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Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change
Plant communities on tropical high islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands, are predicted to experience rapid climate change, resulting in novel climates. If increased temperature and/or drought exceed plant species’ current tolerances, species that are unable to adapt or shift ranges risk extinction....
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7006925/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32032387 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228573 |
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author | Ainsworth, Alison Drake, Donald R. |
author_facet | Ainsworth, Alison Drake, Donald R. |
author_sort | Ainsworth, Alison |
collection | PubMed |
description | Plant communities on tropical high islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands, are predicted to experience rapid climate change, resulting in novel climates. If increased temperature and/or drought exceed plant species’ current tolerances, species that are unable to adapt or shift ranges risk extinction. By definition, habitat generalists have a wide niche breadth and thrive in a variety of habitats, whereas habitat specialists have a narrow niche breadth, and typically thrive under more specific climatic characteristics (e.g., cold). The objectives of this study were to: (1) classify plant species in the Hawaiian Islands along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum; (2) independently test the validity of species rankings, using environmental and biogeographic ranges; and (3) identify species’ life-history traits that predict species location along the continuum. We quantified specialization for 170 plant species using species co-occurrence data from over one thousand plots to rank species’ realized habitat niche breadth using the Jaccard index. The distribution of species along this continuum differed by species biogeographic origin, with endemic plant species ranked on the specialist end and non-native plant species ranked on the generalist end. Habitat specialization rankings also differed for four of nine tested variables (while controlling for biogeographic origin): number of habitat moisture types, minimum elevation, number of Hawaiian Islands, and life form. Life form was the only trait tested that differed across the continuum, with woody species ranked as stronger generalists than herbaceous species; this pattern was particularly evident for non-native species. This indirect method of estimating species’ potential climatic flexibility uses increasingly available large plant community data sets with output rankings which represent species’ realized habitat niches. Identifying species and plant communities that are on the habitat specialist end of the continuum allows for their prioritization in conservation planning, as globally the loss of specialists is an indication of degradation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7006925 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-70069252020-02-20 Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change Ainsworth, Alison Drake, Donald R. PLoS One Research Article Plant communities on tropical high islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands, are predicted to experience rapid climate change, resulting in novel climates. If increased temperature and/or drought exceed plant species’ current tolerances, species that are unable to adapt or shift ranges risk extinction. By definition, habitat generalists have a wide niche breadth and thrive in a variety of habitats, whereas habitat specialists have a narrow niche breadth, and typically thrive under more specific climatic characteristics (e.g., cold). The objectives of this study were to: (1) classify plant species in the Hawaiian Islands along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum; (2) independently test the validity of species rankings, using environmental and biogeographic ranges; and (3) identify species’ life-history traits that predict species location along the continuum. We quantified specialization for 170 plant species using species co-occurrence data from over one thousand plots to rank species’ realized habitat niche breadth using the Jaccard index. The distribution of species along this continuum differed by species biogeographic origin, with endemic plant species ranked on the specialist end and non-native plant species ranked on the generalist end. Habitat specialization rankings also differed for four of nine tested variables (while controlling for biogeographic origin): number of habitat moisture types, minimum elevation, number of Hawaiian Islands, and life form. Life form was the only trait tested that differed across the continuum, with woody species ranked as stronger generalists than herbaceous species; this pattern was particularly evident for non-native species. This indirect method of estimating species’ potential climatic flexibility uses increasingly available large plant community data sets with output rankings which represent species’ realized habitat niches. Identifying species and plant communities that are on the habitat specialist end of the continuum allows for their prioritization in conservation planning, as globally the loss of specialists is an indication of degradation. Public Library of Science 2020-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7006925/ /pubmed/32032387 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228573 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Ainsworth, Alison Drake, Donald R. Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change |
title | Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change |
title_full | Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change |
title_fullStr | Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change |
title_full_unstemmed | Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change |
title_short | Classifying Hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: Implications for species conservation under climate change |
title_sort | classifying hawaiian plant species along a habitat generalist-specialist continuum: implications for species conservation under climate change |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7006925/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32032387 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228573 |
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