1. Global fern and lycophyte richness explained: How regional and local factors shape plot richness
- Author
-
Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Stefan Abrahamczyk, Marcus Lehnert, Peter B. Reich, Jürgen Kluge, Jonathan Lenoir, Holger Kreft, Sylvia Haider, César I. Carvajal-Hernández, Sarah Noben, Phyo Kay Khine, Thorsten Krömer, Daniela Aros-Mualin, Gabriela Zuquim, Anna Weigand, Hanna Tuomisto, Jürgen Dengler, Greg R. Guerin, Luis G. Quintanilla, Claudia Bita-Nicolae, Gabriel M. Moulatlet, Ute Jandt, Laura Salazar, Ingrid Olivares, André Luís de Gasper, Helge Bruelheide, Lucas Costa, Libertad Silva-Mijangos, János Csiky, Isabelle Aubin, Michael Kessler, Johan Reyes-Chávez, Daniele Cicuzza, Adriana Hernández-Rojas, Patrick Weigelt, Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés - UMR CNRS 7058 (EDYSAN), and Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Range (biology) ,[SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes ,[SDV.BID]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,Big data ,Pteridophytes ,Macroecology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,030304 developmental biology ,[SDV.EE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment ,0303 health sciences ,Ecology ,biology ,Vegetation ,Regional-local richness relationship ,15. Life on land ,biology.organism_classification ,Saturation curves ,Pteridophyta ,580: Pflanzen (Botanik) ,Geography ,Taxon ,Structural equation modelling ,Species richness ,Fern ,[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology - Abstract
Aim: To disentangle the influence of environmental factors at different spatial grains (regional and local) on fern and lycophyte species richness and ask how regional and plot-level richness are related to each other. Location: Global. Time period: Present. Major Taxa studied: Ferns and lycophytes. Methods: We explored fern and lycophyte species richness at two spatial grains, regional (hexagonal grid cells of 7,666 km2) and plot level (300–500 m2), in relation to environmental data at regional and local grains (the 7,666 km2 hexagonal grid cells and 4 km2 square grid cells, respectively). For the regional grain, we obtained species richness data for 1,243 spatial units and used them together with climatic and topographical predictors to model global fern richness. For the plot-level grain, we collated a global dataset of nearly 83,000 vegetation plots with a surface area in the range 300–500 m2 in which all fern and lycophyte species had been counted. We used structural equation modelling to identify which regional and local factors have the biggest effect on plot-level fern and lycophyte species richness worldwide. We investigate how plot-level richness is related to modelled regional richness at the plot's location. Results: Plot-level fern and lycophyte species richness were best explained by models allowing a link between regional environment and plot-level richness. A link between regional richness and plot-level richness was essential, as models without it were rejected, while models without the regional environment-plot-level richness link were still valid but had a worse goodness-of-fit value. Plot-level richness showed a hump-shaped relationship with regional richness. Main conclusions: Regional environment and regional fern and lycophyte species richness each are important determinants of plot-level richness, and the inclusion of one does not substitute the inclusion of the other. Plot-level richness increases with regional richness until a saturation point is reached, after which plot-level richness decreases despite increasing regional richness, possibly reflecting species interactions.
- Published
- 2020