Small-scale drivers on plant and ant diversity in a grassland habitat through a multifaceted approach

PeerJ

article

Michele Mugnai¹  Clara Frasconi Wendt¹  Paride Balzani¹  Giulio Ferretti¹  Matteo Dal Cin¹  Alberto Masoni¹  Filippo Frizzi¹  Giacomo Santini¹  Daniele Viciani¹  Bruno Foggi¹  Lorenzo Lazzaro¹ 

[1] Department of Biology, University of Florence;Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, University of South Bohemia

关键词: Biodiversity;    Functional traits;    Multi-taxa;    Priority habitat;    Taxonomic diversity;    Mediterranean;    Community;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.12517

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Semi-natural grasslands are characterized by high biodiversity and require multifaceted approaches to monitor their biodiversity. Moreover, grasslands comprise a multitude of microhabitats, making the scale of investigation of fundamental importance. Despite their wide distribution, grasslands are highly threatened and are considered of high conservation priority by Directive no. 92/43/EEC. Here, we investigate the effects of small-scale ecological differences between two ecosites present within the EU habitat of Community Interest of semi-natural dry grasslands on calcareous substrates (6210 according to Dir. 92/43/EEC) occurring on a Mediterranean mountain. We measured taxonomic and functional diversity of plant and ant communities, evaluating the differences among the two ecosites, how these differences are influenced by the environment and whether vegetation affects composition of the ant community. Our results show that taxonomic and functional diversity of plant and ant communities are influenced by the environment. While vegetation has no effect on ant communities, we found plant and ant community composition differed across the two ecosites, filtering ant and plant species according to their functional traits, even at a small spatial scale. Our findings imply that small-scale monitoring is needed to effectively conserve priority habitats, especially for those that comprise multiple microhabitats.

【 授权许可】

CC BY