Changes in species richness of vascular plants under climate and solar radiation in the Middle Volga River region (Russia)

Abstract

Specially protected natural conservation areas in the Middle Volga River region serve to preserve both rare and endangered species and the entire biotic complex, including typical floristic communities of vascular plants. We have identified 25 sites, 100 km2 each, where the flora is represented in full the most. We studied the relationships between the general species richness (SR) and the richness of particular life forms (LF) of vascular plants with climate and relief using multiple regression methods. Our study shows that the special function of March precipitation is the factor that influences the most the spatial change of the SR and LF. When increasing the precipitation in the model by only 1 mm, this leads to a decrease in the number of species by 7.1%. Winter precipitation and temperature are important factors as well; together they are responsible for 70-82% of the SR variation. These close links made it possible to develop the maps of the species richness of the study area. The SR model did not include solar radiation, one of the most important environmental factors, as a significant predictor. This factor was omitted due to the analysis of the number of species of particular LF, which showed the maximum illumination of the slopes as a highly significant factor for number of them. The two dominant LFs (hemicryptophytes and therophytes), which account for 73% of the total number of species, depend oppositely on the illumination. This fact indicates a decrease in competition between LFs due to their separation in space, since hemicryptophytes, in contrast to therophytes, predominate on well-illuminated slopes. In addition, opposite LF responses lead to omitting of illumination factor from the SR model for all species in the region.