Local Plant Diversity Research Articles

Caring to know a name: An examination of New York City student attitudes towards knowing a tree's name

Societal Impact StatementAs the world becomes more urbanized, people place less value on knowing the biodiversity that surrounds them. Engagement with trees is hindered by an additional barrier, plant blindness, the tendency of people to ignore plants entirely. To help educators make tree diversity learning meaningful to students, this research aims to understand whether observing trees improves student dispositions towards knowing and observing trees, whether positive dispositions improve student learning about trees, and the reasons why urban middle school students care or do not care to know tree names.Summary To improve student engagement with local plant diversity, we developed a curriculum for New York City (NYC) students (Grades 6–8, ages 11–14) to help them scientifically observe the trees they pass daily. This study reports results from preassessments/postassessments that explore students' dispositions towards knowing and observing trees and how these dispositions relate to learning. Participants included 150 intervention and 100 comparison students. In addition, 19 students were interviewed at three different time points. Findings indicate that a tree observation and identification curriculum positively influenced students' dispositions towards knowing and observing trees, but 6 months after implementation, student interest had returned near to where it had begun. In addition, socioeconomic status had little impact on students' dispositions, and no relationship was found between dispositions and learning. Findings also show that as a baseline, about 25% of students care about knowing a tree's name. We grouped the reasons students provided into 17 categories, 10 for caring and 7 for not caring. The most frequently stated categories for caring were liking to know, knowing a name helps me know more, and knowing a tree's name helps me know my surroundings. The most stated categories for not caring were that knowing a tree's name is unimportant for my day‐to‐day life and all trees look the same. Student reasons for caring and not caring are a compelling guide to the difficult task of making trees meaningful for students, an important step for empowering students to learn more about the trees that surround them.

Vascular epiphytes contribute disproportionately to global centres of plant diversity

AbstractAimVascular epiphytes are ubiquitous components of wet tropical forests where they contribute substantially to local and regional plant diversity. While some basic epiphyte distribution patterns are relatively well studied, little effort has been made to understand the drivers responsible for constraining their global distribution. This study quantifies the substantial contribution of epiphytes to global gradients and centres of vascular plant diversity and explores whether epiphytes vary from terrestrial plants in relation to contemporary and historical environmental variables.LocationGlobal.Time periodPresent.Major taxa studiedTracheophyta.MethodsUsing a comprehensive epiphyte species list (EpiList 1.0), and distribution information for 27,850 epiphyte species derived from numerous literature sources, we describe the global biogeography of epiphytes. We use generalized linear mixed effects models to assess the relationship between epiphytic and terrestrial plant diversity, and contemporary and historical environmental predictors.ResultsEpiphytes substantially contribute to global centres of vascular plant diversity, accounting for up to 39% of the vascular flora in Neotropical regions. Epiphytes decrease in species numbers with increasing latitude at a rate three times faster than terrestrial plants, a trend that is driven mainly by the distribution of tropical forests and precipitation. Further, large regional differences emerge that are explained by several large endemic angiosperm families (e.g., Neotropical Bromeliaceae) that are absent in other tropical regions.Main conclusionsOur results show that epiphytes are disproportionately diverse in most global centres of plant diversity and play an important role in driving the global latitudinal diversity gradient for plants. The distribution of precipitation and tropical forest area emerge as major drivers of the latitudinal diversity gradient in epiphyte species richness. Finally, our findings demonstrate how epiphyte floras in different biogeographical realms are composed of different families and higher taxa, revealing an important signature of historical biogeography.

