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Summary: The diversity of plant–pollinator interactions is grounded in floral resources, with nectar considered one of the main floral rewards plants produce for pollinators. However, a global evaluation of the number of animal‐pollinated nectar‐producing angiosperms and their distribution world‐wide remains elusive.We compiled a thorough database encompassing 7621 plant species from 322 families to estimate the number and proportion of nectar‐producing angiosperms reliant on animal pollination. Through extensive sampling of plant communities, we also explored the interplay between nectar production, floral resource diversity, latitudinal and elevational gradients, contemporary climate, and environmental characteristics.Roughly 223 308 animal‐pollinated angiosperms are nectar‐producing, accounting for 74.4% of biotic‐pollinated species. Global distribution patterns of nectar‐producing plants reveal a distinct trend along latitudinal and altitudinal gradients, with increased proportions of plants producing nectar in high latitudes and altitudes. Conversely, tropical communities in warm and moist climates exhibit greater floral resource diversity and a lower proportion of nectar‐producing plants.These findings suggest that ecological trends driven by climate have fostered the diversification of floral resources in warmer and less seasonal climates, reducing the proportion of solely nectar‐producing plants. Our study provides a baseline for understanding plant–pollinator relationships, plant diversification, and the distribution of plant traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of local plant community characteristics is imperative for practical nature planning and management, and for understanding plant diversity and distribution drivers. Today, retrieving such data is only possible by fieldwork and is hence costly both in time and money. Here, we used nine bands from multispectral high-to-medium resolution (10–60 m) satellite data (Sentinel-2) and machine learning to predict local vegetation plot characteristics over a broad area (approx. 30,000 km2) in terms of plants' preferences for soil moisture, soil fertility, and pH, mirroring the levels of the corresponding actual soil factors. These factors are believed to be among the most important for local plant community composition. Our results showed that there are clear links between the Sentinel-2 data and plants' abiotic soil preferences, and using solely satellite data we achieved predictive powers between 26 and 59%, improving to around 70% when habitat information was included as a predictor. This shows that plants' abiotic soil preferences can be detected quite well from space, but also that retrieving soil characteristics using satellites is complicated and that perfect detection of soil conditions using remote sensing—if at all possible—needs further methodological and data development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Arid Zone Research / Ganhanqu Yanjiu is the property of Arid Zone Research Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Conserving plant diversity is integral to sustainable forest management. This study aims at diversifying tools to map spatial distribution of species richness. We develop a sampling strategy of using rapid assessments by local communities to gather prior information on species richness distribution to drive census cell selection by sampling with covariate designs. An artificial neural network model is built to predict the spatial patterns. Accuracy and consistency of rapid assessment factors, sample selection methods, and sampling intensity of census cells were tested in a simulation study with seven 25–50-ha census plots in the tropics and subtropics. Results showed that identifying more plant individuals in a rapid assessment improved accuracy and consistency, while transect was comparable to or slightly better than nearest-neighbor assessment, but knowing more species had little effects. Results of sampling with covariate designs depended on covariates. The covariate I freq, inverse of the frequency of the rapidly assessed species richness strata, was the best choice. List sampling and local pivotal method with I freq increased accuracy by 0.7%–1.6% and consistency by 7.6%–12.0% for 5% to 20% sampling intensity. This study recommends a rapid assessment method of selecting 20 individuals at every 20-m interval along a transect. Knowing at least half of the species in a forest that are abundant is sufficient. Local pivotal method is recommended at 5% sampling intensity or less. This study presents a methodology to directly involve local communities in probability-based forest resource assessment to support decision-making in forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity in all its dimensions is being threatened by climate change and the impact of human activities. Genetic diversity is a key dimension of biodiversity underlying adaptation to global changes. Here we assess the impact of climate change on plant genetic diversity in a region located in the southernmost portion of Argentina and Chile range. We compiled available published research on population genetics of 22 plant species from forests, monte and steppe ecoregions and modelled the impact of future climates on their suitability distributions. Based on our results, 7 out of 22 species are predicted to lose more than 50% of their current suitable areas being the average loss across all species 40% (SSP 126) and 45% (SSP370). Several hotspots where species richness and genetic diversity overlap are located in areas that are predicted to become unsuitable, particularly in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Along the Arid Diagonal, some steppe and monte species are predicted to lose areas. Stable areas, on the other hand, were identified, to the west and south of the Andes, thus offering opportunities to preserve the genetic variants that might be critical for adaptation. Although higher temperatures will be threatening in the future, some of the areas we identify might act as promising natural refuges for southern South America flora, as long as appropriate conservation and management policies of the genetic resources are being implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants sustain human life. Understanding geographic patterns of the diversity of species used by people is thus essential for the sustainable management of plant resources. Here, we investigate the global distribution of 35,687 utilized plant species spanning 10 use categories (e.g., food, medicine, material). Our findings indicate general concordance between utilized and total plant diversity, supporting the potential for simultaneously conserving species diversity and its contributions to people. Although Indigenous lands across Mesoamerica, the Horn of Africa, and Southern Asia harbor a disproportionate diversity of utilized plants, the incidence of protected areas is negatively correlated with utilized species richness. Finding mechanisms to preserve areas containing concentrations of utilized plants and traditional knowledge must become a priority for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable forest management needs information on spatial distribution of species richness. The objectives of this study were to understand whether knowledge, method, and effort of a rapid assessment affected accuracy and consistency in mapping species richness. A simulation study was carried out with nine 25-50 ha census plots located in tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones. Each forest site was first tessellated into non-overlapping cells. Rapid assessment was conducted in all cells to generate a complete coverage of proxies of the underlying species richness. Cells were subsampled for census, where all plant individuals were identified to species in these census cells. An artificial neural network model was built using the census cells that contain rapid assessment and census information. The model then predicted species richness of cells that were not censused. Results showed that knowledge level did not improve the accuracy and consistency in mapping species richness. Rapid assessment effort and method significantly affected the accuracy and consistency. Increasing rapid assessment effort from 10 to 40 plant individuals could improve the accuracy and consistency up to 2.2% and 2.8%, respectively. Transect reduced accuracy and consistency by up to 0.5% and 0.8%, respectively. This study suggests that knowing at least half of the species in a forest is sufficient for a rapid assessment. At least 20 plant individuals per cell is recommended for rapid assessment. Lastly, a rapid assessment could be carried out by local communities that are familiar with their forests; thus, further supporting sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The genus Rubus L. (Rosaceae), comprising approximately 750 species and classified into 12 subgenera, is distributed worldwide and is one of the largest plant genera. In Taiwan, Rubus comprises 41 taxa, including 35 species, three varieties and three hybrids. Amongst the genus Rubus, the species, previously recorded as R. howii in Taiwan, was misidentified and this study recognised it as a new species. New information Due to its distribution mainly in south-eastern Taiwan, we named this new species as Rubus puyumaensis, after the local aborigine tribe Puyuma. Taxonomic descriptions and colour photographs