the effect of landscape factors was least pronounced. The surrounding landscape affected number, proportion and cover of satellite species in plots. Mesic grasslands of the Pannonian Basin hosted the largest number, proportion and cover of archaeophytes and neophytes.

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“…In preferential sampling, the researcher's perception of the vegetation and the scale of the study can influence the way in which the environment-vegetation relationships are analyzed [13]. Preferential selection of sampling sites is often applied for ecologically-sound goals [14][15][16][17][18]. Undoubtedly, data collected preferentially are a very valuable source of ecological information [19], however, some results from analyses based on such data should be interpreted with caution because preferentially sampled data may produce biased estimates on some vegetation parameters such as species richness and the representation of some predefined plant groups [20][21][22][23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A performance comparison of sampling methods in the assessment of species composition patterns and environment–vegetation relationships in species-rich grasslands

et al. 2017

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The influence that different sampling methods have on the results and the interpretation of vegetation analysis has been much debated, but little is yet known about how the spatial arrangement of samples affect patterns of species composition and environment-vegetation relationships within the same vegetation type. We compared three data sets of the same sample size obtained by three standard sampling methods: preferential, random, and systematic. These different sampling methods were applied to a study area comprising of 36 ha of intermittently wet Molinia meadows. We compared the performance of the three methods under two management categories: managed (extensively mown) and unmanaged (abandoned for 10 years). A total of 285 vegetation-plots were sampled, with 95 plots recorded per sampling method. In preferential sampling, we sampled only patches of vegetation with an abundance of indicator species of the habitat type, while random and systematic plots were positioned independently from the researcher by using GIS. The effect of each sampling method on the patterns of species composition and species-environment relationships was explored by redundancy analysis and the significance of effects was tested by the randomization test. Preferential sampling revealed different patterns of species composition than random and systematic sampling methods. Random and systematic sampling methods have resulted in broader vegetation variability than with preferential sampling method. Preferential sampling revealed different relationship between soil parameters and species composition in contrast to random and systematic sampling methods. Although we have not found significant differences in vegetation-environment relationships between random and systematic sampling methods, random sampling revealed a more robust correlation of species data to soil factors than preferential and systematic sampling methods. Intentional restriction of vegetation variation sampled preferentially may be detrimental to statistical inference in studies of species composition patterns and vegetation-environment relationships.

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Environmental control of species richness and composition in upland grasslands of the southern Czech Republic

Cited by 62 publications

References 47 publications

Native and Alien Plant Species Richness Response to Soil Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Temperate Floodplain and Swamp Forests

Native and Alien Plant Species Richness Response to Soil Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Temperate Floodplain and Swamp Forests

The Role of Surrounding Landscape in Determining Species Richness of Mesic Grasslands in Pannonian Basin and Carpathian Mountains

A performance comparison of sampling methods in the assessment of species composition patterns and environment–vegetation relationships in species-rich grasslands

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