Abstract
In fragmented landscapes, plant species richness may depend not only on local habitat conditions but also on landscape structure. In addition, both present and past landscape structure may be important for species richness. There are, however, only a few studies that have investigated the relative importance of all of these factors. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of current and past landscape structures and habitat conditions on species richness at dry grassland-like forest openings in a forested landscape and to assess their relative importance for species richness. We analyzed information on past and present landscape structures using aerial photographs from 1938, 1973, 1988, 2000 and 2007. We calculated the area of each locality and its isolation in the present and in the past and the continuity of localities in GIS. At each locality, we recorded all vascular plant species (296 species in 110 forest openings) and information on abiotic conditions of the localities. We found that the current species richness of the forest openings was significantly determined by local habitat conditions as well as by landscape structure in the present and in the past. The highest species richness was observed on larger and more heterogeneous localities with rocks and shallow soils, which were already large and well connected to other localities in 1938. The changes in the landscape structure in the past can thus have strong effects on current species richness. Future studies attempting to understand determinants of species diversity in fragmented landscapes should also include data on past landscape structure, as it may in fact be more important than the present structure.
Highlights
At the landscape level, the distribution and dynamics of plant species are determined by local habitat conditions and by landscape structure and its changes over time [1,2]
We did not sample any of the protected vascular plant species or perform any experiments with them
The Study System The study was performed in the Protected Landscape Area and Biosphere Reserve Krivoklatsko in the Czech Republic, at the Site of Community Importance (SCI) Tyrov (49u589100 N, 13u489400 E) (Figure 1)
Summary
The distribution and dynamics of plant species are determined by local habitat conditions and by landscape structure and its changes over time [1,2]. As a consequence of landscape fragmentation, numerous species populations are becoming small and isolated. Reduced connectivity between the patches can limit the spread of the species due to the increasing distance or presence of barriers between patches and lead to a lower possibility of recolonization of those patches [11,12]. All of these processes can result in a reduced habitat species richness. To understand the importance of landscape structure changes for species richness, we need to separate these effects from other factors driving the species richness of a habitat
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