Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics最新文献

{"title":"Insect herbivory and leaf defensive traits in native and non-native populations of an endemic plant in a Macaronesian archipelago","authors":"Xoaquín Moreira ,&nbsp;Jonay Cubas ,&nbsp;Juli Caujapé-Castells ,&nbsp;Carla Vázquez-González ,&nbsp;Gresheen Garcia ,&nbsp;Beatriz Lago-Núñez ,&nbsp;Felisa Covelo ,&nbsp;Jesús Barranco-Reyes ,&nbsp;Alejandra López-Chicheri Yriarte ,&nbsp;Cristina Maldonado-Gallego ,&nbsp;Luis Abdala-Roberts","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125886","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125886","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The spread of island endemic plants to new islands is an emerging topic, yet the mechanisms driving such invasions remain unclear. While herbivory-related explanations are common for widespread species, their relevance to island endemics is uncertain. Enemy release suggests that introduced plants face less herbivory and invest less in defence, unlike at their native sites with specialized herbivores. Conversely, low defences from minimal native herbivory could make them vulnerable to generalist herbivores in new locations. Additionally, abiotic factors—such as soil type or climate—may influence plant traits and herbivore interactions, potentially overriding or complicating expected herbivory-based invasion outcomes. Here we compared in situ levels of insect leaf herbivory and leaf chemical, physical, and nutritional traits for <em>Rumex lunaria</em> across islands of the Canary Archipelago to which this species is endemic. Specifically, we sampled populations found on islands where this species is native (Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma, and El Hierro) and compared them to invasive (non-native) populations found on Lanzarote. Contrary to predictions, <em>R. lunaria</em> found on Lanzarote (i.e., non-native populations) exhibited higher levels of herbivory but also higher defensive traits—specifically, thicker leaves and higher concentrations of phenolic compounds—compared to populations on islands where this species is native to. To explore underlying correlates to these patterns, we conducted a follow-up structural equation model testing whether abiotic variation between native and non-native populations contributes to explain differences in leaf traits and herbivory. While non-native populations were associated with distinct abiotic conditions relative to native ones—including higher temperatures, reduced and more seasonal precipitation, and denser, more alkaline soils—this did not account for observed differences in leaf traits or herbivory between native vs. non-native populations. Accordingly, these findings suggest that the divergence in leaf defences and herbivory between native and non-native <em>R. lunaria</em> populations is not attributable to the abiotic factors analysed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 125886"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144242560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Population genomics and taxonomy solve a conservation conundrum in the Balearic paleoendemic Femeniasia balearica","authors":"Andrea Villanueva Raisman ,&nbsp;Rut Sánchez de Dios ,&nbsp;Felipe Domínguez Lozano ,&nbsp;Irene Villa-Machío ,&nbsp;Beatriz Pías ,&nbsp;Llorenç Sáez ,&nbsp;Mario Fernández-Mazuecos ,&nbsp;Mario Mairal","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125888","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125888","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A robust understanding of taxonomy, distribution and intraspecific genetic diversity is crucial for the conservation of narrow endemic species, which face a higher risk of extinction, especially in insular systems. Here, we study the monotypic plant genus <em>Femeniasia</em> (Asteraceae), narrowly endemic to the Balearic Islands. Only four populations are known for the sole species of this genus, <em>Femeniasia balearica</em>: three on the island of Menorca, where it is considered native and endemic, and one recently discovered on the island of Mallorca, suspected to be the result of a recent anthropogenic introduction. The latter population poses a conservation conundrum: if introduced, it may not merit the same conservation status as native populations; if native, it would be of high biogeographic and conservation interest. To solve this problem and gain an in-depth understanding of diversity and differentiation across the distribution of <em>F. balearica</em>, we conducted phylogenetic and divergence time inference for <em>F. balearica</em> and its relatives based on plastid DNA, phylogenomic, population genomic and coalescent-based demographic analysis of <em>F. balearica</em> populations based on genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), and a morphological study. Our findings revealed a divergence dating back to the Pliocene, and significant morphological and genetic differentiation between Mallorcan and Menorcan populations, which supports an old presence of <em>F. balearica</em> on Mallorca. As a result, the Mallorcan population is herein described as <em>F. balearica</em> subsp. <em>majoricensis</em>. The combined study of intraspecific genetic diversity and taxonomy proved fundamental in identifying natural populations of taxonomic, biogeographic and evolutionary relevance. Our findings should prompt a reconsideration of the conservation and management strategies of <em>Femeniasia</em>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 125888"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144571327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How do plants survive in the starving, burning, and hiding vegetation realms generated by novel fire regimes?","authors":"Marco Antonio Chiminazzo ,&nbsp;Tristan Charles-Dominique ,&nbsp;Renon Santos Andrade ,&nbsp;Aline Bertolosi Bombo ,&nbsp;Alessandra Fidelis","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125885","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125885","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fire has been an important evolutionary force across many vegetation types worldwide, but human activities and climate change currently impose novel and unprecedented fire regimes. In some areas, fire is and will be excluded, while in others, fire activity will be increased either in intensity or frequency. Changes resulting in fire exclusion should create novel environments where competition for light dominates (starving realm), filtering out species with the costliest adaptations against fire. In areas where fire intensity will increase, fire should filter out species with aboveground parts exposed to the strongest impacts of the flames (hiding realm). Areas exposed to higher fire frequencies should promote species capable of quickly building protection between fire events (burning realm). Based on well-investigated savanna-forest mosaics in the Cerrado, we propose a set of plant adaptations and strategies that should be favoured or unfavored under different novel fire regimes. In the starving realm, species with the capacity to better explore vertical space and maintain competition for light with surrounding plants will likely be favored. In the hiding realm, species with strategies based on escaping flame exposure (for example belowground) will likely be favored. In the burning realm, species capable of shielding themselves from flames and quickly investing in aboveground protection in between fires should be favored. Finally, more than just promoting a collection of traits, novel fire regimes are expected to filter contrasting plants’ growth forms that perform better in fast vertical exploration, quick canopy expansion, or belowground strategies, imposing cascading consequences over vegetation structure and defining novel habitats for a wide range of organisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"68 ","pages":"Article 125885"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144271605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aquatic carnivorous plants fill gaps in the functional niches of macrophytes: Intra-species variability and group strategies","authors":"Alice Dalla Vecchia ,&nbsp;Lubomír Adamec ,&nbsp;Rossano Bolpagni","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125871","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125871","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The inclusion of aquatic carnivorous plants (ACP) in global plant functional assessment is a key step to fully understand the functional space of macrophytes. For this purpose, we measured functional traits of ACP, focusing on the leaf economics spectrum, describing the functional space of ACP and comparing it with that of four widespread macrophyte growth forms (ceratophyllids, rooted submerged hydrophytes, nymphaeids and lemnids). Eight ACP species (<em>Aldrovanda vesiculosa</em>, and seven <em>Utricularia</em> spp.) were sampled in the Třeboňsko Biosphere Reserve and Protected Landscape Area (Czech Republic). Given the peculiar morphology of the target species, this required standardizing the selection of shoot portions for functional analysis by identifying \"functional units\" (<em>fu</em>) to be considered homologous to leaves. The analyzed ACP show wide functional variation, reflected in four different functional clusters. <em>Aldrovanda vesiculosa</em> differs markedly – in investment in carnivory and carbon content – from the <em>Utricularia</em> species, which in turn are characterized by significant differences, especially in <em>fu</em> size, number of traps, dry matter content, and chlorophyll-a content. Moreover, the functional space of ACP diverges significantly, with minimal overlap (∼10 %), with submerged species. All investigated ACP show traits related to rapid turnover of <em>fu</em>, confirming the tendency to adopt an acquisitive strategy. This, however, seems to be efficient only under conditions typical of these species (i.e. in nutrient-poor aquatic ecosystems). Our results considerably expand the available information on the functional space of aquatic macrophytes including ACP, clearly indicating the next steps for a full functional understanding of these species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 