The Relationship between some Forest Stand Properties and the Occurrence of Orchids in the Central Part of the Moravian Karst Protected Landscape Area

Ecological and habitat ranges of orchids in the northernmost regions of their distribution areas: A case study from Ural Mountains, Russia

The Orchidaceae, which is one of the most interesting families of angiosperms, contains a large number of rare species. Despite their acknowledged importance, little attention has been paid to the study of orchids distributed in northern territories. In this study, we determined the syntaxonomical diversity and ecological parameters of orchid habitats in two of Europe's largest protected areas, the Pechoro-Ilychsky Reserve and the Yugyd Va National Park (northeastern European Russia), and then compared our findings to those in other parts of orchid distribution ranges. For this purpose, we studied 345 descriptions of plant communities (releves) containing species from Orchidaceae and defined habitat parameters using Ellenberg indicator values with the community weight mean approach, nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS), and relative niche width. We found that orchids were distributed in eight habitat types and 97 plant associations. The largest number of orchid species is found in forest communities. Half of the orchid species under study occur in the mires and rock habitats with open vegetation. Several orchids consistently occur in areas disturbed by human activity. In addition, our study indicates that the main drivers of orchid distribution across the vegetation types are light and soil nitrogen. Our analysis of the ecological parameters of orchid habitats indicates that some orchid species can be classified as habitat specialists that are confined to a relatively narrow ecological niche in the Urals (e.g., Goodyera repens, Cypripedium guttatum and Dactylorhiza maculata). Several other species (e.g. Neottia cordata and Dactylorhiza fuchsia) grow under diverse ecological parameters.

Species Richness, Ecology, and Prediction of Orchids in Central Europe: Local-Scale Study

Orchids are one of the most species-rich families in the world, and many species are under threat in numerous countries. Biodiversity research focusing on the relationship between the richness of orchid species and ecological factors was performed across the Cerová vrchovina Mts (Western Carpathians) testing impact of 26 explanatory variables. We aimed to determine the main ecological predictors controlling species richness and to predict potential species richness patterns. Altogether, 19 orchid species were found in the studied area, with Cephalanthera damasonium and Epipactis microphylla being the most common. Four environmental predictors (minimal longitude, carbonate-containing sediments, maximal yearly solar irradiation, and agricultural land) had statistically significant effects on orchid richness following regression analysis. Predictive models for the nine most frequent species using MaxEnt software showed (i) that land cover and geological substrate had the highest contribution to the explained variance in the models and (ii) strong potential for occurrence of given orchids in several poorly mapped parts of the studied area.