Anthills: stressor or opportunity for plant assemblage diversity? Evidence from Mediterranean Dasypyretum grasslands

We explored the structure of plant assemblages that settles around the anthills of a guild of Hymenoptera Formicidae (Messor wasmanni Krausse 1910, Tapinoma nigerrimum Nylander 1856 and Aphaenogaster spinosa Emery 1878), observable in urban grasslands dominated by Dasypyrum villosum (Rome, Central Italy). Since it is known that ants act as a disturbing factor on plant assemblages of grasslands, our hypothesis was that vegetation structures suffer from some stressorsthat affect, in this plant association, the dominant plant structure. We compared the plant assemblages observed in the plots of the anthills with the control grassland assemblages using a diversity/dominance diagram. We recorded 63 plant taxa. The average number of plant species was found to be significantly lower in anthill plots than in control grassland plots. In anthill plots, dominant plant species (Polygonum romanum, Poa trivialis Vulpia myuros, Aira elegantissima and Vulpia ligustica) have been found to be different from control grassland plots (Convolvolus arvensis, Dasypyrum villosum, Poa trivialis and Sheradia arvensis). Anthill plant assemblages were found to be significantly different (One-way PERMANOVA) and poorer in terms of species richness, less diversified, and with a reduced species turnover than control grassland plots. Whittaker plot analysis seems to show that the plant assemblages of the control, with greater evenness, emphasize a stressed condition in anthill plant assemblages. Non-metric multidimensional scaling shows a set of species strictly linked to anthills. Our data seem to confirm the role of ants as a stressor in the plant assemblage structures of Mediterranean urban grasslands. However, our results also show that the peculiar ant nest conditions may favor plant species less represented in the Dasypyretum grasslands (i.e. Polygonum romanum) or even absent in this plant assemblage (i.e. Aira elegantissima, Cynodon dactylon and Poa annua), thus increasing the overall local plant diversity.

Benefits of increased cover crop diversity for predators and biological pest control depend on the landscape context

Abstract Increasing plant diversity in agricultural systems is a promising way to balance food production and biodiversity conservation. Biological pest control, a crucial ecosystem service delivered by natural enemies, could particularly benefit from increased plant diversity at the local scale. Such positive effects however often depend on the landscape context that shapes the pool of natural enemy species available and their ability to colonize newly created habitats. However, how the landscape context modulates the local effect of plant diversity on natural enemies and pest control services remains unclear. Here, we manipulated the diversity of cover crops (2 versus 20 plant species) in nine pairs of vineyards located along a landscape gradient ranging from 20 to 60% of semi‐natural habitats. We sampled natural enemy communities in the soil and foliage and measured the predation rate of an important moth pest in European vineyards (Lobesia botrana). Diverse cover crops enhanced the abundance of natural enemies by 140% across the experiment, but without changing their taxonomic richness and composition. We further found a distance‐decay effect of cover crops on natural enemy abundance across cover crop types. The landscape context remarkably modulated the effects of local plant diversity on natural enemy abundance and predation rates. While predation rates were on average similar in the low and high cover crop diversity treatments across the experiment, diverse cover crops had higher positive effects on predation and natural enemies in simple (<50% semi‐natural habitats) than complex landscapes. Predation rates increased from 11 to 42% in the high compared with low cover crop diversity treatments in simple landscapes. Synthesis and applications: Our study demonstrates the benefits of increasing plant diversity at the local scale to enhance the abundance of natural enemies as well as the level of biological pest control services in vineyard agroecosystems. Diverse cover crops mostly benefit natural enemies and biological pest control in simplified landscapes, highlighting that the success of local agroecological practices in improving biodiversity and ecosystem services depends on the landscape context. Thus, we suggest that a strategic spatial arrangement of agricultural practices increasing local plant diversity is necessary to maximize beneficial effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Residential sidewalk gardens and biological conservation in the cities: Motivations and preferences that guide the floristic composition of a little-explored space

