Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river
Abstract The study of changes in species richness and composition along rivers has focused on large spatial scales. It has been ignored that in different sections of the river (high mountain area, middle zone, and mouth of the river) the specific environmental conditions can generate different longi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7472 |
| _version_ | 1819084234305830912 |
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| author | Nihaib Flores‐Galicia Irma Trejo Neptalí Ramírez‐Marcial |
| author_facet | Nihaib Flores‐Galicia Irma Trejo Neptalí Ramírez‐Marcial |
| author_sort | Nihaib Flores‐Galicia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The study of changes in species richness and composition along rivers has focused on large spatial scales. It has been ignored that in different sections of the river (high mountain area, middle zone, and mouth of the river) the specific environmental conditions can generate different longitudinal patterns of the species richness and composition. In this study, we determine whether species richness and composition of the riparian plant communities change along a mountain river and whether these changes are related to environmental variables. We expect an increase in species richness and turnover along the river, that the upstream communities would be a subset of the downstream communities, and that such would be related to edaphic and hydrologic conditions. To test this, we sampled three strata of the riparian vegetation (upper: individuals with <1 cm of ND, middle: individuals with >1 cm of ND, low: individuals with >1 m tall) in a set of 15 sites that we place along a mountain river. Additionally, we recorded topographic, hydrological, morphological, and soil variables. We performed correlation analyzes to determine whether changes in species richness and turnover were related to increased distance to the origin of the river. Also, we obtained the nestedness and evaluated the importance of environmental variables with GLM, LASSO regression, and CCA. With the increase in distance, the species richness decreases in the upper stratum, but not in the middle and the low stratum (although the highest values were observed near the origin of the river), the turnover increase in all strata and the upstream communities were not a subset of the downstream communities. The changes in species richness and composition were related to topographic (altitude), hydrological (flow), and edaphic (conductivity and pH) variables. Our results indicate that at small spatial scales the patterns of richness and composition differ from what has been found at larger spatial scales and that these patterns are associated with environmental changes in the strong altitude gradients of mountain rivers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T20:45:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-150b90bed46445c4aeadbc7501f88d39 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-7758 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T20:45:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-150b90bed46445c4aeadbc7501f88d392022-12-21T18:50:50ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582021-05-0111105690570110.1002/ece3.7472Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain riverNihaib Flores‐Galicia0Irma Trejo1Neptalí Ramírez‐Marcial2Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoUnidad de PosgradoCircuito de PosgradosCiudad Universitaria Ciudad de México MéxicoInstituto de GeografíaCircuito de la Investigación CientíficaCiudad UniversitariaUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México Ciudad de México MéxicoDepartamento de Conservación de la Biodiversidad El Colegio de la Frontera Sur San Cristóbal de Las Casas Chiapas MéxicoAbstract The study of changes in species richness and composition along rivers has focused on large spatial scales. It has been ignored that in different sections of the river (high mountain area, middle zone, and mouth of the river) the specific environmental conditions can generate different longitudinal patterns of the species richness and composition. In this study, we determine whether species richness and composition of the riparian plant communities change along a mountain river and whether these changes are related to environmental variables. We expect an increase in species richness and turnover along the river, that the upstream communities would be a subset of the downstream communities, and that such would be related to edaphic and hydrologic conditions. To test this, we sampled three strata of the riparian vegetation (upper: individuals with <1 cm of ND, middle: individuals with >1 cm of ND, low: individuals with >1 m tall) in a set of 15 sites that we place along a mountain river. Additionally, we recorded topographic, hydrological, morphological, and soil variables. We performed correlation analyzes to determine whether changes in species richness and turnover were related to increased distance to the origin of the river. Also, we obtained the nestedness and evaluated the importance of environmental variables with GLM, LASSO regression, and CCA. With the increase in distance, the species richness decreases in the upper stratum, but not in the middle and the low stratum (although the highest values were observed near the origin of the river), the turnover increase in all strata and the upstream communities were not a subset of the downstream communities. The changes in species richness and composition were related to topographic (altitude), hydrological (flow), and edaphic (conductivity and pH) variables. Our results indicate that at small spatial scales the patterns of richness and composition differ from what has been found at larger spatial scales and that these patterns are associated with environmental changes in the strong altitude gradients of mountain rivers.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7472altitudinal gradientdiversity of specieslongitudinal dimensionmountain riverRiverRiver Collector Hypothesis |
| spellingShingle | Nihaib Flores‐Galicia Irma Trejo Neptalí Ramírez‐Marcial Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river Ecology and Evolution altitudinal gradient diversity of species longitudinal dimension mountain river River River Collector Hypothesis |
| title | Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river |
| title_full | Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river |
| title_fullStr | Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river |
| title_full_unstemmed | Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river |
| title_short | Environment‐driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river |
| title_sort | environment driven changes in diversity of riparian plant communities along a mountain river |
| topic | altitudinal gradient diversity of species longitudinal dimension mountain river River River Collector Hypothesis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7472 |
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