of the new species are provided to assist in identification. R. puyumaensis is most similar to R. howii and R. refractus. They can be distinguished by the colour of young leaves, leaf shape, arrangement of florets, trichomes of inflorescences, size of sepal lobes, petal colour, types and trichomes of filaments and the length of stamens and pistils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the Special Collection 'Global plant diversity and distribution'. See https://www.newphytologist.org/global-plant-diversity for more details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Snow cover persistence (SCP) has significant effects on plants in high‐elevation ecosystems. It determines the length of the growing season, provides insulation against low temperatures and influences water availability, thereby shaping the vegetation mosaic. Despite its importance, SCP is rarely used in plant species distribution modelling. In this study, we examine whether incorporating SCP in plant species distribution models (SDMs) improves their predictive power. We investigate the link between species' ecology and SDM improvements by the addition of various SCP predictors. Location: Western Swiss Alps. Taxon: 206 alpine flowering plants (angiosperms). Methods: We produced three maps of landsat satellite‐based SCP indices over an entire mountain region, one of them using an online open access platform allowing quick and easy replication and used them as a predictor in plant SDMs alongside commonly used predictors. We tested whether this improved the predictive performance of plant SDMs. Results: All three SCP indices improved the overall SDM predictive accuracy, but the overall improvement was potentially limited by their correlation with other climatic predictors. Alpine plant species known for their dependence on snow benefited more from the additional snow information. Main Conclusions: SCP should be used for predicting at least the distribution of alpine, snow‐related plant species. Given that adding snow cover improves SDMs and that snow duration decreases as climate warms, future predictions of alpine plant distributions should account for both snow predictor and associated snow change scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The caliscelid tribe Augilini Baker is recorded for the first time from African continent after Polychornum centroafricanum sp. n. described and illustrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo, collected in 1948. This is first representative of the genus Polychornum Gnezdilov, 2021 from the Afrotropical Region. Global distribution and host plants of the species of the tribe Augilini are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Oceanic islands possess unique floras with high proportions of endemic species. Island floras are expected to be severely affected by changing climatic conditions as species on islands have limited distribution ranges and small population sizes and face the constraints of insularity to track their climatic niches. We aimed to assess how ongoing climate change affects the range sizes of oceanic island plants, identifying species of particular conservation concern. Location: Canary Islands, Spain. Methods: We combined species occurrence data from single‐island endemic, archipelago endemic and nonendemic native plant species of the Canary Islands with data on current and future climatic conditions. Bayesian Additive Regression Trees were used to assess the effect of climate change on species distributions; 71% (n = 502 species) of the native Canary Island species had models deemed good enough. To further assess how climate change affects plant functional strategies, we collected data on woodiness and succulence. Results: Single‐island endemic species were projected to lose a greater proportion of their climatically suitable area (x ̃ = −0.36) than archipelago endemics (x ̃ = −0.28) or nonendemic native species (x ̃ = −0.26), especially on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which are expected to experience less annual precipitation in the future. Moreover, herbaceous single‐island endemics were projected to gain less and lose more climatically suitable area than insular woody single‐island endemics. By contrast, we found that succulent single‐island endemics and nonendemic natives gain more and lose less climatically suitable area. Main Conclusions: While all native species are of conservation importance, we emphasise single‐island endemic species not characterised by functional strategies associated with water use efficiency. Our results are particularly critical for other oceanic island floras that are not constituted by such a vast diversity of insular woody species as the Canary Islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of species richness spatial patterns is important for nature conservation and theoretical studies. Inventorying species richness, especially at a larger spatial extent is challenging, thus different data sources are joined and harmonized to obtain a comprehensive data set. Here we present a new data set showing vascular plant species richness in Poland based on a grid of 10 × 10 km squares. The data set was created using data from two sources: the Atlas of Distribution of Vascular Plants in Poland and the Polish Vegetation Database. Using this data set, we analysed 2,160 species with taxonomical nomenclature according to the Euro + Med PlantBase checklist in 3,283 squares covering the entire territory of Poland (ca. 312,000 km2). The species were divided into groups according to their status and frequency of distribution, and the statistics for each square were obtained. For purposes of analysis, sampling bias was assessed. The data set promotes theoretical analysis on species richness and reinforces the planning of nature conservations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DNA Features pipeline is the analysis pipeline at EMBL-EBI that annotates repeat elements, including transposable elements. With Ensembl’s goal to stay at the cutting edge of genome annotation, we proved that this pipeline needed an update. We then created a new analysis that allowed the Ensembl database to store the repeat classification from the PGSB repeat classification (Recat). This new dataset was then fetched using Perl scripts and used to prove that the pipeline modification induced a gain in sensitivity. Finally, we performed a comparative analysis of transposable element distribution in all plant species available, raising new questions about transposable elements in certain branches of the taxonomic tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eleven angiosperm plant species are added to the flora of New Mexico that were revealed through herbarium curation associated with a project to digitize and unify the two herbaria of New Mexico State University (NMC & NMCR) and through ongoing field work. One, Dimorphocarpa candicans, is restored to the state's flora, after it was earlier placed into synonymy with D. wislizeni, a close but morphologically distinct relative. The current IUCN Redlist conservation status of endangered (EN) for Gossypium thurberi should be revisited given its newly discovered range extension into southwestern New Mexico. New county-level distribution records are provided for a total of 16 taxa. Crepis tectorum, one of the species added to the flora of New Mexico, is likewise documented for Colorado, where it occurs in three counties. All of the plants added to the floras pertain to species that are either native or introduced with the potential to spread and become naturalized in the landscape. A putative introgressive population is also reported for New Mexico between Quercus turbinella and Q. laceyi, the latter otherwise unknown in the state. For all new records, full citations of specimen vouchers are provided to document the extended distributional ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Significant changes in species elevational ranges in mountains have been repeatedly documented, yet the direction, magnitude and drivers of these shifts remain controversial. Presently, there is still lacking evidence about the general nature of species elevational range shifts in eastern Eurasia in response to anthropogenic climate change. By using historical specimen records and recent field observations for 735 seed plant species across 29 China's mountains, we assessed changes in species' elevational centroids and their drivers. Location: China. Time Period: 1950–2018. Major Taxa Studied: Seed plant species. Methods: The elevation records of all sampled occurrences in each mountain during the two time periods were estimated, and the null models were developed to test the sampling bias. Ecological niche models (ENMs) were used to evaluate the relative importance of climate factors in constraining each species distribution. Generalized linear models (GLMs) to test the relationships between the centroid elevational range shifts of species and different divers. Results: We found that 54% of the species shifting upward and 46% downhill. However, species' elevational shifts significantly differed among species and mountains. Herbaceous and lowland species moved upward faster than woody and high‐elevation species. Species in temperate mountains and in mountains with taller elevational gradients moved upward, while species in subtropical mountains and in mountains with shorter elevational gradients moved downward. Precipitation changes experienced by species, species' climatic