Plant diversity in large cities has recently become a subject of intense biological research. Urban green spaces are widely acknowledged to improve people's quality of life. Unlike in wild areas, plants in urban ecosystems develop in spaces strongly managed by human activity and tend to form different compositions than the natural landscape. Under this scenario, would the motivations and preferences of urbanresidents make it possible to conserve a sample of the local diversity in these spaces? To answer this question, we apply a semistructured survey to 100 homes that have a residential sidewalk garden in Santiago de Chile. Our results show that these gardens are perceived as an essential part of the home and its environment. We recognized three groups of citizens, namely, a utilitarian group (19 %), native group (21 %) and neutral group (60 %). The utilitarian group prefers to grow useful plants, such as for medicine or food. The neutral group does not indicate a preference for particular attributes of plants, which could be an indicator of the extinction of the experience with nature. Most of the participants do not know the origin of the species they grow.However, even when knowledge of native flora is limited (X¯ = 0.96; max = 3.0), citizens recognize the intrinsic value of these species and would be willing to conserve them in their gardens (X¯ = 4.35; max = 7.0). This willingness is also motivated by the set of benefits provided by native plants (e.g., ornamental, ecological, structural or emotional). Greater knowledge of native flora in the native group can be attributed to familiarity; therefore, the presence of these species in residential sidewalk gardens could encourage preferences and decisions aimed at promoting the conservation of local plant diversity.

Plant community response to thinning and repeated fire in Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest understories

Fire suppression in the western United States has significantly altered forest composition and structure, resulting in a higher risk of stand-replacing fire, large-scale drought mortality, and bark beetle outbreaks. Mechanical thinning and prescribed fire are common treatments designed to reduce high-severity fire risk, but few studies have tracked long-term understory plant community response to these treatments with repeated fire application that emulates historic fire regimes. We evaluate changes in understory plant diversity and composition, as well as light availability, soil moisture, and litter depth over two decades following a factorial field experiment crossing thinning and two applications of prescribed fire at the Teakettle Experimental Forest (TEF) in the southern Sierra Nevada. We compare responses in experimental fuels treatments against those in nearby old-growth, mixed-conifer forests with restored low-severity fire regimes in Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. We hypothesized that 1) understory plant richness, evenness, and beta diversity would increase with each burn event; 2) repeated fire after initial thinning would produce the highest understory plant diversity; 3) the second burn would reduce shrub cover, especially in the initially thinned treatments that demonstrated vigorous Ceanothus cordulatus growth after initial treatments; 4) the second burn would increase light availability and bare ground while reducing litter depth; and 5) treatments with initial thinning followed by multiple prescribed burns would show the greatest similarities to reference forests in diversity metrics, shrub cover, and environmental conditions. Although initially local (10 m2-scale) understory plant richness and diversity increased most following thinning combined with prescribed fire, this treatment did not generate understory conditions similar to those in nearby reference forests over the long term. Vigorous shrub growth resulted in low understory evenness and beta diversity over time, which a secondary burn treatment did not alter. Burning without thinning retained a more heterogeneous understory following initial treatment. Two years after the second burn treatment, this burning without thinning resulted in high understory richness and evenness similar to reference forest understories. Our results suggest management treatments may need to focus on creating heterogeneity in burn effects to limit shrub cover and foster more diverse understory communities.

Differing severity of frugivore loss contrasts the fate of native forests on the land of the Dodo (Mascarene archipelago)

Frugivore loss has the potential to alter the regeneration of tropical hyperdiverse forests. However, no study has investigated tree diversity maintenance within old-growth protected forests on tropical oceanic islands where conservation stakes are considerable. In the Mascarenes, the largest frugivores including the Dodo went extinct after human colonization in the 17th century. Mauritius, today devoid of almost all its native habitats, retains an important population of flying foxes, while Réunion, largely covered by native habitats, has lost all but one of its native frugivores, a bulbul. Using census data of 130 woody species from 3-ha permanent plots from Mauritius (MAU-BF) and Réunion (REU-ML), we show that most fleshy-fruited species regenerate well at MAU-BF, in contrast to REU-ML, although large-seeded fleshy-fruited species regenerate poorly at both sites. The difference in recruitment is all the more striking because local woody plant diversity at MAU-BF is double that at REU-ML. Changes observed in the understory will probably lead to a strongly impoverished canopy at REU-ML, and to canopy shift composition at MAU-BF. Hence, the protected but highly fragmented forests on Mauritius are likely more resilient than those on Réunion usually considered best preserved within the ecoregion. Although processes other than seed dispersal might also be at work, flying foxes probably ensure effective dispersal of numerous native fleshy-fruited plants on Mauritius, contrary to only bulbuls on Réunion. To efficiently protect tropical rainforests on islands and continents alike, there is an urgent need to protect extant frugivores populations and reinstate seed dispersal function wherever necessary.

