Volume 215, August 2015, Pages 84–91
Highlights
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- Multivariate analysis assigned spleenworts of Montenegro to three ecological groups.
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- Non-climatic variables did not contribute to environmental niche differentiation.
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- Water deficit had contrasting effect on distributions of two common taxa.
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- In the Mediterranean climate Asplenium ferns can act as indicators of water stress.
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- The entire country of Montenegro is important for maintaining diversity of Asplenium.
Abstract
The
aim of this study was to explore the way in which environmental aspects
influence distributions of rock flora of the Mediterranean basin, using
the genus Asplenium as a study system. Using the most
comprehensive dataset to date built with the data from museum
collections and those obtained in the course of a field survey, we
identified patterns of species richness, carried out multivariate
analysis, and fitted generalised linear models to the
presence/pseudo-absence and abundance data of the three wide-spread
taxa. We complemented the information on climatic preferences of the Asplenium ferns by phytosociological data.
Based on their distributions in the ecological space defined by temperature- and precipitation-related variables, the Asplenium
ferns known for Montenegro were assigned to the three groups: coastal
species, generalist, and highland species. Within these groups, no
further niche differentiation could be detected given the available
environmental factors. Phytosociological information from herbarium
specimens was consistent with the results of the multivariate ecological
analysis. Non-climatic environmental factors were limiting the
distributions of the Asplenium ferns on the country-size scale,
but were not statistically significant in separating niches among the
species. Our results showed a significant impact of water deficit on the
distributions of the two morphologically distinct and locally abundant
species; these species can be recommended as potential indicators of the
increasing water deficit stress in the European Mediterranean climate.
Species richness patterns of the spleenworts of Montenegro suggested
that the whole country was important for maintaining the diversity of
this group of plants.
This study demonstrates the
value of natural history collections combined with field data to inform
ecological research. For the first time, a numerical analysis of the
data concerning distribution and abundance of the most common and
wide-spread European ferns of the genus Asplenium in an area with the typical Mediterranean climate was carried out.
Keywords
- Multivariate analysis;
- Generalised linear models;
- Water deficit;
- Indicator species;
- Climate change
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