Environmental drivers and spatial scaling of species abundance distributions in Palaearctic grassland vegetation

Ulrich, Werner; Matthews, Thomas J.; Biurrun, Idoia; Campos, Juan Antonio; Czortek, Patryk; Dembicz, Iwona; Essl, Franz; Filibeck, Goffredo; Del Galdo, Gian-Pietro Giusso; Güler, Behlül; Naqinezhad, Alireza; Török, Péter; Dengler, Jürgen

doi:10.1002/ecy.3725

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-26830

Publication type:	Article in scientific journal
Type of review:	Peer review (publication)
Title:	Environmental drivers and spatial scaling of species abundance distributions in Palaearctic grassland vegetation
Authors:	Ulrich, Werner Matthews, Thomas J. Biurrun, Idoia Campos, Juan Antonio Czortek, Patryk Dembicz, Iwona Essl, Franz Filibeck, Goffredo Del Galdo, Gian-Pietro Giusso Güler, Behlül Naqinezhad, Alireza Török, Péter Dengler, Jürgen
et. al:	No
DOI:	10.1002/ecy.3725 10.21256/zhaw-26830
Published in:	Ecology
Volume(Issue):	103
Issue:	8
Page(s):	e3725
Issue Date:	Aug-2022
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Wiley
ISSN:	0012-9658 1939-9170
Language:	English
Subjects:	Palaearctic grassland; Weibull distribution; Log-series distribution; Lognormal distribution; Plant cover; Spatial scaling; Species abundance; Biodiversity; Biota; Soil; Ecosystem; Grassland
Subject (DDC):	333.7: Land, natural recreational areas 577: Ecology
Abstract:	Species abundance distributions (SADs) link species richness with species abundances and are an important tool in the quantitative analysis of ecological communities. Niche-based and sample-based SAD models predict different spatial scaling properties of SAD parameters. However, empirical research on SAD scaling properties is largely missing. Here we extracted percentage cover values of all occurring vascular plants as proxies of their abundance in 1725 10-m2 plots from the GrassPlot database, covering 47 regional data sets of 19 different grasslands and other open vegetation types of the Palaearctic biogeographic realm. For each plot, we fitted the Weibull distribution, a model that is able to effectively mimic other distributions like the log-series and lognormal, to the species-log abundance rank order distribution. We calculated the skewness and kurtosis of the empirical distributions and linked these moments, along with the shape and scale parameters of the Weibull distribution, to plot climatic and soil characteristics. The Weibull distribution provided excellent fits to grassland plant communities and identified four basic types of communities characterized by different degrees of dominance. Shape and scale parameter values of local communities on poorer soils were largely in accordance with log-series distributions. Proportions of subdominant species tended to be lower than predicted by the standard lognormal SAD. Successive accumulation of plots of the same vegetation type yielded nonlinear spatial scaling of SAD moments and Weibull parameters. This scaling was largely independent of environmental correlates and geographic plot position. Our findings caution against simple generalizations about the mechanisms that generate SADs. We argue that in grasslands, lognormal-type SADs tend to prevail within a wider range of environmental conditions, including more extreme habitats such as arid environments. In contrast, log-series distributions are mainly restricted to comparatively species-rich communities on humid and fertile soils.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/26830
Related research data:	https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16870641
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	CC BY 4.0: Attribution 4.0 International
Departement:	Life Sciences and Facility Management
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Life Sciences und Facility Management

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Ulrich, W., Matthews, T. J., Biurrun, I., Campos, J. A., Czortek, P., Dembicz, I., Essl, F., Filibeck, G., Del Galdo, G.-P. G., Güler, B., Naqinezhad, A., Török, P., & Dengler, J. (2022). Environmental drivers and spatial scaling of species abundance distributions in Palaearctic grassland vegetation. Ecology, 103(8), e3725. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3725

Ulrich, W. et al. (2022) ‘Environmental drivers and spatial scaling of species abundance distributions in Palaearctic grassland vegetation’, Ecology, 103(8), p. e3725. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3725.

W. Ulrich et al., “Environmental drivers and spatial scaling of species abundance distributions in Palaearctic grassland vegetation,” Ecology, vol. 103, no. 8, p. e3725, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.1002/ecy.3725.

ULRICH, Werner, Thomas J. MATTHEWS, Idoia BIURRUN, Juan Antonio CAMPOS, Patryk CZORTEK, Iwona DEMBICZ, Franz ESSL, Goffredo FILIBECK, Gian-Pietro Giusso DEL GALDO, Behlül GÜLER, Alireza NAQINEZHAD, Péter TÖRÖK und Jürgen DENGLER, 2022. Environmental drivers and spatial scaling of species abundance distributions in Palaearctic grassland vegetation. Ecology. August 2022. Bd. 103, Nr. 8, S. e3725. DOI 10.1002/ecy.3725

Ulrich, Werner, Thomas J. Matthews, Idoia Biurrun, Juan Antonio Campos, Patryk Czortek, Iwona Dembicz, Franz Essl, et al. 2022. “Environmental Drivers and Spatial Scaling of Species Abundance Distributions in Palaearctic Grassland Vegetation.” Ecology 103 (8): e3725. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3725.

Ulrich, Werner, et al. “Environmental Drivers and Spatial Scaling of Species Abundance Distributions in Palaearctic Grassland Vegetation.” Ecology, vol. 103, no. 8, Aug. 2022, p. e3725, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3725.