adaptations, several species' functional traits and mountain size all contributed to explain the magnitude of species' centroid elevational range shifts. Main Conclusions: Our results highlight complex biodiversity redistribution of seed plants across Chinese mountains, not necessarily conforming to the trend of species upward shifts in elevation. Changes in precipitation regimes may blur the simplistic assumption of isotherm tracking. This study fills an important geographic shortfall for our understanding of biodiversity redistribution under anthropogenic climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive species science has focused heavily on the invasive agent. However, management to protect native species also requires a proactive approach focused on resident communities and the features affecting their vulnerability to invasion impacts. Vulnerability is likely the result of factors acting across spatial scales, from local to regional, and it is the combined effects of these factors that will determine the magnitude of vulnerability. Here, we introduce an analytical framework that quantifies the scale‐dependent impact of biological invasions on native richness from the shape of the native species–area relationship (SAR). We leveraged newly available, biogeographically extensive vegetation data from the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network to assess plant community vulnerability to invasion impact as a function of factors acting across scales. We analyzed more than 1000 SARs widely distributed across the USA along environmental gradients and under different levels of non‐native plant cover. Decreases in native richness were consistently associated with non‐native species cover, but native richness was compromised only at relatively high levels of non‐native cover. After accounting for variation in baseline ecosystem diversity, net primary productivity, and human modification, ecoregions that were colder and wetter were most vulnerable to losses of native plant species at the local level, while warmer and wetter areas were most susceptible at the landscape level. We also document how the combined effects of cross‐scale factors result in a heterogeneous spatial pattern of vulnerability. This pattern could not be predicted by analyses at any single scale, underscoring the importance of accounting for factors acting across scales. Simultaneously assessing differences in vulnerability between distinct plant communities at local, landscape, and regional scales provided outputs that can be used to inform policy and management aimed at reducing vulnerability to the impact of plant invasions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The species distribution model has been widely used to predict the distribution of invasive plant species based on bioclimatic variables. However, the specific selection of bioclimate variables may affect the performance of the species distribution model. Here, we tested a new bioclimate variable dataset (i.e., CMCC BioClimInd) and used it in the species distribution model. We evaluated the predictive performance and explanatory power of WorldClim and CMCC-BioClimInd using AUC and omission rate, and also used the ODMAP protocol to record CMCC-BioClimInd to ensure reproducibility. The results indicate that CMCC BioClimInd can effectively simulate the distribution of invasive plant species. Based on the contribution rate of CMCC-BioClimInd to the distribution of invasive plant species, we inferred that the modified simplified continentality index and modified Kira warmth index from CMCC-BioClimInd had a strong explanatory power. Under the 35 bioclimatic variables of CMCC-BioClimInd, alien invasive plant species are mainly distributed in equatorial, tropical and subtropical regions. We tested a new bioclimate variable dataset to simulate the distribution of invasive plant species worldwide. Our research provides a new perspective for risk assessment and management of global invasive plant species. Species distribution modeling (SDM) has been widely used to predict the distribution of invasive plant species based on bioclimatic variables. However, the specific selection of these variables may affect the performance of SDM. This investigation elucidates a new bioclimate variable dataset (i.e., CMCC-BioClimInd) for its use in SDM. The predictive performance of SDM that includes WorldClim and CMCC-BioClimInd was evaluated by AUC and omission rate and the explanatory power of both datasets was assessed by the jackknife method. Furthermore, the ODMAP protocol was used to record CMCC-BioClimInd to ensure reproducibility. The results indicated that CMCC-BioClimInd effectively simulates invasive plant species' distribution. Based on the contribution rate of CMCC-BioClimInd to the distribution of invasive plant species, it was inferred that the modified and simplified continentality and Kira warmth index from CMCC-BioClimInd had a strong explanatory power. Under the 35 bioclimatic variables of CMCC-BioClimInd, alien invasive plant species are mainly distributed in equatorial, tropical, and subtropical regions. We tested a new bioclimate variable dataset to simulate the distribution of invasive plant species worldwide. This method has great potential to improve the efficiency of species distribution modeling, thereby providing a new perspective for risk assessment and management of global invasive plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is causing the rapid redistribution of vegetation as plant species move to track their climatic optima. Despite a global trend of upward movement in latitude and elevation, there is extensive heterogeneity among species and locations, with few emerging generalizations. Greater generalization may be achieved from considering multidimensional changes in species' distributions as well as incorporating ecologically relevant functional traits into studies of range shifts.To better understand how recent changes in climate are influencing the elevational distribution of plant species and how species' functional traits mediate distributional changes, we resampled a 2438 m elevation transect spanning a distance of 16 km which encompasses desert scrub, pinyon‐juniper woodland, chaparral and coniferous forest plant communities.Over the last 42 years, total perennial cover and species' average cover increased at lower elevations and decreased at higher elevations while average elevational leading‐edge increased 116 m and elevational rear edge decreased 84 m. Notably, these changes were mediated by species' functional traits, where species exhibiting more conservative traits (lower specific leaf area [SLA], greater δ13C, larger seed mass) and taller height shifted upward in their leading‐edge range limit, average elevation and trailing edge range limit, while declining in abundance at the median and trailing edge of their range. Species possessing more acquisitive traits (higher SLA, lower δ13C, smaller seed mass) and shorter height shifted downward and increased in abundance at their trailing edge, with increases in their total range size.Our results provide clear evidence that heterogeneous range dynamics under recent climate change can be generalized by considering ecologically relevant plant functional traits, and how they respond to localized climate exposure. Furthermore, by documenting changes across a steep elevational gradient comprising a large aridity gradient, we show divergent patterns for plants occupying contrasting positions along the global spectrum of plant form and function, which provides critical insight into how trait‐mediated changes under increasing aridity will impact ecosystem functioning. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Deforestation, forest degradation and intensification of farming threaten terrestrial biodiversity. As these land-use changes accelerate in many landscapes, especially in the Global South, it is vital to anticipate how future changes might impact specific aspects of biodiversity. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to model woody plant species richness in southwestern Ethiopia, for the present and for four plausible, spatially explicit scenarios of the future ('Gain over grain', 'Mining green gold', 'Coffee and conservation' and 'Food first'). Methods: We used cross-validated generalized linear models for both forest and farmland, to relate empirical data on total and forest-specialist woody plant species richness to indicators of human disturbance and environmental conditions. We projected these across current and future scenario landscapes. Results: In both farmland and forest, richness peaked at intermediate elevations (except for total species richness in farmland) and decreased with distance to the forest edge (except for forest specialist richness in forest). Our results indicate that the 'Mining green gold' and 'Food first' scenarios would result in strong losses of biodiversity, whereas the 'Gain over grain' scenario largely maintained biodiversity relative to the baseline. Only the 'Coffee and conservation' scenario, which incorporates a new biosphere reserve, showed positive changes for biodiversity that are likely viable in the long term. Conclusions: The creation of a biosphere reserve could maintain and improve woody plant richness in the focal region, by forming a cluster with existing reserves, would be a major step forward for sustainability in southwestern Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between