GrassPlot – a database of multi-scale plant diversity                     in Palaearctic grasslands

Questions: Which are the main environmental drivers of plot scale alpha-diversity and beta-diversity in arid steppes? Do they vary between functional groups and across grain sizes? Location: Central Alborz Mts., N Iran. Methods:We sampled vascular plants in 23 nested-plot series with nine grain sizes from 0.0001 m 2 to 1,000 m 2 and 334 25-m 2 vegetation plots in different vegetation types of natural dry steppe grasslands. To assess beta-diversity, we calculated overall and local z-values of species-area relationships modelled with the power function. As potential drivers of species richness and z-values, we used topographic, edaphic and climatic variables as well as management types. Generalised linear models (GLMs), and generalised linear mixed-effect models (GLMMs) if spatial autocorrelation occurred, were used in a multi-model inference framework to build statistical models.Results: Mean annual temperature was the most important predictor for total species richness and richness of functional groups across grain sizes, with a unimodal relationship for grains of 25-100 m 2 , but mostly increasing for finer grain sizes. Precipitation of the driest month and cover of gravel were influential drivers at the smallest grains.The explanatory power of regression models increased towards larger grain sizes.The overall z-values showed a high positive relationship with precipitation of the driest month, mean annual temperature and mean soil depth. Conclusions:Related to our more than 3,000-m elevational gradient, mean annual temperature (highly negatively correlated with elevation) was the most influential and consistent driver across functional groups and grain sizes with mostly unimodal relationships for alpha-diversity and a positive effect on beta-diversity. Findings for other drivers were less consistent, and overall the explained variance of our models was relatively low, calling for additional studies to determine whether in the arid grasslands of Iran stochasticity is just higher or there are additional important variables.

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“…Plot data of the biodiversity plots were stored in the GrassPlot database (GIVD ID EU-00-003; Dengler et al, 2018;Biurrun et al, 2019).…”

Section: Field Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The nested-plot data used in this paper have been uploaded to the collaborative vegetation-plot database GrassPlot (Dengler et al, 2018;Biurrun et al, 2019…”

Section: Data Ava I L a B I L I T Y S Tat E M E N Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scale‐dependent patterns and drivers of plant diversity in steppe grasslands of the Central Alborz Mts., Iran

Talebi

Attar

Naqinezhad

et al. 2021

J Vegetation Science

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“…The data used in this study are stored in and available from the GrassPlot database (GIVD ID EU-00-003; Dengler et al, 2018). The data of the 10-m 2 plots are additionally stored in the Balkan Dry…”

Section: Data Ava I L a B I L I T Y S Tat E M E N Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of plant diversity in Bulgarian dry grasslands vary across spatial scales and functional‐taxonomic groups

Dembicz

Velev

Boch

et al. 2020

J Vegetation Science

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Questions: Studying dry grasslands in a previously unexplored region, we asked: (a) which environmental factors drive the diversity patterns in vegetation; (b) are taxonomic groups (vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens) and functional vascular plant groups differently affected; and (c) how is fine-grain beta diversity affected by environmental drivers? Location: Northwestern and Central Bulgaria. Methods: We sampled environmental data and vascular plant, terricolous bryophyte and lichen species in 97 10-m 2 plots and 15 nested-plot series with seven grain sizes (0.0001-100 m 2) of ten grassland sites within the two regions. We used species richness as measure of alpha-diversity and the z-value of the power-law species-area relationship as measure of beta-diversity. We analysed effects of landscape, topographic, soil and land-use variables on the species richness of the different taxonomic and functional groups. We applied generalised linear models (GLMs) or, in the presence of spatial autocorrelation, generalised linear mixed-effect models (GLMMs) in a multi-model inference framework. Results: The main factors affecting total and vascular plant species richness in 10m 2 plots were soil pH (unimodal) and inclination (negative). Species richness of bryophytes was positively affected by rock cover, sand proportion and negatively by inclination. Inclination and litter cover were also negative predictors of lichen species richness. Elevation negatively affected phanerophyte and therophyte richness, but positively that of cryptophytes. A major part of unexplained variance in species richness was associated with the grassland site. The z-values for total richness showed a positive relationship with elevation and inclination. Conclusions: Environmental factors shaping richness patterns strongly differed among taxonomic groups, functional vascular plant groups and spatial scales. The disparities between our and previous findings suggest that many drivers of biodiversity cannot be generalised but rather depend on the regional context. The large unexplained variance at the site level calls for considering more site-related factors such as land-use history. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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“…The plot data are available in GrassPlot, the Database of Scale-Dependent Phytodiversity Patterns in Palaearctic Grasslands (GIVD ID EU-00-003) (Dengler et al 2018).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the drivers of vascular plant richness at very fine spatial scale in sub-Mediterranean limestone grasslands (Central Apennines, Italy)

et al. 2019

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Secondary dry grasslands in Europe can host high levels of vascular plant richness at small spatial scales. However, in Southern Europe their biodiversity patterns are largely unexplored. In this work, we aim at: i) estimating plant species richness patterns at very fine scales in montane dry grasslands, on limestone bedrock, in Abruzzo Lazio & Molise National Park (Central Apennines, Italy); ii) assessing the most important physical and edaphic drivers of biodiversity patterns at multiple plot sizes. We used randomly placed nested-plot series where we measured alpha-diversity at three different plot sizes (1 m 2 , 0.1 m 2 and 0.01 m 2) and within-plot beta-diversity (as expressed by the slope of the species-area curve across plot sizes). Variable selection was performed by means of Random Forests. Relationships between selected variables and diversity measures were then assessed using Regression Trees, Linear and Generalized Linear Models. Overall, results pointed to topographically-controlled edaphic factors (soil pH and silt fraction) as the main drivers positively influencing alpha-diversity at all spatial scales, with a positive effect of rock cover and slope inclination at smaller spatial grains. Beta-diversity was positively influenced by rock cover. We suggest that high-pH, steep and/or rocky sites feature higher species richness because they lack A c c e p t e d m a n u s c r i p t 2 competitive grass species. Our results are in agreement with previous works underlining the importance of less productive habitats for the conservation of secondary grassland biodiversity.

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GrassPlot – a database of multi-scale plant diversity in Palaearctic grasslands

Cited by 78 publications

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Scale‐dependent patterns and drivers of plant diversity in steppe grasslands of the Central Alborz Mts., Iran

Scale‐dependent patterns and drivers of plant diversity in steppe grasslands of the Central Alborz Mts., Iran

Drivers of plant diversity in Bulgarian dry grasslands vary across spatial scales and functional‐taxonomic groups

Exploring the drivers of vascular plant richness at very fine spatial scale in sub-Mediterranean limestone grasslands (Central Apennines, Italy)

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