Land cover drives large scale productivity-diversity relationships in Irish vascular plants

PeerJ

article

Hannah J. White¹  Willson Gaul¹  Dinara Sadykova²  Lupe León-Sánchez²  Paul Caplat²  Mark C. Emmerson²  Jon M. Yearsley¹ 

[1] School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin;School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast;Institute of Global Food Security, Queen’s University Belfast

关键词: Landscape;    Pasture;    Plants;    Productivity;    Remote sensing;    Species richness;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.7035

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The impact of productivity on species diversity is often studied at small spatial scales and without taking additional environmental factors into account. Focusing on small spatial scales removes important regional scale effects, such as the role of land cover heterogeneity. Here, we use a regional spatial scale (10 km square) to establish the relationship between productivity and vascular plant species richness across the island of Ireland that takes into account variation in land cover. We used generalized additive mixed effects models to relate species richness, estimated from biological records, to plant productivity. Productivity was quantified by the satellite-derived enhanced vegetation index. The productivity-diversity relationship was fitted for three land cover types: pasture-dominated, heterogeneous, and non-pasture-dominated landscapes. We find that species richness decreases with increasing productivity, especially at higher productivity levels. This decreasing relationship appears to be driven by pasture-dominated areas. The relationship between species richness and heterogeneity in productivity (both spatial and temporal) varies with land cover. Our results suggest that the impact of pasture on species richness extends beyond field level. The effect of human modified landscapes, therefore, is important to consider when investigating classical ecological relationships, particularly at the wider landscape scale.

【 授权许可】

CC BY