A comparison of biological characteristics and distribution between Swedish threatened and non‐threatened forest vascular plants

• Published in: Ecography
• Main Author: Gustafsson, Lena
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1994
• Subjects: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.1994.tb00075.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0587.1994.tb00075.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0587.1994.tb00075.x

Threatened (n = 59) and non‐threatened (n = 308) Swedish forest vascular plant taxa were compared with regard to a number of variables, including distribution, site factors taxonomy, morphology and flowering time A majority of the threatened taxa occur in the southern deciduous woodlands, which only constitute c 0.5% of the total forested area in Sweden There are considerably more threatened taxa in southern than in northern Sweden, a consequence of the successively higher number of forest vascular plants from the north towards the south Threatened taxa grow in forests with significantly higher soil fertility than non‐threatened taxa Significant differences were also revealed regarding light conditions, soil water conditions and month of flowering Threatened taxa grow on soils with significantly higher pH and also with slightly more available nitrogen than non‐threatened taxa, as measured with Ellenberg indicator values Forest stands on fertile soils are uncommon in Sweden and they are also very species‐rich Soil‐type rarity in combination with high species diversity in these soil types thus partly explain why taxa are included in the Swedish Red data list