125871"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143882060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Monitoring biodiversity in the global change era: The importance of herbaria and genetic diversity","authors":"Melissa Viveiros-Moniz ,&nbsp;Ana García-Muñoz ,&nbsp;Luis Matias ,&nbsp;Mohamed Abdelaziz ,&nbsp;A. Jesús Muñoz-Pajares","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125862","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125862","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change is having far-reaching consequences on all living beings, altering ecosystems, habitats, and biodiversity worldwide. Species distributions are shifting or decreasing, with alpine plant species being particularly threatened. Natural population monitoring allows the assessment of the impact of human-induced global changes. However, traditional monitoring strategies based on individual counts may produce delayed signals of biodiversity loss. These approaches overlook the fact that genetic diversity is the fundamental basis for evolutionary processes, as it enables populations to adapt to environmental changes, including those caused by climate change. Here, we draw attention to the use of genetic diversity in monitoring schemes to anticipate negative trends in biodiversity and propose two fundamental methodologies: genomics and the use of herbarium specimens. Firstly, in contrast to genetic markers conventionally used to quantify genetic diversity, such as microsatellite markers, genomic approaches provide a vast amount of data that does not require previous knowledge of the studied organism, making them suitable for the study of non-model species. Secondly, herbaria worldwide serve as excellent sources of plant material for comparative studies across time with their precise chronologically recorded collection data. The accuracy of genetic diversity estimates increases with sample size, therefore a large number of vouchers is ideally required. However, the availability of specimens from the same species and populations in public herbaria is limited. Different strategies to quantify genetic diversity are proposed depending on the number of specimens available and their geographic distribution. Finally, we illustrate the potential of this approach in the most restrictive scenario, where only a few individuals are available, and there is no conspecific reference genome. Even in this restrictive scenario, there are signs of genetic depauperation in an alpine species with a narrow distribution, but not in a widely distributed congeneric.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 125862"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143643762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The establishment growth and clonal growth organs","authors":"J. Martínková ,&nbsp;A. Klimeš ,&nbsp;J. Klimešová","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125869","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125869","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><ul><li><span>•</span><span><div>Establishment growth is a critical period in a plant’s life with the highest mortality rate. While germination is the beginning of establishment growth, flowering is considered its end. However, sexual reproduction is often accompanied by vegetative reproduction employing clonal growth organs such as rhizomes. Yet, we know very little about the establishment growth of clonal species and their clonal organs.</div></span></li></ul><ul><li><span>•</span><span><div>In this opinion, using our long-term experimental data, we show that rhizomatous herbs need at least two years to establish and that the common definition of establishment growth as the time between germination and first flowering is not accurate. We suggest that clonal herbs compared to non-clonal ones may be handicapped by a longer establishment growth.</div></span></li></ul></div><div><ul><li><span>•</span><span><div>The length of establishment growth may have large implications for studying plant regeneration, ecosystem restoration, species vulnerability levels, demographical bottlenecks, and also for experimental ecology. Conclusions drawn from primarily short-term studies may be influenced by the incomplete establishment of experimental plants and the ongoing development of their clonal growth organs.</div></span></li></ul></div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 125869"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143820839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Geographical parthenogenesis in tetraploid brambles: Do competition and reproductive output in the secondary contact zone matter?","authors":"Michaela Konečná ,&nbsp;Martin Duchoslav ,&nbsp;Michal Sochor","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125859","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125859","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Apomicts often show geographic distributions different from their sexual relatives, a phenomenon known as geographic parthenogenesis. Traits that have been suggested to influence the likelihood that apomicts and sexuals co-occur include those responsible for resource acquisition