plants and the soil are an important ecological process in terrestrial ecosystems as they affect plant community structure: when and where we find different plant species. Those interactions are typically thought of as one‐directional: local soil conditions filter through dispersing species to produce a community of locally adapted plants. However, plants can modify local physicochemical soil conditions via their roots and associations with soil microbes. These may in turn affect the local fitness of other plants, making plant–soil interactions bidirectional. In order to understand how they differ from other ecological processes that structure plant communities, we need a theory connecting these individual‐level plant–soil feedbacks to community‐level patterns. Here, we build this theory with a mathematical model of plant community dynamics in which soil conditioning is explicitly modeled over time and depends on the density of the plants. We analyze this model to describe the long‐term composition and spatial distribution of the plant community. Our main result is that positive plant–soil feedbacks will create clustering of species with similar soil preferences. The composition of these clusters is further influenced by niche width and conditioning strength. In contrast with competitive dynamics driven by niche overlap, only species belonging to the same cluster can maintain high relative abundance in the community. Spatial heterogeneity in the form of an environmental gradient generates patches, each representing a single cluster. However, such patchiness is disfavored when species differ in dispersal ability. We show that stronger dispersers cannot take over the habitat as long as an exogenous driver favors soil conditions that benefit the other species. If exogenous drivers supersede soil conditioning by plants, we retrieve classic habitat filtering, where species are selected based on their suitability to the local environment. Overall, we provide a novel mathematical model for positive plant–soil feedback that we use to describe the spatial patterns of plant abundance and traits related to soil preference and conditioning ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high‐production‐volume chemical 4,4ʹ‐methylenedianiline (4,4ʹ‐MDA) is an aromatic amine used to manufacture 4,4ʹ‐methylenedianiline diisocyanate for polyurethane production. Based on 4,4ʹ‐MDA's octanol/water partition coefficient (KOW) and correlations with the transpiration stream concentration factor (TSCF), significant plant uptake and root‐to‐shoot transfer are predicted. However, most correlations between KOW and TSCF were developed for neutral organics and may not be applicable for ionizable bases such as 4,4ʹ‐MDA. To investigate, TSCF values for 4,4ʹ‐MDA were measured using pressure chamber and intact plant approaches for tomato, soybean, and wheat (intact plants only). 14C‐labeled 4,4'‐MDA was used to increase analytical sensitivity and facilitate measurement of distribution within plant tissues. The TSCF of 14C‐MDA determined using the pressure chamber method was 0.04 ± 0.00 for tomato and 0.17 ± 0.10 for soybean. These values were lower than predicted from log KOW and within the range of values for 14C‐pyrene also measured in our study (0.14 ± 0.00 for tomato and 0.16 ± 0.09 for soybean). The TSCF values calculated from measurements made from intact plants grown to maturity were statistically equivalent to those obtained from the pressure chamber method for soybean and tomato. The distributions of 14C within the three plants species were similar, with the roots > leaves ≈ stems > fruit. The log root concentration factors for 4,4ʹ‐MDA ranged from 3.68 to 4.33 for the three plant species. This finding indicates that the aromatic amine sorption to root materials is much greater than would be predicted based on its log KOW and may be the reason for the limited root‐to‐shoot transfer observed in the pressure chamber and intact plant studies. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:655–662. © 2023 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity and carbon storage are two key ecosystem functions that are crucial to protect and maintain ecosystem balance. However, there is often little overlap between hotspots for these two different conservation purposes. Additionally, it is not well understood how these different spatial metrics affect these functions in protected ecosystems in China. Here, we explored the relationships between plant diversity metrics and carbon storage by using a large vascular plant distribution dataset, as well as soil fragile organic carbon and biomass carbon datasets in specific spatial areas across China. We also defined priority protection areas (PPAs) using a conservation prioritization method, where 30% of the study areas displayed the highest combined conservation value in carbon storage and plant species richness (SR), phylogenetic diversity (PD), phylogenetic endemism (PE) and evolutionary distinctness (ED). Our results indicated that the correlations between biodiversity metrics and carbon storage were very weak in spatial relationship. However, by including both of these functions in conservation targets, the PPAs could account for more than 95% of the species and evolutionary diversity (PD, ED), and stored large amounts of carbon. Additionally, we broadly divided the PPAs into win–win, high plant diversity, and high carbon areas based on the overlap of biodiversity and carbon storage hotspots. Altogether, our results highlight the importance of understanding and optimizing conservation efforts for different ecosystem functions in different PPAs. Ultimately, this work establishes an urgent need to expand protection in these areas to support mutual biodiversity and carbon storage beneficial solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mediterranean Basin is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, harboring 25,000 plant species, of which 60% are endemic. Some of them have narrow distributions, such as Euphorbia orphanidis, which is only known from alpine screes on Mt. Parnassos in Greece. Its exact distribution in this mountain was, however, poorly known, and its phylogenetic origin was also unclear. We performed extensive field work in Mt. Parnassos and could register E. orphanidis only in five patches of limestone screes in the eastern part of this mountain range, emphasizing its very narrow distribution, which is likely limited by topography influencing water availability as indicated by environmental modeling. We also registered 31 accompanying species and thus characterized its habitat. Using nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer and plastid ndhF-trnL and trnT-trnF sequences, we show that it belongs to E. sect. Patellares, despite not having connate raylet leaves typical for this section, and not to E. sect. Pithyusa as previously suggested. The relationships among the species of E. sect. Patellares are poorly resolved, suggesting their simultaneous divergence that dated to the late Pliocene, which coincided with the establishment of the Mediterranean climate. The relative genome size of E. orphanidis is in the range of that for the other members of E. sect. Patellares, suggesting that it is diploid. Finally, we performed multivariate morphological analyses to generate a comprehensive description of E. orphanidis. Based on its narrow distribution and the anticipated negative impact of global warming, we consider this species endangered. Our study demonstrates how microrelief can limit the distribution of plants in topographically heterogeneous mountain environments and likely plays an important, yet neglected, role in shaping the distribution patterns of plants in the Mediterranean Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in some combination of niche availability, niche overlap and the strength of interspecific interactions are thought to drive changes in plant composition along resource gradients. However, because these processes are difficult to measure in the field, their relative importance in driving compositional change in plant communities remains unclear. In an Australian temperate grassland, we added seeds of three native and three exotic grasses to 1875 experimental plots in a way that allowed us to simultaneously estimate niche availability, niche overlap and the strength of pairwise interspecific interactions along a gradient of nutrient availability, obtained by adding 0, 5 or 20 g m−2 each of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium jointly to plots. Niche availability (the proportion of microsites suitable for establishment and growth) was generally low and did not vary in response to nutrient addition. Most species co‐occurred along the nutrient gradient by partitioning the available niche space. Where species interacted due to niche overlap, the abundance of one species, the native Chloris truncata, was usually facilitated by other species, with each of the five other species increasing the niche availability to C. truncata under at least one nutrient treatment. Chloris truncata also competitively excluded two species from some but not all sites they could otherwise have occupied. These outcomes did not clearly differ across nutrient treatments. Our results show that fine‐scale spatial heterogeneity in establishment microsites can enable species to co‐occur via niche partitioning, and competitive exclusion is rare. This finding contributes to an emerging picture that niche partitioning is