Traditional market, social relations, and diversity of edible plants traded in Beringharjo Market, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract. Iskandar BS, Iskandar J, Mulyanto D, Alfian RL, Suroso. 2021. Traditional market, social relations, and diversity of edible plants traded in Beringharjo Market, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 2012-2024. Although the modern markets have rapidly developed in many cities of Indonesia in the last decades, the urban traditional markets still exist in Indonesia, including Beringharjo Market, Yogyakarta. This study illustrated the story and social relation activities, biodiversity of edible plants traded, and market chain system of edible plant supplies from rural areas to Beringharjo Market. The study was conducted between February and March 2019. The method used in this study was qualitative data with an ethnobotanical approach. Some field techniques, including plant surveys and deep interviews with competent informants, were employed to collect the primary data. The result of this study showed that historically the economic activities of Beringharjo Market had been existing very a long time at least documented in 1758, while the market building was constructed by the Sultanate of Yogyakarta Palace, Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono VIII in 1925. Like other traditional markets in Indonesia, the Beringharjo Market has played an important role in developing local economic activities, as the main place for the transaction of various edible plants and meeting for many ethnics, making the important as center of biocultural diversity at the local level. An ethnobotanical survey revealed that 93 edible plant species belonging to 37 families with a total of 159 landraces were commonly traded. The Beringharjo Market has traditionally traded a high diversity of edible plants that are supplied from local farmers productions of Yogyakarta and Central Java. Therefore, this traditional market has an important role in enhancing local economic development and contributing to promoting and conserving local plant diversity in this region.

Traditional knowledge of edible plants in an indigenous community in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico

In this study, we documented traditional knowledge of edible plants in an indigenous community in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico and analyzed sociodemographic factors (age, education, and linguistic competence) that influence this knowledge. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 78 housewives during the dry and rainy seasons. The data were analyzed and the relative frequency of citation index (RFC) was calculated for each plant. The community uses 110 species of plants for food; 85 are cultivated, and 25 are collected. Milpas, coffee plantations, and home gardens, are the main spaces used for growing and harvesting food. The availability of the species is lower in the dry season than in the rainy season. 31% of edible species have medicinal uses. There is a high richness of quelites (36 sp. pl.). The wild species with the highest RFC were Cestrum nocturnum and Calceolaria mexicana. The age showed a positive relationship with traditional knowledge, while the level of education showed a negative relationship, and linguistic competence did not show relationship. The community has a high diversity of edible species, and the knowledge they preserve is essential for the conservation, use, and management of local plant diversity.

Synergistic impacts of anthropogenic fires and aridity on plant diversity in the Western Ghats: Implications for management of ancient social-ecological systems