and reproductive traits. Here we test the contribution of these traits to geographic parthenogenesis, previously observed in a unique agamic system (<em>Rubus</em> ser. <em>Glandulosi</em>) free from the potential confounding effects of different ploidy. We conducted two competition experiments with different source materials (stem tips, root cuttings) of tetraploid apomicts and sexuals of <em>Rubus</em> ser. <em>Glandulosi</em> from their secondary contact zone to investigate their resource acquisition efficiency and reproductive characteristics. Both apomicts and sexuals were grown in monocultures and in mixtures of both reproductive groups, either with or without an additional competitor (grass <em>Elymus repens</em>). We found no consistent differences in survival, vegetative traits, biomass production or reproductive traits between sexuals and apomicts across treatments in either experiment. Thus, our data show similar competitiveness and fitness of apomicts and sexuals. Competitive exclusion, although potentially delayed by neutral dynamics, supports the strong parapatric distribution of sexuals and apomicts in the previously observed contact zone. However, the position of the contact zone and its shifts through time are largely determined by selection-independent factors like priority or stochastic effects and neutral population genetic processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 125859"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143549853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Out of Liguria: How polyploidy affected diversification of the sweet spurge (Euphorbia dulcis, Euphorbiaceae), European widespread forest species","authors":"Marija Kravanja ,&nbsp;Jasna Dolenc Koce ,&nbsp;Božo Frajman","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125861","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125861","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Polyploidy is an important evolutionary mechanism in flowering plants that can strongly affect their morphological and distributional traits. In this study, we investigated the differences in these traits among di-, tri-, and tetraploid populations of sweet spurge (<em>Euphorbia dulcis</em>), a common understory species in deciduous and mixed forests across Europe. We inferred the ploidy of 188 populations of <em>E. dulcis</em> by estimating relative genome size and chromosome counting. The data indicate that tri- and tetraploids are more widespread compared to the ancestral diploid populations, which are restricted to Liguria (north-western Italy) and adjacent regions. We suggest that polyploidisation was crucial for range expansion and the colonisation of higher latitudes, but not for the colonisation of higher elevations, where diploids appear to be more successful. Similarly, morphological differentiation after polyploidisation is only partly consistent with the classical hypothesis that polyploids are larger and have larger organs. Using nuclear ITS and plastid <em>ndhF–trnL</em> sequences, we inferred the spatio-temporal diversification of <em>E. dulcis</em>. It diverged from its diploid sister species <em>E. duvalii</em>, an endemic of southwestern France and adjacent Spain, in the mid-Pliocene. This divergence was likely due to vicariant speciation accompanied by adaptation to forest and grassland environments in <em>E. dulcis</em> and <em>E. duvallii</em>, respectively. Whereas the diploid populations of both taxa have restricted ranges today, polyploidisation within <em>E. dulcis</em> likely triggered by the Pleistocene climatic oscillations contributed to its significant range expansion and diversification. The species exhibits the highest genetic diversity in the south-western Alps, where all three ploidies co-occur. Based on the ploidy differentiation and the less pronounced genetic and morphological differentiation, we propose treating di- and triploids as well as two geographically and genetically divergent groups of tetraploids (eastern and western) as four subspecies. This challenges various taxonomic treatments previously proposed for this species. Our study highlights the importance of polyploidisation for diversification and range expansion, and indicates the necessity of further research to test hypotheses related to the morphological and distributional characteristics of polyploid organisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 125861"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143815167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fairy circle research: Status, controversies and the way forward","authors":"Michael D. Cramer ,&nbsp;Walter R. Tschinkel","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125851","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125851","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><ul><li><span>1)</span><span><div>Fairy circles are regularly spaced barren circular patches in arid landscapes, typically encircled by a ring of taller grasses. They occur in South-western Africa and have also been suggested to occur in Australia, North Africa, Middle East and Madagascar. The enigmatic origins of fairy circles in arid landscapes have intrigued ecologists and sparked heated debate about the two main competing hypotheses: the termite origin (TO) and vegetation self-organization (VSO) hypotheses. In this review we attempt to untangle the claims and counter-claims regarding the two hypotheses in a dispassionate manner.