Spatial patterns of water-deposited seeds control plant species richness and composition in riparian forest landscapes

AbstractDynamic alluvial landscapes offer many possibilities to study primary succession processes on newly developed habitats. However, within the Central European environmental conditions, where watercourses and their riparian spaces are under severe anthropogenic pressures — water regulation, deforestation, lowering of groundwater — natural processes are limited. We studied primary succession on alluvial stream deposits in an artificial lake, where we aimed to follow the terrestrialisation rate and habitat turnover, along with plant species richness and composition across successional stages. In 30 years, a pristine white-willow riparian forest developed. One half of the initially aquatic habitat became terrestrial. The frequency of change, studied on 11250 quadrats 10×10 m each (on a scale from “no change” to 8 changes) and the mean of change per habitat type (most of the habitats changed 2 to 3 times) revealed only one successional trajectory. The percentage flow chart showed a deterministic pathway of succession. The “time since formation” of a terrestrial habitat shows that more than 20% of the lake was terrestrialised within in the first ten years. We studied species richness and composition along three composed transects, following successional stages. We found that the newly assembled riparian white willow woodland has a surprisingly low colonisation rate of plant species.

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Factors shaping alien plant species richness spatial patterns across Natura 2000 Special Areas of Conservation of Greece

The Science of The Total Environment ◽

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.05.220 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 601-602 ◽

pp. 461-468 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos ◽

Sotirios Koukoulas ◽

Alexandros Galanidis ◽

Pinelopi Delipetrou ◽

Dimitris Gounaridis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Species ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Alien Plant Species ◽

Alien Plant ◽

Of Greece

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Short-Term Effects on Diversity and Biomass on Grasslands from Artificial Dykes under Grazing and Mowing Treatments

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892918000346 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 132-139 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Cannelle Moinardeau ◽

François Mesléard ◽

Hervé Ramone ◽

Thierry Dutoit

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Species ◽

Control Plant ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Management Tool ◽

Permanent Plots ◽

Grass Species ◽

Plant Biodiversity ◽

Extensive Grazing

SummaryFew studies document the impacts of conservation management practices such as extensive grazing or mowing on the new ecosystems created by industrial conversions. In southern France, the Rhône channelling led to the construction of dykes to protect the Tricastin industrialized area from floods. Aiming to control plant dynamics for safety reasons and to favour plant biodiversity, mowing or extensive grazing by cattle were recently tested. Monitoring from both permanent plots and aerial photographs shows that three years of extensive grazing and annual mechanical mowing have modified plant composition, significantly increasing plant species richness, evenness and heterogeneity. The increase in evenness and beta-diversity from grazing was significantly higher than from mowing. Only grazing was able to reduce the height and cover of the dominant tussock perennial grass species (Brachypodium phoenicoides), while increasing bare soil cover and thus the contribution of annual species. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained through aerial photographic analyses confirmed the correlation between NDVI, aboveground biomass and plant species richness for the grazed site alone, allowing the results obtained from quadrats to be generalized to the scale of the grazed site. On the Rhône’s artificial dykes, extensive grazing appears to be a better management tool than mowing to enhance plant biodiversity and meet safety objectives.

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Predicting spatial patterns of plant species richness: a comparison of direct macroecological and species stacking modelling approaches

Diversity and Distributions ◽

10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00792.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 17 (6) ◽

pp. 1122-1131 ◽

Cited By ~ 129

Author(s):

Anne Dubuis ◽

Julien Pottier ◽

Vanessa Rion ◽

Loïc Pellissier ◽

Jean-Paul Theurillat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Species ◽

Spatial Patterns ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Modelling Approaches

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Quality and Conservation of Riparian Forest in a Mountain Subtropical Basin of Argentina

International Journal of Ecology ◽

10.1155/2016/4842165 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Romina Daiana Fernández ◽

Sergio Javier Ceballos ◽

Ana Lucía González Achem ◽

Margarita del Valle Hidalgo ◽

Hugo Rafael Fernández

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Plant Species ◽

Invasive Plant ◽

Riparian Forest ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Riparian Forests ◽

Exotic Plant Species ◽

Lower Altitude

The aims of this work were to describe the conservation status of riparian forests located in a mountain subtropical basin of Tucumán province, Argentina, and assess how the quality of riparian forests is related with altitude, plant species richness, proportion of exotic species, and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) in adjacent rivers. Composition and species richness of riparian forests were studied at 16 sites located along an altitudinal gradient and TSS was determined from water samples collected in each site. In order to evaluate conservation status of riparian forests, we calculated an index of Quality of Yungas Riparian Forests (QBRy). We recorded 90 plant species at all sites, from which 77% were native. QBRy index was mainly associated with altitude and varied from riparian forests with good preservation or slightly disturbed to those with extreme degradation. At lower altitude, forests were more disturbed, more invaded by exotic plant species, and closer to urban and cropped areas. QBRy was not correlated with species richness or TSS. Like other riparian forests of Argentina, plant species invasion increased their degradation; therefore, future studies should focus on native riparian forests conservation and on the management of invasive plant species, which affect their quality.

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