BETA DIVERSITY AT DIFFERENT SPATIAL SCALES: PLANT COMMUNITIES IN ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL AGRICULTURE

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 2011-2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doreen Gabriel ◽  
Indra Roschewitz ◽  
Teja Tscharntke ◽  
Carsten Thies
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Conventional Agriculture

scholarly journals The Contribution of the Spatial Hydrological Niche to Species Diversity in Rare Plant Communities of English Floodplain Meadows

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo García-Baquero Moneo ◽  
David Gowing ◽  
Hilary Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Rare Plant ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Local Plant ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The hydrological niche is one of the few below ground spatial environmental niches, which has been shown to structure English floodplain meadows and other European and African herbaceous ecosystems. However, both the relative contribution of hydrological heterogeneity to the structure of English floodplain meadows across spatial scales and the forms of the individual species’ responses to hydrological heterogeneity remain largely unknown. Here we use a survey database of 2440 evaluation units sampled in fifteen English floodplain meadows to dissect the spatial architecture of this metacommunity and describe the relationship between the abundance of individual species and hydrological heterogeneity. Of the tested species 65% responded to spatial hydrological heterogeneity, with both monotonic and hump-shaped responses. We found that between-site beta-diversity is much stronger than within-site beta-diversity, with between-site scale hydrological variation explaining twice as much variation in community structure as within-site scale. This leads to the conclusion that a conservation strategy of rare plant communities should include not only the preservation of the diversity of local hydrological regimes, but, specially, the inclusion in the conservation system of as many and environmentally varied local plant communities as possible.

scholarly journals Diversity Indices of Plant Communities and Their Rhizosphere Microbiomes: An Attempt to Find the Connection

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 2339
Author(s):  
Aleksei O. Zverev ◽  
Arina A. Kichko ◽  
Aleksandr G. Pinaev ◽  
Nikolay A. Provorov ◽  
Evgeny E. Andronov
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Plant Root ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
Alpha And Beta Diversity ◽  
Highly Correlated

The rhizosphere community represents an “ecological interface” between plant and soil, providing the plant with a number of advantages. Despite close connection and mutual influence in this system, the knowledge about the connection of plant and rhizosphere diversity is still controversial. One of the most valuable factors of this uncertainty is a rough estimation of plant diversity. NGS sequencing can make the estimations of the plant community more precise than classical geobotanical methods. We investigate fallow and crop sites, which are similar in terms of environmental conditions and soil legacy, yet at the same time are significantly different in terms of plant diversity. We explored amplicons of both the plant root mass (ITS1 DNA) and the microbial communities (16S rDNA); determined alpha- and beta-diversity indices and their correlation, and performed differential abundance analysis. In the analysis, there is no correlation between the alpha-diversity indices of plants and the rhizosphere microbial communities. The beta-diversity between rhizosphere microbial communities and plant communities is highly correlated (R = 0.866, p = 0.01). ITS1 sequencing is effective for the description of plant root communities. There is a connection between rhizosphere communities and the composition of plants, but on the alpha-diversity level we found no correlation. In the future, the connection of alpha-diversities should be explored using ITS1 sequencing, even in more similar plant communities—for example, in different synusia.

scholarly journals Partitioning the colonization and extinction components of beta diversity: Spatiotemporal species turnover across disturbance gradients

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichi Tatsumi ◽  
Joachim Strengbom ◽  
Mihails Čugunovs ◽  
Jari Kouki
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Species Turnover ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Colonization Dynamics ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Given ◽  
Temporal Species Turnover

ABSTRACTChanges in species diversity often result from species losses and gains. The dynamic nature of beta diversity (i.e., spatial variation in species composition) that derives from such temporal species turnover, however, has been largely overlooked. Here, we disentangled extinction and colonization components of beta diversity by using the sets of species that went locally extinct and that newly colonized the given sites. We applied this concept of extinction and colonization beta diversity to plant communities that have been repeatedly measured in experimentally disturbed forests. We first found no difference in beta diversity across disturbance gradients when it was analyzed for communities at a single point in time. From this result, we might conclude that disturbance caused no impact on how species assemble across space. However, when we analyzed the extinction and colonization beta diversity, both measures were found to be significantly lower in disturbed sites compared to undisturbed sites. These results indicate that disturbance removed similar subsets of species across space, making communities differentiate, but at the same time induced spatially uniform colonization of new species, causing communities to homogenize. Consequently, the effects of these two processes canceled each other out. The relative importance of extinction and colonization components per se also changed temporally after disturbance. Analyses using extinction and colonization beta diversity allowed us to detect nonrandom dis- and re-assembly dynamics in plant communities. Our results suggest that common practices of analyzing beta diversity at one point in time can mask significant variation driven by disturbance. Acknowledging the extinction–colonization dynamics behind beta diversity is essential for understanding the spatiotemporal organization of biodiversity.

scholarly journals Unimodal Relationships of Understory Alpha and Beta Diversity along Chronosequence in Coppiced and Unmanaged Beech Forests

