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

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F21%3A00120998" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/21:00120998 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12935" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12935</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12935" target="_blank" >10.1111/jvs.12935</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

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

Original language description

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 thez-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 10-m(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. Thez-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.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10611 - Plant sciences, botany

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Vegetation Science

ISSN

1100-9233

e-ISSN

1654-1103

Volume of the periodical

32

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

14

Pages from-to

1-14

UT code for WoS article

000568612700001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85090858091