common and frequently a stronger influence on recruitment outcomes than interspecific competition. The importance of competition in structuring plant communities may be overestimated if recruitment processes are overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolation effects on the distributions of plant species in fragmented forests appear to be weak over tens to hundreds of years and strong over geological eras. The 250 km wide, 6.5 millennia old Bass Strait, and other millennium‐scale disjunctions in the range of Eucalyptus regnans forests, were used to determine the effects of intermediate periods of isolation on plant species occurrence and composition. Three of six floristic communities were found on both sides of Bass Strait. The residuals from multiple regression models using climatic variables on the latitude vector were not explained by latitude, indicating negligible isolation effects from Bass Strait. However, there was a lesser compositional effect of disjunctions within land masses than between land masses, suggesting some effect of the larger barrier. No species that commonly occurred with E. regnans and were largely confined to wet forest exhibited absences from any region where the climate and soils were within their range. If areas isolated from each other for millennia can maintain their vascular plant biota, the expenditure of conservation funds on creating corridors to connect large areas separated by anthropogenic landscape modification might require more justification than it is currently afforded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant species play a crucial role in mediating the activity and community structure of soil microbiomes through differential inputs of litter and rhizosphere exudates, but we have a poor understanding of how plant species influence comammox Nitrospira, a newly discovered ammonia oxidizer with pivotal functionality. Here, we investigate the abundance, diversity, and community structure of comammox Nitrospira underneath five plant species and a bare tidal flat at three soil depths in a subtropical estuarine wetland. Plant species played a critical role in driving the distribution of individual clades of comammox Nitrospira, explaining 59.3% of the variation of community structure. Clade A.1 was widely detected in all samples, while clades A.2.1, A.2.2, A.3 and B showed plant species-dependent distribution patterns. Compared with the native species Cyperus malaccensis, the invasion of Spartina alterniflora increased the network complexity and changed the community structure of comammox Nitrospira, while the invasive effects from Kandelia obovata and Phragmites australis were relatively weak. Soil depths significantly influenced the community structure of comammox Nitrospira, but the effect was much weaker than that from plant species. Altogether, our results highlight the previously unrecognized critical role of plant species in driving the distribution of comammox Nitrospira in a subtropical estuarine wetland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand how past geological events and climate changes have shaped extant patterns of diversity is a central goal in biogeography. The uplift of the Himalayan-Tibetan region profoundly changed the environment in Eastern Asia, especially in the development of vast evergreen broadleaf forests (EBLFs) in the Subtropical Zone. However, when and how these forests developed remains unclear. Here we focus on Quercus section Cyclobalanopsis, a dominant component of EBLFs since the Miocene in Eastern Asia. In this study we integrated occurrence data, climate data, and a published phylogeny of 35 species of section Cyclobalanopsis with ecological niche modeling (MaxEnt) to explore the evolution of climatic tolerance of section Cyclobalanopsis since the late Eocene (34 Mya). The intensification of the East Asian monsoon system and occupation of new climatic niches by the ancient clades already present in the Himalayas and in tropical Asia may have jointly promoted the formation of subtropical EBLFs in Eastern Asia since the Miocene, especially the late Miocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This correction notice addresses missing references and clarifications in an article titled "Predicting the distribution of plant species from southern South America: are the hotspots of genetic diversity threatened by climate change?" The missing reference, Fremout et al. 2020, should have been included in the article and the citation for this reference should have been included in the section on species distribution modeling. Additionally, a sentence in the seventh paragraph should have included a reference to the blockCV package for R. The publisher, Springer Nature, remains neutral in terms of jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. The authors of the article are Carolina Soliani, Viviana Ceccarelli, María Victoria Lantschner, Evert Thomas, and Paula Marchelli. [Extracted from the article]

Serious concerns exist about potentially reinforcing negative effects of climate change and land conversion on biodiversity. Here, we investigate the tandem and interacting roles of climate warming and land-use change as predictors of shifts in the regional distributions of 1701 plant species in Sweden over 60 years. We show that species associated with warmer climates have increased, while grassland specialists have declined. Our results also support the hypothesis that climate warming and vegetation densification through grazing abandonment have synergistic effects on species distribution change. Local extinctions were related to high levels of warming but were reduced by grassland retention. In contrast, colonisations occurred more often in areas experiencing high levels of both climate and land-use change. Strong temperature increases were experienced by species across their ranges, indicating time lags in expected warming-related local extinctions. Our results highlight that the conservation of threatened species relies on both reduced greenhouse gas emissions and the retention and restoration of valuable habitat. Land use change has been the dominant anthropogenic driver of plant distribution change, but climate change has also become a major factor. This analysis of long-term data shows that warming likely reinforced the impact of grassland abandonment on plant species distribution change in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread changes in temperature and precipitation patterns present plant species with new and combined stresses that affect their performance and distribution. Functional traits are indicators of plant resource use–acquisition strategies and thus they are commonly used to understand the geographic distributions of plant species and species' potential responses to climate change. To date, most studies have targeted a few easy‐to‐measure leaf traits even though other traits, such as climatic tolerances, could provide valuable information directly related with species' current and future distributions. Here, we measured both leaf functional traits and indices of physiological tolerance to heat (T50) and drought (cell membrane stability) in 28 woody bamboo populations from 22 narrow‐ranged species along a > 3000 m elevation gradient in the southern Peruvian Andes. We found that bamboo leaf functional traits remain fairly constant with a combination indicative of an acquisitive strategy (low leaf mass area and high nitrogen per mass) along the elevation gradient, despite drastic changes in environment and fast species turnover. Heat and drought tolerances of bamboos varied widely along the gradient and were negatively correlated to each other. Drought tolerance of bamboo populations was positively related with elevation and with precipitation seasonality while heat tolerance decreased at higher, colder elevations. When analyzed for individuals within each species or for individuals within each elevation, the two metrics of climatic tolerances did not show a consistent relationship, contrasting with the expectation of a potential tradeoff between heat and drought tolerance. We also found that the measured leaf functional traits were not good predictors of climatic tolerances. Our results illustrate the diversity and complexity of the relationships between functional strategies and environmental gradients and highlight the limitations of using basic (i.e. 