Spatial patterns of association at local and regional scales in coastal sand dune communities

Abstract

AbstractQuestions: Are positive understorey‐dominant associations important in physically severe dune communities and does the strength of positive associations vary with disturbance at the local scale and with stress at the regional scale? Do associational patterns observed at the neighbourhood scale predict diversity at higher scales?Location: Coastal sand dunes, Aquitaine (France).Methods: Associational patterns with five dominant species were recorded along a local gradient of disturbance and a 240‐km long regional gradient. Density, richness, cover and variance ratio of understorey species were recorded in quadrats located in dominant and in open areas. Spatial pattern of dominant plant species was recorded using a distance‐based method.Results: Positive understorey‐dominant associations were most frequent at both regional and local scale, although negative associations with understorey species were observed for one of the five dominants. At the regional scale, there was a shift in the magnitude of spatial associations, with higher positive associations in the most stressful sites, whereas spatial associations where not affected by the local disturbance gradient. Positive associations were not related to the size of the dominants but rather influenced by the identity of the dominant species.Conclusions: Our study highlights the potential crucial role of facilitation together with the importance of turnover of the dominants in explaining large‐scale variation in diversity. However, because positive associations may also be attributed to environmental heterogeneity or co‐occurrence of microhabitat preferences of species, experiments are needed to fully assess the relative importance of facilitation versus other drivers of community diversity.