Abstract
Fine-scale topographic complexity creates important microclimates that can facilitate species to grow outside their main distributional range and increase biodiversity locally. Enclosed depressions in karst landscapes (‘dolines’) are topographically complex environments which produce microclimates that are drier and warmer (equator-facing slopes) and cooler and moister (pole-facing slopes and depression bottoms) than the surrounding climate. We show that the distribution patterns of functional groups for organisms in two different phyla, Arthropoda (ants) and Tracheophyta (vascular plants), mirror this variation of microclimate. We found that north-facing slopes and bottoms of solution dolines in northern Hungary provided key habitats for ant and plant species associated with cooler and/or moister conditions. Contrarily, south-facing slopes of dolines provided key habitats for species associated with warmer and/or drier conditions. Species occurring on the surrounding plateau were associated with intermediate conditions. We conclude that karst dolines provide a diversity of microclimatic habitats that may facilitate the persistence of taxa with diverse environmental preferences, indicating these dolines to be potential safe havens for multiple phyla under local and global climate oscillations.
Highlights
Environmental heterogeneity is often positively related to biodiversity[1,2,3,4]
Daytime relative humidity was usually higher on north-facing slopes (RHd = 68.2%) than in bottoms (RHd = 65.2%), on south-facing slopes (RHd = 51.7%) and on the plateau (RHd = 55.1%)
Karst dolines are topographically complex environments that provide a variety of microhabitats
Summary
Environmental heterogeneity is often positively related to biodiversity[1,2,3,4]. Topography and biological structures can create microhabitats with unique microclimates[5,6,7], which species may depend on for survival[8,9]. Topographic complexity can create habitats that remain environmentally more stable through time, even as regional climate changes Such habitats may facilitate the persistence of biodiversity and are known as refugia[14,15,16]. A number of studies indicate that dolines may play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity They harbour unique taxa that are rare or absent in the surrounding areas (e.g. endemic and relict species)[40,41,42] and are characterised by high plant, genetic and habitat diversity[43,44,45,46]. Documenting the distribution of both cool- and warm-adapted taxa with respect to microclimate inside and adjacent to dolines may help us to better understand the potential of dolines to function as microrefugia
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