Species–area relationships in continuous vegetation: Evidence from Palaearctic grasslands

Dengler J, Matthews TJ, Steinbauer M, Wolfrum S, Boch S, Chiarucci A, Conradi T, Dembicz I, Marcenò C, García-Mijangos I, Nowak A, Storch D, Ulrich W, Campos JA, Cancellieri L, Carboni M, Ciaschetti G, De Frenne P, Dolezal J, Dolnik C, Essl F, Fantinato E, Filibeck G, Grytnes JA, Guarino R, Güler B, Janišová M, Klichowska E, Kozub Ł, Kuzemko A, Manthey M, Mimet A, Naqinezhad A, Pedersen C, Peet RK, Pellissier V, Pielech R, Potenza G, Rosati L, Terzi M, Valkó O, Vynokurov D, White H, Winkler M, Biurrun I (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

DOI: 10.1111/jbi.13697

Abstract

Aim: Species–area relationships (SARs) are fundamental scaling laws in ecology although their shape is still disputed. At larger areas, power laws best represent SARs. Yet, it remains unclear whether SARs follow other shapes at finer spatial grains in continuous vegetation. We asked which function describes SARs best at small grains and explored how sampling methodology or the environment influence SAR shape. Location: Palaearctic grasslands and other non-forested habitats. Taxa: Vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens. Methods: We used the GrassPlot database, containing standardized vegetation-plot data from vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens spanning a wide range of grassland types throughout the Palaearctic and including 2,057 nested-plot series with at least seven grain sizes ranging from 1 cm² to 1,024 m². Using nonlinear regression, we assessed the appropriateness of different SAR functions (power, power quadratic, power breakpoint, logarithmic, Michaelis–Menten). Based on AICc, we tested whether the ranking of functions differed among taxonomic groups, methodological settings, biomes or vegetation types. Results: The power function was the most suitable function across the studied taxonomic groups. The superiority of this function increased from lichens to bryophytes to vascular plants to all three taxonomic groups together. The sampling method was highly influential as rooted presence sampling decreased the performance of the power function. By contrast, biome and vegetation type had practically no influence on the superiority of the power law. Main conclusions: We conclude that SARs of sessile organisms at smaller spatial grains are best approximated by a power function. This coincides with several other comprehensive studies of SARs at different grain sizes and for different taxa, thus supporting the general appropriateness of the power function for modelling species diversity over a wide range of grain sizes. The poor performance of the Michaelis–Menten function demonstrates that richness within plant communities generally does not approach any saturation, thus calling into question the concept of minimal area.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Universität Bayreuth Germany (DE) University of Birmingham United Kingdom (GB) Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt Germany (DE) Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft Switzerland (CH) University of Bologna / Università di Bologna Italy (IT) University of Warsaw / Uniwersytet Warszawski Poland (PL) University of Basque Country / Universidad del Pais Vasco (UPV) / Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea (EHU) Spain (ES) Polska Akademia Nauk (PAN) / Polish Academy of Sciences Poland (PL) Univerzita Karlova v Praze / Charles University in Prague Czech Republic (CZ) Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) / Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu (UMK) Poland (PL) Università degli Studi della Tuscia Italy (IT) University of Toronto Canada (CA) Nationalpark Majella Italy (IT) Universiteit Gent (UGent) / Ghent University Belgium (BE) Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Czech Republic (CZ) Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Germany (DE) Universität Wien / University of Vienna Austria (AT) Università Ca’ Foscari Italy (IT) University of Bergen / Universitetet i Bergen Norway (NO) Università degli Studi di Palermo Italy (IT) Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi (DEU) Turkey (TR) Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) / Slovenská akadémia vied (SAV) Slovakia (SK) M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Ukraine (UA) Universität Greifswald Germany (DE) Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung (iDiv) Germany (DE) University of Mazandaran Germany (DE) NIBIO - Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research Norway (NO) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States (USA) (US) Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ) / Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research Germany (DE) Uniwersytet Rolniczy im. Hugona Kołłątaja w Krakowie Poland (PL) Università degli Studi della Basilicata Italy (IT) Istituto di Bioscienze e Biorisorse (IBBR/CNR) Italy (IT) MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group Hungary (HU) University College Dublin (UCD) Ireland (IE) Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) / University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Austria (AT)

How to cite

APA:

Dengler, J., Matthews, T.J., Steinbauer, M., Wolfrum, S., Boch, S., Chiarucci, A.,... Biurrun, I. (2019). Species–area relationships in continuous vegetation: Evidence from Palaearctic grasslands. Journal of Biogeography. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13697

MLA:

Dengler, Jürgen, et al. "Species–area relationships in continuous vegetation: Evidence from Palaearctic grasslands." Journal of Biogeography (2019).

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