Identifying the impacts of anthropogenic fires on biodiversity is imperative for human-influenced tropical rainforests because: i) these ecosystems have been transformed by human-induced fires for millennia; and ii) their effective management is essential for protecting the world's terrestrial biodiversity in the face of global environmental change. While several short-term studies elucidate the impacts of fires on local plant diversity, how plant diversity responds to fire regimes over long timescales (>100 years) is a significant knowledge gap, posing substantial impediment to evidence-based management of tropical social-ecological systems. Using wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats of India as a model system, we discuss the synergistic effects of anthropogenic fires and enhanced aridity on tropical plant diversity over the past 4000 years by examining fossil pollen-based diversity indices (e.g., pollen richness and evenness, and temporal β-diversity), past fire management, the intervals of enhanced aridity due to reduced monsoon rainfall and land use history. By developing a historical perspective, our aim is to provide region-specific management information for biodiversity conservation in the Western Ghats. We observe that the agroforestry landscape switches between periods of no fires (4000-1800 yr BP, and 1400-400 yr BP) and fires (1800-1400 yr BP, and 400-0 yr BP), with both fire periods concomitant with intervals of enhanced aridity. We find synergistic impacts of anthropogenic fires and aridity on plant diversity uneven across time, pointing towards varied land management strategies implemented by the contemporary societies. For example, during 1800–1400 yr BP, diversity reduced in conjunction with a significant decrease in the canopy cover related to sustained use of fires, possibly linked to large-scale intensification of agriculture. On the contrary, the substantially reduced fires during 400–0 yr BP may be associated with the emergence of sacred forest groves, a cultural practice supporting the maintenance of plant diversity. Overall, notwithstanding apparent changes in fires, aridity, and land use over the past 4000 years, present-day plant diversity in the Western Ghats agroforestry landscape falls within the range of historical variability. Importantly, we find a strong correlation between plant diversity and canopy cover, emphasising the crucial role of maintenance of trees in the landscape for biodiversity conservation. Systematic tree management in tropical social-ecological systems is vital for livelihoods of billions of people, who depend on forested landscapes. In this context, we argue that agroforestry landscapes can deliver win-win solutions for biodiversity as well as people in the Western Ghats and wet tropics at large.

Mowing does not redress the negative effect of nutrient addition on alpha and beta diversity in a temperate grassland

Abstract Species loss due to an increasing the number of added nutrients has been explained by both light competition through biomass increase and by niche dimension reduction as a result of species‐specific limiting soil resources trade‐offs. Disturbances, by reducing community biomass, species dominance and increasing light availability, may counteract above‐ground nutrient effects. However, it is unknown if diversity loss at local or spatial scales generated by increasing the number of added nutrients can be redressed with canopy disturbance. We evaluated if local (alpha) and spatial scale (beta) diversity loss generated by the number of added nutrients can be reverted by disturbances in Flooding Pampa grasslands, Argentina. In a 4‐year replicated field experiment, we added soil resources combining nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to obtain 0, 1, 2 or 3 nutrients and manipulated the regime of canopy disturbance by seasonal mowing and biomass removal. We found that the increasing the number of added nutrients strongly reduced local and spatial plant diversity, despite biomass and light changes generated by mowing. In mown plots, nutrient‐driven local diversity loss intensified along time, thus increasing species dominance. While mowing did not affect dominant species loss, increasing the number of added nutrients promoted rare species loss and reduced spatial dissimilarity. Furthermore, mowing increased local and spatial diversity regardless of light or biomass effects, suggesting alternative pathway effects for disturbance. Synthesis. Our results demonstrate that even when disturbance generated a positive effect on local and spatial diversity, it did not completely counteract the negative effect of number of added nutrients. Thus, the relative importance of above‐ and below‐ground resource competition may change when chronic disturbances alter community dominance. Under low light availability, above‐ground competition may drive species richness loss but when disturbance reduces light limitation, the increasing the number of added nutrients may reduce niche dimensionality and thus species coexistence. In sum, faced with the need to manage eutrophized grasslands, our study showed that disturbance may not completely mitigate the negative effect of multiple nutrient inputs on local and spatial grassland diversity.

Family graveyards form underappreciated local plant diversity hotspots in China's agricultural landscapes

In the intensively farmed, homogenous agricultural landscape of the North China Plain, family graveyards form distinct cultural landscape features. In addition to their cultural value, these graveyards represent semi-natural habitat islands whose potential roles in biodiversity conservation and ecological functioning has remained poorly understood. In this study, we investigated plant species richness on 199 family graveyards of different ages and sizes. In accordance with biogeography theory, both overall and insect-pollinated plant species richness increased with area and age of graveyards. Even small graveyards show a strong potential for conserving local plant richness, and a mosaic of both large and small family graveyards could play an important role in the conservation of farmland biodiversity and related ecosystem functions. The launch of agri-environmental measures that conserve and create semi-natural habitats, in turn benefitting agricultural biodiversity and ecological functioning, has proven difficult in China due to the shortage of dispensable arable land. Given the great value of family graveyards as semi-natural habitats reflected in our study, we propose to focus preliminary efforts on conserving these landscape features as existing, widespread and culturally important semi-natural habitat islands. This would represent an effective, complementary policy to a subsequent re-establishment of other semi-natural habitats for the conservation of biodiversity and ecological functioning in agricultural landscapes.

