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Di Biase L, Tsafack N, Pace L, Fattorini S. Ellenberg Indicator Values Disclose Complex Environmental Filtering Processes in Plant Communities along an Elevational Gradient. Biology (Basel) 2023; 12:biology12020161. [PMID: 36829440 PMCID: PMC9953212 DOI: 10.3390/biology12020161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 01/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/17/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs) express plant preferences for temperature, light, continentality, soil moisture, pH, and soil nutrients, and have been largely used to deduce environmental characteristics from plant communities. However, EIVs might also be used to investigate the importance of filtering mechanisms in shaping plant communities according to species ecological preferences, a so far overlooked use of EIVs. In this paper, we investigated how community-weighted means (CWM), calculated with EIVs, varied along an elevational gradient in a small mountain in Central Italy. We also tested if species abundances varied according to their ecological preferences. We found that the prevalence of thermophilous species declines with elevation, being progressively replaced by cold-adapted species. Heliophilous species prevail at low and high elevations (characterized by the presence of open habitats), whereas in the middle of the gradient (occupied by the beech forest), sciophilous species predominate. Variations for moisture and soil nutrient preferences followed a similar pattern, probably because of the high moisture and nutrient levels of forest soils with a lot of humus. No distinct pattern was detected for EIVs for pH and continentality since these factors are subject to more local variations. These results highlight the possible role of EIVs to investigate how environmental gradients shape plant communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Letizia Di Biase
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
| | - Noelline Tsafack
- cE3c–Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Azorean Biodiversity Group, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Environment, CHANGE-Global Change and Sustainability Institute, University of the Azores, Rua Capitão João d’Ávila, Pico da Urze, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal
| | - Loretta Pace
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
- Correspondence: (L.P.); (S.F.)
| | - Simone Fattorini
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
- Correspondence: (L.P.); (S.F.)
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van Klink R, Menz MHM, Baur H, Dosch O, Kühne I, Lischer L, Luka H, Meyer S, Szikora T, Unternährer D, Arlettaz R, Humbert JY. Larval and phenological traits predict insect community response to mowing regime manipulations. Ecol Appl 2019; 29:e01900. [PMID: 30980442 DOI: 10.1002/eap.1900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Revised: 12/30/2018] [Accepted: 02/20/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
For the restoration of biodiversity in agricultural grasslands, it is essential to understand how management acts as an ecological filter on the resident species. Mowing constitutes such a filter: only species that possess functional traits enabling them to withstand its consequences can persist in the community. We investigated how the timing of mowing modulates this filtering effect for insects. We predicted that two traits drive species responses. Species with larval development within the meadow vegetation will suffer more from mowing than species whose larvae develop in or on the ground, or outside the meadows, while species with a later phenology should benefit from later mowing. We conducted a five-year experiment, replicated at 12 sites across the Swiss lowlands, applying three different mowing regimes to low-intensity hay meadows: (1) first cut of the year not earlier than 15 June (control regime); (2) the first cut delayed until 15 July; and (3) leaving an uncut grass refuge on 10-20% of the meadow area (after earliest first cut on 15 June). Before the first cut in years 4 or 5, we sampled larvae of Lepidoptera and sawflies, and adults of moths, parasitoid wasps, wild bees, hoverflies, ground beetles, and rove beetles. Overall, before the first cut of the year, abundances of species with vegetation-dwelling larvae were higher in meadows with delayed mowing or an uncut grass refuge, with some taxon-specific variation. In contrast, species whose larval development is independent of the meadow vegetation showed no differences in abundance between mowing regimes. Species richness did not differ among regimes. For species with vegetation-dwelling larvae, a fourth-corner analysis showed an association between early phenology and the control regime. No associations were found for the other functional groups. Our results show that slight modifications of mowing regimes, easily implementable in agri-environmental policy schemes, can boost invertebrate abundance, potentially benefitting insectivorous vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roel van Klink
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Myles H M Menz
- Division of Community Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia
| | - Hannes Baur
- Division of Community Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
- Department of Invertebrates, Natural History Museum Bern, Bernastrasse 15, 3005, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Oliver Dosch
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Isabel Kühne
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Lukas Lischer
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Henryk Luka
- Department of Crop Sciences, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, 5070, Frick, Switzerland
| | - Sandro Meyer
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Timea Szikora
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Debora Unternährer
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Raphaël Arlettaz
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
- Swiss Ornithological Institute, Valais Field Station, Rue du Rhône 11, 1950, Sion, Switzerland
| | - Jean-Yves Humbert
- Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Balzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
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Braga J, Ter Braak CJF, Thuiller W, Dray S. Integrating spatial and phylogenetic information in the fourth-corner analysis to test trait-environment relationships. Ecology 2018; 99:2667-2674. [PMID: 30289571 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2017] [Revised: 07/31/2018] [Accepted: 09/10/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The fourth-corner analysis aims to quantify and test for relationships between species traits and site-specific environmental variables, mediated by site-specific species abundances. Since there is no common unit of observation, the significance of the relationships is tested using a double permutation procedure (site based and species based). This method implies that all species and sites are independent of each other. However, this fundamental hypothesis might be flawed because of phylogenetic relatedness between species and spatial autocorrelation in the environmental data. Here, using a simulation-based experiment, we demonstrate how the presence of spatial and phylogenetic autocorrelations can, in some circumstances, lead to inflated type I error rates, suggesting that significant associations can be misidentified. As an alternative, we propose a new randomization approach designed to avoid this issue, based on Moran's spectral randomization. In this approach, standard permutations are replaced by constrained randomizations so that the distribution of the statistic under the null hypothesis is built with additional constraints to preserve the phylogenetic and spatial structures of the observed data. The inclusion of this new randomization approach provides total control over type I error rates and should be used in real studies where spatial and phylogenetic autocorrelations often occur.
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Affiliation(s)
- João Braga
- Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble, F-38000, France
| | - Cajo J F Ter Braak
- Biometris, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Wilfried Thuiller
- Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (LECA), Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble, F-38000, France
| | - Stéphane Dray
- Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive (LBBE), Université Claude Bernard (Lyon I), CNRS, UMR5558, Villeurbanne, F-69100, France
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