'soft') leaf traits to understand plant distributions and climatic tolerances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, the total content from two Apocynum species leaves (Apocynum venetum and Apocynum hendersonii) collected from the Ili River Valley Region were extracted, and their bioactivities were investigated. The results showed a significant variation in the total flavonoid contents in the leaf samples collected at different periods (June, July, August, and September), with the highest content in August (60.11 ± 0.38 mg RE/g DW for A. venetum and 56.56 ± 0.24 mg RE/g DW for A. hendersonii), and the lowest in June (22.36 ± 0.05 mg RE/g DW for A. venetum and 20.79 ± 0.02 mg RE/g DW for A. hendersonii). The total flavonoid content was comparably higher in A. venetum than in A. hendersonii. Leaves extracts from the two species demonstrated strong bioactivity, which positively correlated with the total flavonoid contents. The anti-oxidative activity of A. venetum was higher than that of A. hendersonii in tandem with its higher flavonoid contents; the antibacterial activity, however, was conversely opposite. Furthermore, a total of 83 flavonoid metabolites were identified in the two species based on UPLC-ESI-MS/MS, out of which 24 metabolites were differentially accumulated. The variability in these metabolites might be the reason for the different bioactivities displayed by the two species. The present study provides insight into the optimal harvest time for Apocynum species planted in the major distribution area of the Ili River Valley and the specific utilization of A. venetum and A. hendersonii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial distributions and associations of plant species in a stand can provide essential information about their dynamics. However, since tree spatial distribution and association depend on factors that operate at different scales, disentangling the effects of environmental heterogeneity and plant–plant interactions requires the choice of a suitable null model for spatial analysis. We analyzed the spatial distributions of the same savanna palm tree populations that were studied, the underlying hypothesis being that these distributions have changed in 20 years. To remove the effect of large-scale environmental heterogeneity, the inhomogeneous L -function under the heterogeneous Poisson null model was used. We showed: (i) unlike 20 years ago, adults had a regular distribution instead of an aggregated distribution in the grass savanna; (ii) although the spatial distribution of seedlings and juveniles was always aggregated, we observed a decrease in the size of the aggregates (intensities); (iii) except for juveniles, no other stages were associated with nutrient-rich patches, which was also different 20 years ago; (iv) we did not observe any particular difference in structure between two study sites, only that female palm trees were spatially associated with entire-leafed seedlings in the reserve while they were spatially independent in the rural area. Our study supports the hypothesis that the spatial distributions have partially changed, and that the management of spatial heterogeneity has improved and given more precision in the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health clinic gardens (HCGs) are social-ecological systems (SESs) associated with health clinics on government land and are intended to provide fresh vegetables and fruits to patients struggling to keep healthy immune systems. Little is known about their comparability to other garden types with regards to plant distribution and potential utilization, and thus their potential to address some of the challenges limiting ecosystem services (ESs) provision in other garden types. In this study, we report on the floristic composition and presence of utilitarian plant species at 105 HCGs across a district municipality in the North-West Province, South Africa. Different micro-gardens, including vegetable, medicinal, ornamental, natural vegetation, bare soil, orchard, hedge, and lawn micro-gardens, were identified. To understand plant composition, species were classified according to status of origin, invasive characteristics, Raunkiaer's life-forms, growth forms, and potential usefulness. To determine the frequency of species occurrence we enumerated the number of gardens containing the respective species. Six-hundred and thirty-three species from 404 genera and 116 plant families were encountered. Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. and Urochloa mosambicensis (Hack.) Dandy , found in 91 % and 79 % of gardens, respectively, occurred the most. Herbaceous species were the most dominant, with Schkuhria pinnata (Lam.) Kuntze ex Thell. and Conyza bonariensis (L.) Cronquist occurring the most. Plant species richness was greater in the ornamental (282 species) and natural area (naga) (281 species) micro-gardens, while the hedge had the least (8 species). Fifty-five percent of species in the natural vegetation micro-garden were indigenous, compared to 44 % in the ornamental micro-garden. There was greater diversity in fruit-bearing plants, and most medicinal plant species (70 %) are used as a tonic. Health clinic gardens resemble home gardens and are well positioned to enhance ESs provision at the community scale. Future HCGs research should evaluate community usage of the gardens and the extent to which knowledge of useful plants and efficient gardening practices is upscaled to home gardens around HCGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of anthropocene, global warming tends to alter the distribution range of the plant species. Highly fragile to such changes are the species that are endemic, inhabit higher elevations and show narrow distribution ranges. Predicting and plotting the appropriate suitable habitats and keeping knowledge of how climate change will affect future distribution become imperative for designing effective conservation strategies. In the current study we have used BIOMOD ensemble forecasting to study the current and predict the future potential distribution of Dactylorhiza hatagirea and Rheum webbianum and describe their niche dynamics in Himalayan biodiversity hotspots under climate change scenarios using ecospat R package. Results reveal sufficient internal evaluation metrics with area under curve (AUC) and true skill statistic (TSS) values greater than 0.8 i.e. 0.93 and 0.98 and 0.82 and 0.90 for D. hatageria and R. webbianum respectively, which signifies robustness of the model. Among different bioclimatic variables, bio_1, bio_3, bio_8, bio_14 and bio_15 were the most influential, showing greater impact on the potential distribution of these plant species. Range change analysis showed that both the studied species will show significant contraction of their suitable habitats under future climatic scenarios. Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 for the year 2070, indicate that the suitable habitats could be reduced by about 51.41% and 70.57% for D. hatagirea and R. webbianum respectively. The results of the niche comparisons between the current and future climatic scenarios showed moderate level of niche overlap for all the pairs with D. hatageria showing 61% overlap for current vs. RCP4.5 2050 and R. webbianum reflects 68% overlap for current vs. RCP4.5 2050. Furthermore, the PCA analysis revealed that climatic conditions for both the species vary significantly between current and future scenarios. The similarity and equivalence test showed that the niche between present and future climate change scenarios is comparable but not identical. From the current study we concluded that the influence of climate change on the habitat distribution of these plant species in the Himalayan biodiversity hotspots can be considered very severe. Drastic reduction in overall habitat suitability poses a high risk of species extinction and thereby threatens to alter the functions and services of these fragile ecosystems. Present results can be used by conservationists for mitigating the biodiversity decline and exploring undocumented populations on one hand and by policymakers in implementing the policy of conservation of species by launching species recovery programmes in future on the other. The outcomes of this study can contribute substantially to understand the consequences of climate change in the Himalayan biodiversity hotspots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed plants and their traits in dolines, which are characteristic enclosed terrain depressions on carbonate (karst) plateaus. These landforms range from a few meters to over 100 m in diameter, their depth generally varying from a few meters to a few tens of meters. A pronounced ecological gradient can be found from the bottom to the top, starting from humid, cool and shaded bottoms to sunny, dry and warm slopes and tops. We sampled dolines of various depths and analyzed the distribution of plant species on the gradient and how this distribution is reflected in plant traits: chorotypes, life forms, plant architecture and strategies. We used the transect method and sampled the floristic composition from the doline bottom to the top. We collected information about plant traits from various literature sources. The results show life forms and plant architecture explain this gradient well and, to a lesser extent, also chorotypes, but functional strategies have a low explanatory power. Life forms and plant architecture are the result of adaptation of species to the environment, and chorotypes are defined as species with an overlapping geographical distribution pattern due to their distribution and environmental histories. Functional strategies, which have evolved to enable plants to succeed in various environments, unexpectedly have a low explanatory power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain areas are very often considered to be biodiversity hotspots. Rocks are one of the most unique habitats and serve as a suitable biotope for many endemic and specialized plant species. Here we present the results of the vegetation studies conducted in central and eastern Pamir-Alai and the south-western Tian Shan mountains in 2013‒2019. Based on 334 phytosociological relevés we propose a synopsis of the rock communities of the montane and colline zones of eastern Middle Asia. As a result of our research, we distinguish 17 communities defined into five groups of petrophytic vegetation within the Caricion koshewnikowii alliance. We describe 11 new associations: Feruletum bucharicae, Scrophularietum glabellae, Asperulo albiflorae–Kafirniganietum hissaricae, Scutellarietum immaculatae, Campanuletum eugeniae, Silenetum kuschakewiczii, Rosularietum platyphyllae, Spireaetum pilosae, Silenetum lithophilae, Campanuletum albertii, and Rhinactinidietum limoniifoliae. Distinctiveness of environmental conditions together with the species composition of the phytocoenoses within the montane and colline belts of eastern Middle and Central Asia make the investigated vegetation among those with the highest specific diversity and richness of endemisms in the whole area. The main factors that determine the species composition of the investigated vegetation seem to be phytogeography, altitude, bedrock type, and exposition. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2021.1922531. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The increasing availability of regional and global climate data presents an opportunity to build better ecological models; however, it is not always clear which climate dataset is most appropriate. The aim of this study was to better understand the impacts that alternative climate datasets have on the modelled distribution of plant species, and to develop systematic approaches to enhancing their use in species distribution models (SDMs). Location: Victoria, southeast Australia and the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Methods: We compared the statistical performance of SDMs for 38 plant species in Victoria and 12 plant species in Bhutan with multiple algorithms using globally and regionally calibrated climate datasets. Individual models were compared against one another and as SDM ensembles to explore the potential for alternative predictions to improve statistical performance. We develop two new spatially continuous metrics that support the interpretation of ensemble predictions by characterizing the per‐pixel congruence and variability of contributing models. Results: There was no clear consensus on which climate dataset performed best across all species in either study region. On average, multi‐model ensembles (across the same species with different climate data) increased AUC/TSS/Kappa/OA by up to 0.02/0.03/0.03/0.02 in Victoria and 0.06/0.11/0.11/0.05 in Bhutan. Ensembles performed better than most single models in both Victoria (AUC = 85%; TSS = 68%) and Bhutan (AUC = 86%; TSS = 69%). SDM ensembles using models fitted with alternative algorithms and/or climate datasets each provided a significant improvement over single model runs. Main conclusions: Our results demonstrate that SDM ensembles, built using alternative models of the same climate variables, can quantify model congruence and identify regions of the highest uncertainty while mitigating the risk of erroneous predictions. Algorithm selection is known to be a large source of error for SDMs, and our results demonstrate that climate dataset selection can be a comparably significant source of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) assume that all ecologically relevant predictor variables are included. This assumption is frequently violated in SDMs of plant species, as soil variables are rarely included. Here, we used in‐situ, soil geochemical variables along with more commonly used topo‐climatic and remotely sensed variables to create SDMs of understorey plant species. We evaluated whether the potential importance of soil variables is greater than generally described in SDM literature, which predictors are most important, and whether a standard subset of predictors can be used to effectively model all species. Location: Northern Appalachian Mountains. Taxon Vascular, forest understorey plants. Methods: We fit models for the presence of 41 forest understorey plant species across 158 plots using soil, topographic and spectral predictors. Results: Models containing all three predictor types performed best. Soil and topographic variables had comparable importance; spectral variables were of lesser importance. The best predictor variable was B horizon carbon to nitrogen ratio (B C:N), followed by topographic position index, elevation and B horizon exchangeable calcium (B Ca). A standard subset of variables did not effectively model all species. Main conclusions Our results and those of other SDMs that include in‐situ soil geochemical data suggest that soil variables are increasingly important with more detailed descriptions of soils. Soil fertility data, such as B C:N and B Ca, are particularly important in acidic, forest soils where pH is a poor indicator of fertility. Commonly used topo‐climatic variables provide meaningful predictions but are limited by their use of indirect predictor variables, inhibiting transferability and interpretability. The poor performance of a standard subset of variables highlights the uniqueness of each species' niche and the need to have a variety of predictor variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines species composition, diversity and plant community distribution along environmental gradients of Tulu Lafto Forest (here after called TLF) in Horo Guduru Wollega Zone of Oromia National Regional State, western Ethiopia. Seventy-five quadrats of 400 m2 were systematically laid following altitudinal gradient. A complete list of trees, shrubs, lianas and herbs including vascular epiphytes were made from each quadrat. Environmental variables including soil samples were collected, recorded and analyzed for each quadrat. In the forest, 230 plant species belonging to 188 genera and 79 families were identified. Out of these, 16 species are endemic to the flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea and 56 were new records for Wollega (WG) floristic region. Asteraceae and Fabaceae are the top species rich plant families. Cluster analysis and ordination methods identified 3 plant community types mainly influenced by topographic, edaphic and anthropogenic factors. TLF exhibited an intermediate A fromontane type suggesting the need to revise the existing vegetation classification in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Climate change is occurring at accelerated rates in high latitude regions such as Alaska, causing alterations in woody plant growth and associated ecosystem patterns and processes. Our aim is to assess the magnitude and speed that climate‐induced changes in woody plant distribution and volume may be reduced and/or slowed by relatively static landscape features like physical characteristics (e.g. depth to gravel, mineral cover percent and slope degree) and/or edaphic properties (e.g. soil organic matter, soil pH and site wetness rating) that resist climate‐vegetation responses. Location: We leveraged a large field data set collected across a network of Alaskan national parks, which allows for comprehensive spatial data analysis over a uniquely large spatial extent. Methods: To learn about the conditions that may either impede or accelerate vegetation changes in northern Alaska, we used a Bayesian hierarchical model to identify which landscape features may decelerate change or offer refuge for plant species. Our model quantifies the contribution of fast ('dynamic') versus slow ('static') changing variables to predict plant volume and categorize landscape types into either robust or nonrobust to climate changes. Results: We found that two landscape features, low soil wetness and low soil organic matter comprising 63.1% of sites in the data set, were the most likely landscape features to inhibit vegetation expansion. We also found that fewer numbers of sites have the potential to offer refuge to existing plant species (5.43% on average) because few sites had high soil wetness as a landscape feature. Main conclusions: Our analyses highlight the importance of incorporating static covariates representing landscape resistance to vegetation change for improving realism in forecasts of vegetation change in Alaska. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Cities are heterogeneous landscapes, composed of different urban uses with diverse histories. A thorough description of these urban landscapes is required to understand ecological patterns, particularly concerning high-stakes species such as invasive alien plants (IAP) which are abundant in cities. Objectives: We assessed the effects of urban uses and linear structural elements on the distributions of seven IAP in a medium-sized French city (Blois). We examined how the relative contributions of these variables vary between three spatial scales of analysis (100 m, 200 m and 400 m) and three urban classifications. Methods: We characterized the use and age of urban neighborhoods through three classifications with different levels of details and described road and rail networks of Blois. We analyzed their effects on the distribution of seven invasive plants recorded throughout the whole city using GLM models. Results: Urban use was the most significant variable in explaining IAP distribution. This variable was especially important at the finest spatial scale which allowed a detailed urban classification. Individual residential neighborhoods of different ages explained the distribution of Buddleja davidii, Berberis aquifolium and Acer negundo, whereas industrial areas explained Ailanthus altissima distribution. The effects of linear structural elements were lower and differed between species. Conclusions: We show that combining fine-scale spatial analyses with detailed characterization of urban use diversity is critical to understanding ecological patterns at the city scale. Investigating planting choices and dispersal process of IAP could