Macroecological patterns of resource use in resident and migratory hummingbirds

Hummingbirds (Family Trochilidae) are key pollinators in several biodiversity hotspots, including the California Floristic Province in North America. Relatively little is known about how hummingbird diets change throughout the year, especially with regard to how migratory hummingbirds affect resident hummingbirds at stopover sites. In this study, we examine how hummingbird species, migratory status, sex, geographic region and local plant diversity influence floral resource use before, during, and after an influx of migratory hummingbirds (primarily Rufous hummingbirds, Selasphorus rufus) across California. We expected distinct floral resource use based upon species’ migratory status (resident vs. migrant), sex, sampling period, and geographic region. We employed DNA metabarcoding to detect plant DNA in hummingbird fecal samples to analyze diet diversity, composition, overlap, and interaction networks. We found significant effects of sex, sampling period, and migratory status on the alpha and beta diversity of plant taxa present in fecal samples. Analyses of Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) alone revealed that female fecal samples contained higher plant species richness. In addition to hummingbird-pollinated plants, fecal samples also contained non-ornithophilous plants and species of agricultural importance. Diet overlap and plant-pollinator network analyses revealed high overlap in plant taxa used between hummingbird species, and networks were more connected, less nested, and less specialized than null models. DNA metabarcoding is minimally invasive and provides a detailed view of hummingbird diet, permitting large-scale studies. Insights into hummingbird diets are especially valuable given the logistical difficulties of directly observing floral visitation and foraging across broad temporal and spatial scales.

Ancient settlements in Southern Ukraine : how do local and landscape factors shape vascular plant diversity patterns in the last remnants of grass steppe vegetation?

Ancient settlements in Southern Ukraine : how do local and landscape factors shape vascular plant diversity patterns in the last remnants of grass steppe vegetation?

Fine-scale environmental heterogeneity and spatial niche partitioning among spring-flowering forest herbs.

Environmental heterogeneity influences plant distributions and diversity at several spatial scales. In temperate forests, fine-scale environmental variation may promote local coexistence among herbaceous species by allowing plants to spatially partition microsites within forest stands. Here we argue that shallow soils, low soil water-holding capacity and fertility, and reduced light near tree boles should favor short, shallow-rooted, evergreen species like Anemone acutiloba with low moisture, nutrient, and light requirements. Farther from trees, richer, deeper soils should favor taller, deeper-rooted herbs with greater moisture and nutrient demands, such as Sanguinaria canadensis and Trillium flexipes. We tested these hypotheses by mapping the fine-scale distributions of Anemone, Sanguinaria, and Trillium individuals within a 50 × 50 m plot, comparing local species' distributions with respect to soil depth and proximity to neighboring trees, and characterizing intraspecific and interspecific spatial associations. Local plant distributions were consistent with our predictions based on leaf height, physiology, and phenology. Anemone was found in microsites on shallower soils and closer to trees than either Sanguinaria or Trillium. In all three species, individual plants were spatially aggregated within 2 m, but spatially segregated from individuals of the other species beyond 2 m. Differential plant responses to fine-scale environmental heterogeneity and observed spatial associations suggest that local species-environment associations could facilitate coexistence. These findings illustrate how fine-scale environmental heterogeneity coupled with phenological and physiological differences likely contribute to spatial niche partitioning among spring-flowering forest herbs and maintain high local plant diversity within temperate forests.