</div></span></li><li><span>2)</span><span><div>The TO hypothesis posits that fairy circles form due to activities of <em>Psammotermes allocerus</em> termites, which through their foraging and nest-building behaviour create barren patches in arid grasslands, leading to the characteristic circular formations whose spacing results from competitive interactions between <em>P. allocerus</em> colonies.</div></span></li><li><span>3)</span><span><div>The VSO hypothesis posits that fairy circles in arid landscapes are the product of self-organizing behaviour of plants competing for limited water resources. Competition between neighbouring plants leads to the formation of barren circular patches with grassy peripheries. Water and nutrient mobility in coarse aeolian sands play a critical role in the shape and spacing between fairy circles.</div></span></li><li><span>4)</span><span><div>Problems with the TO hypothesis include the inconsistent central location of termite colonies within fairy circles, the difficulty of aligning the long-term persistence and stability of fairy circles with termite population dynamics, and the lack of evidence for aggressive termite interactions at the scale of the fairy circle pattern.</div></span></li><li><span>5)</span><span><div>The main challenge for the VSO hypothesis is a lack of direct empirical evidence, especially concerning complex underground water and nutrient fluxes. The precise mechanisms behind VSO remain unclear, making it difficult to fully validate this hypothesis as the sole explanation for fairy circles.</div></span></li><li><span>6)</span><span><div>Synthesis: This analysis underscores the VSO hypothesis as a coherent explanation for fairy circle formation. Progress will require manipulative experiments with environmental factors (e.g., termite presence, soil nutrients, water availability) that test the hypotheses directly. Long-term monitoring to observe fairy circle development and changes under varying conditions is also required.</div></span></li></ul></div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 125851"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143479704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Drivers of plant and lichen diversity in grasslands on mineral islands surrounded by peatlands (Biebrza Valley, NE Poland)","authors":"Iwona Dembicz ,&nbsp;Jürgen Dengler ,&nbsp;Marta Czarnocka-Cieciura ,&nbsp;Piotr T. Zaniewski ,&nbsp;Katarzyna Skłodowska ,&nbsp;Łukasz Kozub","doi":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125870","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ppees.2025.125870","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We studied fine-scale patterns of plant and lichen species richness in the grasslands of small mineral 'islands' in the extensive Biebrza River peatlands (NE Poland). Despite their relatively small size (up to several tens of hectares), the islands with their mesic to dry grasslands are regional biodiversity hotspots. We asked: (i) What is the species richness of vascular plants, non-vascular taxa (bryophytes and lichens), and threatened vascular plant species in such grasslands and how does it vary at different spatial scales? (ii) To what extent are the observed biodiversity patterns of different groups determined by geographic, topographic, soil, productivity and anthropogenic factors? We sampled environmental data and all vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species in 38 nested plot series of seven grain sizes (0.0001–100 m²) located within grasslands on these habitat islands. We used GLMMs, GLMs and multi-model inference to assess the importance of 16 variables related with geographical location and landscape, topography, soil, productivity, and human impact as predictors of species richness. For seven predictors, we confirmed the scale dependence of their importance. For most variables and grain sizes, richness of non-vascular taxa showed the inverse pattern to vascular plants both in case of scale-dependency of variable importance as well in the case of the direction of the relationship. For vascular plant richness mostly local factors were important predictors (e.g. unimodal relationship with soil moisture and organic matter), but surprisingly not soil pH, in contrast to many other studies. The amount of surrounding grassland was an important positive predictor only for the richness of threatened species. Conversely, richness of threatened species was negatively related to the size of the island. This result suggests that small habitat islands should receive special attention in conservation planning and management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56093,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics","volume":"67 ","pages":"Article 125870"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143887805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}