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sándor Bartha ◽  
Roberto Canullo ◽  
Stefano Chelli ◽  
Giandiego Campetella
Keyword(s):  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Forest Succession ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
Alpha And Beta Diversity ◽  
Coppice Management

Patterns of diversity across spatial scales in forest successions are being overlooked, despite their importance for developing sustainable management practices. Here, we tested the recently proposed U-shaped biodiversity model of forest succession. A chronosequence of 11 stands spanning from 5 to 400 years since the last disturbance was used. Understory species presence was recorded along 200 m long transects of 20 × 20 cm quadrates. Alpha diversity (species richness, Shannon and Simpson diversity indices) and three types of beta diversity indices were assessed at multiple scales. Beta diversity was expressed by a) spatial compositional variability (number and diversity of species combinations), b) pairwise spatial turnover (between plots Sorensen, Jaccard, and Bray–Curtis dissimilarity), and c) spatial variability coefficients (CV% of alpha diversity measures). Our results supported the U-shaped model for both alpha and beta diversity. The strongest differences appeared between active and abandoned coppices. The maximum beta diversity emerged at characteristic scales of 2 m in young coppices and 10 m in later successional stages. We conclude that traditional coppice management maintains high structural diversity and heterogeneity in the understory. The similarly high beta diversities in active coppices and old-growth forests suggest the presence of microhabitats for specialist species of high conservation value.

Beta diversity of plant communities in Baishanzu Nature Reserve

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (21) ◽  
pp. 6944-6956
Author(s):  
谭珊珊 TAN Shanshan ◽  
叶珍林 YE Zhenlin ◽  
袁留斌 YUAN Liubin ◽  
周荣飞 ZHOU Rongfei ◽  
胡广 HU Guang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Nature Reserve

scholarly journals Livestock grazing-induced large-scale biotic homogenization in arid Mediterranean steppe rangelands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merdas Saifi ◽  
Yacine Kouba ◽  
Tewfik Mostephaoui ◽  
Yassine Farhi ◽  
Haroun Chenchouni
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Species Turnover ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Biotic Homogenization ◽  
Arid Steppe

Despite many studies explored the effect of livestock grazing on plant communities, the response of species composition and diversity to livestock grazing in arid rangelands remain ambiguous. This study examined the effects of livestock grazing on plant communities in arid steppe rangelands of North Africa. Plant diversity of annual species, perennial species and all species combined was measured and compared between grazed and grazing-excluded areas. We also examined the relative importance of species turnover and community nestedness. Moreover, the effects of livestock grazing on beta diversity at local among transects and landscape among sites scales were examined using the multiplicative diversity partitioning. Results revealed that livestock grazing significantly decreased the alpha diversity of all species combined and the diversity of annual plants. Livestock grazing induced a shift in plant community composition where most of species composition variation (~74%) was due to infrequent species replacement ‘turnover’ between the two management types rather than nestedness (~26%). Results revealed also that among transects, beta diversity was higher in grazed steppes than in grazing-excluded steppes. Whereas, among sites, beta diversity was lower in grazed steppes compared to grazing-excluded steppes. These findings suggest that livestock grazing in arid steppe rangelands increases the variation in plant species composition at a local spatial scale and engenders vegetation homogeneity at landscape spatial scale. Therefore, the implementation of appropriate management practices such as short-term grazing exclusion is mandatory to prevent these ecosystems from large scale biotic homogenization.

scholarly journals Neighborhood matters: high phylogenetic diversity of experimental plant assemblages improves community performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocío Chaves ◽  
Pablo Ferrandis ◽  
Adrián Escudero ◽  
Arantzazu L. Luzuriaga
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Experimental Plant ◽  
Large Species ◽  
Plant Survival ◽  
Niche Complementarity ◽  
Plant Assemblages

Abstract Background and AimsAlthough the role played by phylogeny in the assembly of plant communities remains as a priority to complete the theory of species coexistence, experimental evidence is lacking. It is still unclear to what extent phylogenetic diversity is a driver or a consequence of species assembly processes. We experimentally explored how phylogenetic diversity can drive the community level responses to drought conditions in annual plant communities. To this end, we manipulated the phylogenetic diversity of the species assemblages and the water availability in a common garden experiment with two treatments: average natural rainfall and drought.MethodsWe recorded plant survival and the numbers of flowering and fruiting plants per species in each assemblage. High phylogenetic diversity favored species coexistence over time with higher plant survival and more flowering and fruiting plants, especially under severe drought.Key Results. Our results demonstrate the existence of niche complementarity and the convergence of water economy strategies as major mechanisms for promoting species coexistence in plant assemblages in semiarid Mediterranean habitats.ConclusionsOur findings point to high phylogenetic diversity among neighboring plants as a plausible feature underpinning the recent “united we stand” framework, which states that diffuse positive interactions may promote mechanisms for the persistence of rare species in the community. We suggest that the large species number in the regional species pool may be the consequence of assembly processes occurring at small spatial scales, because the success of each species in terms of surviving and producing offspring was greater when the phylogenetic diversity was higher. Our study is a step forward to understand how phylogenetic relatedness is connected to the mechanisms determining the maintenance of biodiversity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document