Contribution of Avenue Trees Planted Along Managed Roadways in the Provision of Ecosystem Services to the Population of the Municipality of Sèmè-Podji in Benin

The plant needs of city dwellers sometimes force them to make use of the local plant diversity of which the avenue trees are a part. In the municipality of Sèmè-Podji, avenue trees provide social and environmental advantages to residents in daily practices. However, they are poorly valued and subjected to anthropogenic pressures. The objective of this study is to analyze the contribution of avenue trees in the provision of ecosystem services to the populations along roadways of the municipality of Sèmè-Podji. The methodological approach used is based on counting the forms of harvesting from the different species of trees over 26 kilometers of developed streets. Then, semi-structured interviews are carried out with 260 peoples, divided into 4 socio-professional categories. The Pearson correlation test was used to assess the agreement between the opinions of the respondents, then the prioritization matrix and the factorial correspondence analysis were used to assess the involvement of species and organs in the availability of ecosystem services. The results obtained reveal 7 forms of use classified into 4 categories of ecosystem services, confirmed by the opinions of the socio-professional categories with high degree of consensus between traders and craftsmen (r = 0.955; p = 0.001). The usage values vary between 0.53 (regulation service) and 0.04 (support service). However, supply services are the most cited and come from the species <i>Coccoloba uvifera</i>, <i>Terminalia catappa</i>, <i>Cocos nucifera</i>, <i>Manguifera indica</i> and <i>Eleais guineensis</i>. Taking into account the information provided by the populations on ecosystem services could facilitate the integration of alignment plantations in the sustainable development of this city.

Plant diversity in sedimentary DNA obtained from high-latitude (Siberia) and high-elevation lakes (China).

BackgroundPlant diversity in the Arctic and at high altitudes strongly depends on and rebounds to climatic and environmental variability and is nowadays tremendously impacted by recent climate warming. Therefore, past changes in plant diversity in the high Arctic and high-altitude regions are used to infer climatic and environmental changes through time and allow future predictions. Sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) is an established proxy for the detection of local plant diversity in lake sediments, but still relationships between environmental conditions and preservation of the plant sedDNA proxy are far from being fully understood. Studying modern relationships between environmental conditions and plant sedDNA will improve our understanding under which conditions sedDNA is well-preserved helping to a.) evaluate suitable localities for sedDNA approaches, b.) provide analogues for preservation conditions and c.) conduct reconstruction of plant diversity and climate change. This study investigates modern plant diversity applying a plant-specific metabarcoding approach on sedimentary DNA of surface sediment samples from 262 lake localities covering a large geographical, climatic and ecological gradient. Latitude ranges between 25°N and 73°N and longitude between 81°E and 161°E, including lowland lakes and elevated lakes up to 5168 m a.s.l. Further, our sampling localities cover a climatic gradient ranging in mean annual temperature between -15°C and +18°C and in mean annual precipitation between 36­ and 935 mm. The localities in Siberia span over a large vegetational gradient including tundra, open woodland and boreal forest. Lake localities in China include alpine meadow, shrub, forest and steppe and also cultivated areas. The assessment of plant diversity in the underlying dataset was conducted by a specific plant metabarcoding approach.New informationWe provide a large dataset of genetic plant diversity retrieved from surface sedimentary DNA from lakes in Siberia and China spanning over a large environmental gradient. Our dataset encompasses sedDNA sequence data of 259 surface lake sediments and three soil samples originating from Siberian and Chinese lakes. We used the established chloroplastidal P6 loop trnL marker for plant diversity assessment. The merged, filtered and assigned dataset includes 15,692,944 read counts resulting in 623 unique plant DNA sequence types which have a 100% match to either the EMBL or to the specific Arctic plant reference database. The underlying dataset includes a taxonomic list of identified plants and results from PCR replicates, as well as extraction blanks (BLANKs) and PCR negative controls (NTCs), which were run along with the investigated lake samples. This collection of plant metabarcoding data from modern lake sediments is still ongoing and additional data will be released in the future.

