Disturbances by the European ground squirrel enhance diversity and spatial heterogeneity of plant communities in temperate grassland

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F20%3A43901937" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/20:43901937 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-019-01914-5" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-019-01914-5</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01914-5" target="_blank" >10.1007/s10531-019-01914-5</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Disturbances by the European ground squirrel enhance diversity and spatial heterogeneity of plant communities in temperate grassland

Original language description

Fossorial rodents are recognized as diversity drivers in grassland ecosystems and are therefore considered ecosystem engineers and keystone species. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding this function for species in temperate grasslands, especially one of the most threatened, the European ground squirrel. We examined the effect of the European ground squirrel on plant species composition and diversity along the disturbance gradient mediated by their different population density and subsequently different disturbance intensity. We evaluated the effect of ground squirrel disturbance on plant diversity patterns in two plant communities with different species richness to determine whether the same pattern exists in contrasting habitats. In each plant community, we established transect of 25 x 250 m composed of 10 quadrats with different disturbance intensities of the ground squirrels. Vascular plant species were recorded in 320 plots of 1 m(2). The distribution of individual species along the ground squirrel-mediated disturbance gradient was analysed using redundancy analysis. Diversity measures were calculated and modelled as a function of disturbances using generalized additive models. We observed significant compositional changes in plant communities accompanied by a reduction in dominant graminoid cover and a non-decreasing trend in forb cover along the disturbance gradient in both types of communities. We found that increasing disturbance activity leads to an increase in diversity at coarse spatial scale (625 m(2)) and spatial heterogeneity in species composition of both species-poor and species-rich plant community. The fine-scale (1 m(2)) diversity increased significantly only in species-poor community. Our results demonstrate that the European ground squirrel can be deservedly labelled as an important ecosystem engineer and keystone species promoting the diversity and heterogeneity of European temperate grasslands.

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

—

OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

<a href="/en/project/EF15_003%2F0000441" target="_blank" >EF15_003/0000441: Mechanisms and dynamics of macromolecular complexes</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

Biodiversity and Conservation

ISSN

0960-3115

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

29

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

853-867

UT code for WoS article

000499419900001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85075885819