complete our results. Urban descriptions based on explicit urban forms could also contribute to understanding species distribution in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We review the consequences of environmental changes caused by human activities on forest products and forest-dependent communities in the Amazon region—the vast Amazonas River basin and the Guiana Shield in South America. We used the 2018 and 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and recent scientific studies to present evidence and hypotheses for changes in the ecosystem productivity and geographical distribution of plants species. We have identified species associated with highly employed forest products exhibiting reducing populations, mainly linked with deforestation and selective logging. Changes in species composition along with a decline of valuable species have been observed in the eastern, central, and southern regions of the Brazilian Amazon, suggesting accelerated biodiversity loss. Over 1 billion native trees and palms are being lost every two years, causing economic losses estimated between US$1–17 billion. A decrease in native plant species can be abrupt and both temporary or persistent for over 20 years, leading to reduced economic opportunities for forest-dependent communities. Science and technology investments are considered promising in implementing agroforestry systems recovering deforested and degraded lands, which could engage companies that use forest products due to supply chain advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and other global change drivers threaten plant diversity in mountains worldwide. A widely documented response to such environmental modifications is for plant species to change their elevational ranges. Range shifts are often idiosyncratic and difficult to generalize, partly due to variation in sampling methods. There is thus a need for a standardized monitoring strategy that can be applied across mountain regions to assess distribution changes and community turnover of native and non‐native plant species over space and time. Here, we present a conceptually intuitive and standardized protocol developed by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) to systematically quantify global patterns of native and non‐native species distributions along elevation gradients and shifts arising from interactive effects of climate change and human disturbance. Usually repeated every five years, surveys consist of 20 sample sites located at equal elevation increments along three replicate roads per sampling region. At each site, three plots extend from the side of a mountain road into surrounding natural vegetation. The protocol has been successfully used in 18 regions worldwide from 2007 to present. Analyses of one point in time already generated some salient results, and revealed region‐specific elevational patterns of native plant species richness, but a globally consistent elevational decline in non‐native species richness. Non‐native plants were also more abundant directly adjacent to road edges, suggesting that disturbed roadsides serve as a vector for invasions into mountains. From the upcoming analyses of time series, even more exciting results can be expected, especially about range shifts. Implementing the protocol in more mountain regions globally would help to generate a more complete picture of how global change alters species distributions. This would inform conservation policy in mountain ecosystems, where some conservation policies remain poorly implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering methods based on environmental variables are useful in the planning of conservation strategies for species and ecosystems. However, there is a lack of work on the regionalization of the vast space of North Africa and the distribution of plant species. The current lists of endemic plants are focused mostly on an occurrence at the country level and not on regions with different conditions. The aim of this work was to lay out an environmental scheme for northwest Africa and to collect data about the occurrence of endemic plants in this area. Clustering with 12 of 33 tested environmental rasters was performed to divide the Maghreb into environmental clusters. Then, a list of 1618 endemic plant taxa (1243 species and 375 subspecies) was prepared and their distribution in estimated environmental clusters was examined. Eleven clusters with different conditions were estimated. The main drivers of regionalization were temperature amplitude, precipitation seasonality, and precipitation of the warmest quarter. According to the occurrence of endemic plants, northwest Africa may be divided into three zones: Atlas, Mediterranean (two environmental clusters), and southern zone (eight environmental clusters). The presented results provide a good basis for understanding the spatial patterns of the Maghreb, including its environment and species diversity. A designed list of endemic plant species together with environmental data may facilitate the planning of future research in north Africa and arranging methods of biodiversity protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The whole‐plant economics spectrum (PES) refers to the trade‐offs among the many plant functional traits that are commonly used as indicators of major adaptive strategies, thereby providing insights into plant distributions, ecosystem processes and evolution. However, there are few studies of what may be called the whole‐PES that integrates bark, wood and leaf functional traits for different leaf types and growth habits (evergreen vs. deciduous species).To address this gap in our knowledge, 6 bark traits, 7 wood traits (including mechanical support and nutrient transport characteristics) and 12 leaf traits (including chemical, structural and physiological characteristics) of 59 representative subtropical woody species were examined using principal component analysis (PCA) to determine PES strategies.The economics spectra of bark (BES), wood (WES) and leaves (LES), and the entire PES indicated that major traits represent resource acquisition strategies and conservation strategies clustering on the opposite ends of the PCA axis. A significant correlation was observed among the 25 functional traits. The data indicated that N and P nutrient levels were at the hub of BES, WES, LES and PES interrelationships. Evergreen and deciduous species had different WES and LES, and thus PES resource acquisition strategies. With the exception of the BES, evergreen species clustered on the conservative side, whereas deciduous species clustered on the acquisitive side.Synthesis. The PES presented here informs our understanding of whole‐plant responses to environmental differences, particularly regarding the role of N and P traits at the whole‐plant level. It also reveals and further supports the notion that evergreen and deciduous species, respectively, manifest conservative and acquisitive strategies, further informing our understanding of species biodiversity maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understand the role of the drivers in vegetation pattern is essential in ecology since diversity plays a major role in the stability and maintenance of plant communities. The murundus are small and scattered earthmounds with a differentiated flora of its surrounding. In our study site (Campo Maior, Piauí, Northeastern Brazil), we classified them in three categories: presence of carnaúba (PC), presence of tucum (PT), and with the absence of palm trees (AP). Here, our goals were (1) to explore alpha diversity using the richness estimator and abundance distribution rank, expecting that palm trees could influence the richness of plant species on murundus; (2) analyzing the species richness-area relationship in the murundus, following the assumptions that the largest one holds more species; (3) find the changes in the species composition (beta diversity) between the three categories of murundus, assuming which the presence of palm trees influence the species composition; and (4) investigate if the distance between murundus is a decisive factor in the species composition, where the closest murundus are the most similar in species composition. Ours results showed that palms trees do not influence the richness of the murundus, the largest murundus are the richest ones, and the turnover predominantly determines beta diversity in the different murundus categories. Furthermore, the distance between the murundus did not determine its floristic similarity. Overall, we demonstrated which the species of palm trees are not the main drive of the plant assemblage in the murundus, however its size comprises a major factor in the richness, with great species substitution, which explains the high plant diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the current knowledge of flora in North Macedonia, Ramonda nathaliae Pančić & Petrović is present in some localities along the mouths of the River Vardar. New localities of spread of this species were discovered several years ago, near the village of Cerovo and in Karpallak. During the ongoing research of Ramonda nathaliae Pančić & Petrović, in North Macedonia, another new locality, was recognized which represents a new record of distribution of this species in the flora of North Macedonia. Examine specimens: on steep rocky terrain: 364 m, 41° 58' N, 21° 11' E, May 2022, in Laskartsi, Municipality of Zelino. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]