Relationship between moth (night active Lepidoptera) diversity and vegetation characteristics in southern Sweden

The diversity and community composition of moths (both macro- and micromoths) at 32 sites, representing a wide range of habitat types (forests, grasslands, wetlands, agricultural and urban areas) within a restricted region in central Scania, southern-most Sweden, was investigated by use of light moth traps and compared with vascular plant species richness and habitat characteristics. The results revealed a highly significant general association between vegetation composition and the composition of the moth community and multivariate (CCA) analyses indicated light availability and soil fertility parameters (pH and macronutrients) to be the habitat characteristics that best correlated with moth community composition. Less strong, but still significant, positive relationships between moth abundance and local vascular plant diversity were also revealed. Moth species richness was positively correlated with diversity of woody plant genera in the neighborhood, but not with local vascular plant diversity in general. As for more general site characteristics, there were tendencies for higher moth richness and abundance at sites with more productive soils (well-drained, high pH, high nutrient availability), while shading/tree canopy cover, management, soil disturbance regimes and nectar production appeared unrelated to moth community parameters. It is concluded that local moth assemblages are strongly influenced by site characteristics and vegetation composition.Implications for insect conservation:The results show that obtaining moth data on a local scale is useful for conservation planning and does not need to be very cumbersome. Local moth assemblages monitored are indeed related to local site characteristics of conservation relevance.

Environmental vs. spatial drivers of submerged macrophyte community assembly in different seasons and water depths in a mesotrophic bay of Erhai Lake, China

The relative importance of environmental and spatial drivers in shaping local plant diversity patterns remains unclear. Here, we investigated the environmental and spatial drivers regulating species composition of the submerged macrophyte community in Erhai Lake, China, over different seasons and water-depth gradients. Results showed that environmental and spatial drivers significantly affected species composition of the submerged macrophyte community at the local and fine scale, with shared environmental and spatial drivers explaining 28.3%–38.4% of the variation in species composition for all four seasons. The unique spatial drivers demonstrated a relatively stable contribution (11.8%–16.0%) over the four seasons, but the contributions from the unique environmental drivers showed seasonal variability, being high in summer and winter. In shallow water (0–3 m), spatial drivers were more important in the process of community assembly; in deep water (3–6 m), however, environmental and spatial drivers both significantly affected community assembly. The different water areas also showed strong seasonal changes in the explanatory power of environmental and spatial drivers of submerged macrophyte community variation. Thus, future studies should consider sampling macrophytes over different seasons and at different water depths to better trace the indicators regulating submerged macrophyte community assembly in lakes.

Trophic level and basal resource use of soil animals are hardly affected by local plant associations in abandoned arable land.

Plants provide resources and shape the habitat of soil organisms thereby affecting the composition and functioning of soil communities. Effects of plants on soil communities are largely taxon‐dependent, but how different functional groups of herbaceous plants affect trophic niches of individual animal species in soil needs further investigation. Here, we studied the use of basal resources and trophic levels of dominating soil meso‐ and macrofauna using stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in arable fallow systems 3 and 14–16 years after abandonment. Animals were sampled from the rhizosphere of three plant species of different functional groups: a legume (Medicaco sativa), a nonlegume herb (Taraxacum officinale), and a grass (Bromus sterilis). We found virtually no consistent effects of plant identity on stable isotope composition of soil animals and on thirteen isotopic metrics that reflect general food‐web structure. However, in old fallows, the carbon isotope composition of some predatory macrofauna taxa had shifted closer to that of co‐occurring plants, which was particularly evident for Lasius, an aphid‐associated ant genus. Trophic levels and trophic‐chain lengths in food webs were similar across plant species and fallow ages. Overall, the results suggest that variations in local plant diversity of grassland communities may little affect the basal resources and the trophic level of prey consumed by individual species of meso‐ and macrofauna belowground. By contrast, successional changes in grassland communities are associated with shifts in the trophic niches of certain species, reflecting establishment of trophic interactions with time, which shapes the functioning and stability of soil food webs.