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Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity

Terrestrial herbs are important elements of tropical forests; however, there is a lack of research on their diversity patterns and how they respond to different intensities of forest-use. The aim of this study was to analyze the diversity of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation (50 m...

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Autores principales: Gómez-Díaz, Jorge Antonio, Krömer, Thorsten, Kreft, Holger, Gerold, Gerhard, Carvajal-Hernández, César Isidro, Heitkamp, Felix
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5549743/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28792536
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182893
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author Gómez-Díaz, Jorge Antonio
Krömer, Thorsten
Kreft, Holger
Gerold, Gerhard
Carvajal-Hernández, César Isidro
Heitkamp, Felix
author_facet Gómez-Díaz, Jorge Antonio
Krömer, Thorsten
Kreft, Holger
Gerold, Gerhard
Carvajal-Hernández, César Isidro
Heitkamp, Felix
author_sort Gómez-Díaz, Jorge Antonio
collection PubMed
description Terrestrial herbs are important elements of tropical forests; however, there is a lack of research on their diversity patterns and how they respond to different intensities of forest-use. The aim of this study was to analyze the diversity of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation (50 m to 3500 m) and forest-use intensity on the eastern slopes of the Cofre de Perote, Veracruz, Mexico. We recorded the occurrence of all herbaceous angiosperm species within 120 plots of 20 m x 20 m each. The plots were located at eight study locations separated by ~500 m in elevation and within three different habitats that differ in forest-use intensity: old-growth, degraded, and secondary forest. We analyzed species richness and floristic composition of herb communities among different elevations and habitats. Of the 264 plant species recorded, 31 are endemic to Mexico. Both α- and γ-diversity display a hump-shaped relation to elevation peaking at 2500 m and 3000 m, respectively. The relative contribution of between-habitat β-diversity to γ-diversity also showed a unimodal hump whereas within-habitat β-diversity declined with elevation. Forest-use intensity did not affect α-diversity, but β-diversity was high between old-growth and secondary forests. Overall, γ-diversity peaked at 2500 m (72 species), driven mainly by high within- and among-habitat β-diversity. We infer that this belt is highly sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance and forest-use intensification. At 3100 m, high γ-diversity (50 species) was driven by high α- and within-habitat β-diversity. There, losing a specific forest area might be compensated if similar assemblages occur in nearby areas. The high β-diversity and endemism suggest that mixes of different habitats are needed to sustain high γ-richness of terrestrial herbs along this elevational gradient.
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spelling pubmed-55497432017-08-12 Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity Gómez-Díaz, Jorge Antonio Krömer, Thorsten Kreft, Holger Gerold, Gerhard Carvajal-Hernández, César Isidro Heitkamp, Felix PLoS One Research Article Terrestrial herbs are important elements of tropical forests; however, there is a lack of research on their diversity patterns and how they respond to different intensities of forest-use. The aim of this study was to analyze the diversity of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation (50 m to 3500 m) and forest-use intensity on the eastern slopes of the Cofre de Perote, Veracruz, Mexico. We recorded the occurrence of all herbaceous angiosperm species within 120 plots of 20 m x 20 m each. The plots were located at eight study locations separated by ~500 m in elevation and within three different habitats that differ in forest-use intensity: old-growth, degraded, and secondary forest. We analyzed species richness and floristic composition of herb communities among different elevations and habitats. Of the 264 plant species recorded, 31 are endemic to Mexico. Both α- and γ-diversity display a hump-shaped relation to elevation peaking at 2500 m and 3000 m, respectively. The relative contribution of between-habitat β-diversity to γ-diversity also showed a unimodal hump whereas within-habitat β-diversity declined with elevation. Forest-use intensity did not affect α-diversity, but β-diversity was high between old-growth and secondary forests. Overall, γ-diversity peaked at 2500 m (72 species), driven mainly by high within- and among-habitat β-diversity. We infer that this belt is highly sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance and forest-use intensification. At 3100 m, high γ-diversity (50 species) was driven by high α- and within-habitat β-diversity. There, losing a specific forest area might be compensated if similar assemblages occur in nearby areas. The high β-diversity and endemism suggest that mixes of different habitats are needed to sustain high γ-richness of terrestrial herbs along this elevational gradient. Public Library of Science 2017-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5549743/ /pubmed/28792536 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182893 Text en © 2017 Gómez-Díaz et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Gómez-Díaz, Jorge Antonio
Krömer, Thorsten
Kreft, Holger
Gerold, Gerhard
Carvajal-Hernández, César Isidro
Heitkamp, Felix
Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity
title Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity
title_full Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity
title_fullStr Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity
title_full_unstemmed Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity
title_short Diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity
title_sort diversity and composition of herbaceous angiosperms along gradients of elevation and forest-use intensity
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5549743/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28792536
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182893
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