Between-year weather differences and long-term environmental trends both contribute to observed vegetation changes in a plot resurvey study.

Autor: Erdős L; HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research Institute of Ecology and Botany Vácrátót Hungary.; HUN-REN-DE Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group Debrecen Hungary.; Department of Ecology University of Debrecen Debrcen Hungary., Ónodi G; HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research Institute of Ecology and Botany Vácrátót Hungary., Ho KV; Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences University of Szeged Szeged Hungary.; Faculty of Natural Resources-Environment Kien Giang University Kien Giang Vietnam., Tanács E; HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research Institute of Ecology and Botany Vácrátót Hungary.; Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary., Akinyi RQ; Center for Environmental Science, Faculty of Science Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary., Török P; HUN-REN-DE Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group Debrecen Hungary.; Department of Ecology University of Debrecen Debrcen Hungary.; Polish Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden-Center for Biological Diversity Conservation in Powsin Warszawa Poland., Tölgyesi C; MTA-SZTE 'Momentum' Applied Ecology Research Group University of Szeged Szeged Hungary., Bátori Z; MTA-SZTE 'Momentum' Applied Ecology Research Group University of Szeged Szeged Hungary.; Department of Ecology University of Szeged Szeged Hungary., Kröel-Dulay G; HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research Institute of Ecology and Botany Vácrátót Hungary.; National Laboratory for Health Security HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research Budapest Hungary.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology and evolution [Ecol Evol] 2024 Sep 02; Vol. 14 (9), pp. e70244. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 02 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.70244
Abstrakt: Repeated surveys of vegetation plots offer a viable tool to detect fine-scale responses of vegetation to environmental changes. In this study, our aim was to explore how the species composition and species richness of dry grasslands changed over a period of 17 years, how these changes relate to environmental changes and how the presence of spring ephemerals, which may react to short-term weather fluctuations rather than long-term climatic trends, may influence the results. A total of 95 plots was surveyed in 2005 and resurveyed in 2022 in dry grasslands of the Kiskunság Sand Ridge (Hungary, Eastern Central Europe), where there has been a significant increase in mean annual temperature during the last decades, while no trends in precipitation can be identified. Db-RDA was performed to reveal compositional changes. The changes in environmental conditions and naturalness state were assessed using ecological and naturalness indicator values. We also compared per-plot richness of all species, native species and non-native species of the old and the new relevés. All analyses were repeated after removing all spring ephemerals. We found clear temporal changes in species composition. Mean temperature indicator values increased, while mean soil moisture indicator values decreased during the 17 years. Also, decreasing per-plot richness was detected both for all species and for native species, while mean naturalness increased. After the removal of spring ephemerals, the compositional changes were less obvious although still significant. The increase in the temperature indicator values remained significant even without the spring ephemerals. However, the decrease in the moisture indicator values, the decrease in the number of all species and native species, as well as the increase in naturalness indicator values disappeared when spring ephemerals were excluded from the analyses. Our study demonstrates that between-year weather differences and long-term environmental trends both contribute to observed vegetation changes.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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