Grasslands of Navarre (Spain), focusing on the Festuco - Brometea : classification, hierarchical expert system and characterisation

Vegetation Classification and Survey

article

Itziar García-Mijangos¹  Asun Berastegi²  Idoia Biurrun¹  Iwona Dembicz³  Monika Janišová⁴  Anna Kuzemko⁵  Denys Vynokurov¹  Didem Ambarlı⁶  Javier Etayo⁷  Goffredo Filibeck⁸  Ute Jandt⁹  Rayna Natcheva^1,10  Oktay Yildiz⁶  Jürgen Dengler^1,11 

[1] University of the Basque Country;Environmental Management of Navarre;University of Warsaw;Institute of Botany, Plant Science and Biodiversity Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences;M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine;Düzce University;I.E.S. Zizur Institute;University of Tuscia;Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg;Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences;Zurich University of Applied Sciences;University of Bayreuth;German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research

关键词: diagnostic species;    electronic expert system;    Elyno-Seslerietea;    Festuco-Brometea;    Festuco-Ononidetea;    grassland;    Lygeo-Stipetea;    modified TWINSPAN;    Molinio-Arrhenatheretea;    Nardetea strictae;    Navarre;    vegetation classification;   

DOI  :  10.3897/VCS/2021/69614

来源: Pensoft

【 摘 要 】

Aims: To clarify the syntaxonomic position of the grasslands in Navarre, with special focus on the dry grasslands, and to characterise the resulting syntaxonomic units in terms of diagnostic species and ecological conditions. Study area: Navarre (northern Spain). Methods: We sampled 119 plots of 10 m2 following the standardised EDGG methodology and analysed them together with 839 plots of similar size recorded in the 1990. For the classification, we used the modified TWINSPAN algorithm, complemented by the determination of diagnostic species with phi coefficients of association, which led to the creation of an expert system. We conducted these steps in a hierarchical manner for each syntaxonomic rank. We visualised the position of the syntaxa along environmental gradients by means of NMDS. Species richness, and structural and ecological characteristics of the syntaxa were compared by ANOVAs. Results: We could clearly identify five phytosociological classes: Lygeo-Stipetea, Festuco-Brometea, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, Nardetea strictae, and Elyno-Seslerietea. Within the Festuco-Brometea a xeric and a meso-xeric order could be distinguished, with two alliances each, and eight associations in total: Thymelaeo-Aphyllanthetum, Jurineo-Festucetum, Helianthemo-Koelerietum, Prunello-Plantaginetum, Carduncello-Brachypodietum, Helictotricho-Seslerietum, Calamintho-Seselietum and Carici-Teucrietum. Conclusions: The combination of numerical methods allowed a consistent and more objective classification of grassland types in Navarre than previous approaches. At the association level, we could largely reproduce the units previously described with traditional phytosociological methods. By contrast, at higher syntaxonomic level, our analyses suggest significant modifications. Most importantly, a major part of the units traditionally included in the Festuco-Ononidetea seem to fall within the Festuco-Brometea. We could show that bryophytes and lichens are core elements of these grasslands and particularly the Mediterranean ones of Lygeo-Stipetea, both in terms of biodiversity and of diagnostic species. We conclude that the combination of our different numerical methods is promising for deriving more objective and reproducible delimitations of syntaxa in a hierarchical manner. Taxonomic references: Euro+Med (2006–2021) for vascular plants, Hodges et al. (2020) for bryophytes and The British Lichen Society (2021) for lichens, except for Endocarpon loscosii, Heppia lutosa, Psora saviczii and P. vallesiaca, which follow Nimis and Martellos (2021), and Buellia zoharyi, Fulgensia poeltii, Lichenochora clauzadei and Toninia massata, which follow Llimona et al. (2001). Syntaxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016), except for those syntaxa specifically treated here and given with authorities. Abbreviations: ANOVA = analysis of variance; EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group; NMDS: non-metric multidimensional scaling; TWINSPAN = Two-Way Indicator Species Analysis.

【 授权许可】

Unknown