Floristic and functional diversity of ferns and lycophytes at three elevational zones in the eastern slopes of the northern Andes, Ecuador

Abstract

The northeastern slope of the Andes is an area of high diversity of ferns and lycophytes. In this study we assessed the diversity patterns of ferns and lycophytes in ten 250 m x 2 m plots installed at three elevational zones, from 418 to 3447 m.a.s.l., in the Napo province of Ecuador. Floristic diversity was measured using Hill numbers and by partitioning species diversity. Three functional diversity indices were calculated from a set of five leaf traits and weighted by species abundance: functional richness (FRic), evenness (FEve) and divergence (FDiv). To disentangle functional diversity from species richness, the standardized effect size (SES) of each index was also calculated. We recorded 148 species, Polypodiaceae and Dryopteridaceae being the most representative families. Species richness continuously decreased with elevation. Floristic composition was highly heterogeneous among elevation zones, with total species turnover found between 1500 and 2000 m.a.s.l. SES-FDiv and SES-FEve were higher than the null expectation for plots at mid-elevations, suggesting that deterministic mechanisms, such as biotic or abiotic filters, could explain assemblage composition at these sites. However, SES-FEve, SES-FRic and SES-FDiv did not differ from the null expectations at low and high elevation sites, suggesting the predominance of a stochastic process. By combining floristic and functional diversity, we were able to infer the observed community patterns with the resource-use strategies of fern and lycophytes in a mountain area, an approach that can be used to understand how assemblages might react to changing environmental conditions.

Time will tell: Taxonomic and functional diversity of monilophyte ferns in native forests and abandoned silviculture systems

“…We found that functional richness was lower in the silviculture systems, with only Blechnum austrobrasilianum being identified as an indicator species. This result is in line with the fact that systems with low habitat diversity, such as silviculture, tend to have fewer species occupying the space, which leads to a decrease in functional richness (Riaño & Moulatlet, 2022;Zhang et al, 2023), but may increase the functional evenness. B. austrobrasilianum showed characteristics that are influenced by environmental factors, such as its height, which can reach up to 3 m (Ramos Giacosa et al, 2009).…”

“…Moreover, soil properties of silviculture systems, such as high acidity and drainage intensity (Ferreira et al., 2019; Oro Castro et al., 2019; Purahong et al., 2014), associated with an increase in canopy opening (Hogan et al., 2022), may intensify the negative effects on monilophytes abundance. As diversity values decrease, community composition is also affected and often homogenized (Hogan et al., 2022), resulting in an increase in functional evenness (Feve) (Riaño & Moulatlet, 2022). Therefore, changes in land use, especially those that increase canopy opening and pH, and decrease soil humidity on local microclimate, may increase the regularity in the distribution of the abundance of monilophytes functional attribute values in the functional space (by FEVe) in subtropical zones (Cacciatori et al., 2022; Saputro et al., 2021; Zambrano et al., 2019).…”

“…As expected, we observed a high richness (α diversity), abundance, and functional richness in the native forest compared to silviculture systems. Generally, the greater taxonomic and functional diversity observed in native forests may be related to a high habitat diversity (Biassi et al., 2022; Qin et al., 2016), which could lead to increased complementarity in resource utilization by the plant species of the monilophytic community (Riaño & Moulatlet, 2022; Zhang et al., 2023). Moreover, species specialization and occupation of specific microhabitats may increase species richness (Jin et al., 2021), as well as functional diversity (Aros‐Mualin et al., 2021; Kessler et al., 2011), explaining why Asplenium claussenii , Ctenitis falciculata , Doryopteris patula , Campyloneurum nitidum , Doryopteris concolor , and Doryopteris pentagona are indicators for native forest systems.…”

HERBase: A collection of understorey herb vegetation plots from Amazonia

“…The studies from which data initially have been compiled into HERBase have had various objectives: complete floristic inventory (Duivenvoorden 1995), assessment of the floristic composition in specific forest types (van Andel 2003;Linares-Palomino et al 2013), determinants of species richness and/or composition at a local scale (Tuomisto and Ruokolainen 1994;Costa et al 2005;Drucker et al. 2008; Magalhães and Lopes 2015; da Silva et al 2021; Rodrigues et al 2021) or at a regional scale (Tuomisto and Poulsen, 1996;Tuomisto et al 2003aTuomisto et al , 2014Tuomisto et al , 2016Zuquim et al 2012Zuquim et al , 2014Figueiredo et al 2014;Riaño and Moulatlet 2022), effects of anthropogenic disturbance on herb assemblages (Costa and Magnusson 2002;de Polari Alverga et al 2021) and the effects of past human forest modifications on herb composition (Quintero-Vallejo et al 2015). However, future contributions to HERBase need not be restricted to these types of studies and the database is intended as a data repository for voluntary deployment of data by accessing https://www.gov.br/inpa/pt-br/projetos/herbase.…”

Diversity and composition of ferns and lycophytes in a fragmented landscape in Ecuadorian Amazonia

“…In Ecuadorian Amazonia, ferns have mostly been studied in areas that are less susceptible to landscape fragmentation due to steep topography or protected status, e.g., in conservation units (Tuomisto et al 1998(Tuomisto et al , 2002 and along the eastern Andean slopes (Salazar et al 2015;Riaño & Moulatlet 2022). However, forests outside conservation units are subject to increasing a composição da comunidade tenha variado ao longo do gradiente do fragindex, a renovação de espécies não foi significativamente relacionada a esse índice.…”