Abstract
Freshwaters are currently one of the most threatened habitats and many studies have focused on their plant species diversity. However, information regarding the contribution of various waterbody types to macrophyte diversity is either lacking or focused on Western Europe. Thus, we decided to study the species diversity of four waterbody types (rivers, streams, canals and ponds) in a model area located in two distinct bioregions (the Western Carpathian and the Pannonian) in Central Europe. We sampled altogether 100 localities (25 per waterbody type) situated along a 400 km-long watercourse of the Vah river. Local (alpha), among-site (beta) and regional (gamma) diversity were analysed. The results showed that the highest species number at local and regional level was found in ponds and canals. Streams are habitats with the lowest local and regional diversity, and the lowest number of red-list and unique species. However, none of the used diversity measures showed statistically significant difference among habitat types. Thus, we can state that all waterbody types contribute to macrophyte diversity to a comparable degree at the broad-scale level in the Central European landscape.
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