Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation
Aims: Chionophilous vegetation (i.e. snowbed vegetation and chionophilous grasslands) hosts relict arctic-alpine species, among which snowbed specialists, that find their southernmost limit in the Iberian Peninsula, where they are especially threatened by climate change. Our aims were to identify th...
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ftubarcepubl:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/194322 2024-02-11T10:01:33+01:00 Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation Illa Bachs, Estela Pérez Haase, Aaron Brufau, Rainer Font i Castell, Xavier 2023-02-28T09:50:17Z 13 p. application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2445/194322 eng eng Wiley Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12701 Applied Vegetation Science, 2022, vol. 24, p. e12701 Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals) https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12701 1402-2001 http://hdl.handle.net/2445/194322 730942 cc by (c) Illa Bachs, Estela, 2022 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Neu Vegetació Biodiversitat Snow Vegetation Biodiversity info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2023 ftubarcepubl https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12701 2024-01-24T01:19:38Z Aims: Chionophilous vegetation (i.e. snowbed vegetation and chionophilous grasslands) hosts relict arctic-alpine species, among which snowbed specialists, that find their southernmost limit in the Iberian Peninsula, where they are especially threatened by climate change. Our aims were to identify the main Iberian chionophilous vegetation groups, and analyse their plant diversity patterns and their role as refugia for snowbed glacial relicts, as well as that of Iberian high-mountain regions. Location: Iberian high mountains. Methods: We used the beta-flexible clustering method to classify 1002 vegetation relevés of Iberian chionophilous vegetation, and computed species Indicator Values and frequencies for the resulting groups. We performed a Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) ordination of the relevés, and fitted six climatic variables to reveal the main ecological gradients. We constructed rarefaction curves to compare species richness between vegetation groups and between mountain regions. Results: We obtained eight vegetation groups, four consisting of snowbed vegetation and four of chionophilous grasslands. All but one group were present in the Pyrenees, where snowbed specialist richness was the highest. In southern and central Iberian ranges, snowbed vegetation was extremely scarce, and the main vegetation group corresponded to cryoromediterranean grasslands, where both species and specialist richness were the lowest. Snowbed and northern Iberian grassland groups accounted for similar high specialist richness, although specialists were infrequent and scarce at relevé level in these grasslands. Conclusions: Despite the set of specialised species that thrive in snowbeds, many of them are also present but scarce in northern Iberian chionophilous grasslands. In a future scenario with a high reduction of snow cover duration, which may entail the disappearance of many snowbed vegetation patches, northern Iberian chionophilous grasslands may act as terminal refugia for snowbed specialists. Nevertheless, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona Arctic Applied Vegetation Science 25 4 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona |
op_collection_id |
ftubarcepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Neu Vegetació Biodiversitat Snow Vegetation Biodiversity |
spellingShingle |
Neu Vegetació Biodiversitat Snow Vegetation Biodiversity Illa Bachs, Estela Pérez Haase, Aaron Brufau, Rainer Font i Castell, Xavier Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation |
topic_facet |
Neu Vegetació Biodiversitat Snow Vegetation Biodiversity |
description |
Aims: Chionophilous vegetation (i.e. snowbed vegetation and chionophilous grasslands) hosts relict arctic-alpine species, among which snowbed specialists, that find their southernmost limit in the Iberian Peninsula, where they are especially threatened by climate change. Our aims were to identify the main Iberian chionophilous vegetation groups, and analyse their plant diversity patterns and their role as refugia for snowbed glacial relicts, as well as that of Iberian high-mountain regions. Location: Iberian high mountains. Methods: We used the beta-flexible clustering method to classify 1002 vegetation relevés of Iberian chionophilous vegetation, and computed species Indicator Values and frequencies for the resulting groups. We performed a Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) ordination of the relevés, and fitted six climatic variables to reveal the main ecological gradients. We constructed rarefaction curves to compare species richness between vegetation groups and between mountain regions. Results: We obtained eight vegetation groups, four consisting of snowbed vegetation and four of chionophilous grasslands. All but one group were present in the Pyrenees, where snowbed specialist richness was the highest. In southern and central Iberian ranges, snowbed vegetation was extremely scarce, and the main vegetation group corresponded to cryoromediterranean grasslands, where both species and specialist richness were the lowest. Snowbed and northern Iberian grassland groups accounted for similar high specialist richness, although specialists were infrequent and scarce at relevé level in these grasslands. Conclusions: Despite the set of specialised species that thrive in snowbeds, many of them are also present but scarce in northern Iberian chionophilous grasslands. In a future scenario with a high reduction of snow cover duration, which may entail the disappearance of many snowbed vegetation patches, northern Iberian chionophilous grasslands may act as terminal refugia for snowbed specialists. Nevertheless, ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Illa Bachs, Estela Pérez Haase, Aaron Brufau, Rainer Font i Castell, Xavier |
author_facet |
Illa Bachs, Estela Pérez Haase, Aaron Brufau, Rainer Font i Castell, Xavier |
author_sort |
Illa Bachs, Estela |
title |
Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation |
title_short |
Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation |
title_full |
Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation |
title_fullStr |
Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Living on the edge: Plant diversity in the Iberian chionophilous vegetation |
title_sort |
living on the edge: plant diversity in the iberian chionophilous vegetation |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2445/194322 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change |
op_relation |
Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12701 Applied Vegetation Science, 2022, vol. 24, p. e12701 Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals) https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12701 1402-2001 http://hdl.handle.net/2445/194322 730942 |
op_rights |
cc by (c) Illa Bachs, Estela, 2022 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12701 |
container_title |
Applied Vegetation Science |
container_volume |
25 |
container_issue |
4 |
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1790597345595883520 |