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Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations
Tree plantations have become one of the fastest-growing land uses and their impact on biodiversity was evaluated mainly at the taxonomic level. The aim of this study was to analyze environmental changes after the Eucalyptus plantation in an area originally covered by natural grasslands, taking into...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8144202/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34031446 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89988-6 |
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author | Pairo, Pamela E. Rodriguez, Estela E. Bellocq, M. Isabel Aceñolaza, Pablo G. |
author_facet | Pairo, Pamela E. Rodriguez, Estela E. Bellocq, M. Isabel Aceñolaza, Pablo G. |
author_sort | Pairo, Pamela E. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Tree plantations have become one of the fastest-growing land uses and their impact on biodiversity was evaluated mainly at the taxonomic level. The aim of this study was to analyze environmental changes after the Eucalyptus plantation in an area originally covered by natural grasslands, taking into account the alpha and beta (taxonomic and functional) diversity of plant communities. We selected nine plantation ages, along a 12 years chronosequence, with three replicates per age and three protected grasslands as the original situation. At each replicate, we established three plots to measure plant species cover, diversity and environmental variables. Results showed that species richness, and all diversity indices, significantly declined with increasing plantation age. Canopy cover, soil pH, and leaf litter were the environmental drivers that drove the decrease in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants through the forest chronosequence. Based on the path analyses results, canopy cover had an indirect effect on plant functional diversity, mediated by leaf litter depth, soil pH, and plant species richness. The high dispersal potential, annual, barochorous, and zoochorous plant species were the functional traits more affected by the eucalypt plantations. We recommend two management practices: reducing forest densities to allow higher light input to the understory and, due to the fact that leaf litter was negatively associated with all diversity facets, we recommend reducing their accumulation or generate heterogeneity in its distribution to enhance biodiversity. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8144202 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-81442022021-05-25 Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations Pairo, Pamela E. Rodriguez, Estela E. Bellocq, M. Isabel Aceñolaza, Pablo G. Sci Rep Article Tree plantations have become one of the fastest-growing land uses and their impact on biodiversity was evaluated mainly at the taxonomic level. The aim of this study was to analyze environmental changes after the Eucalyptus plantation in an area originally covered by natural grasslands, taking into account the alpha and beta (taxonomic and functional) diversity of plant communities. We selected nine plantation ages, along a 12 years chronosequence, with three replicates per age and three protected grasslands as the original situation. At each replicate, we established three plots to measure plant species cover, diversity and environmental variables. Results showed that species richness, and all diversity indices, significantly declined with increasing plantation age. Canopy cover, soil pH, and leaf litter were the environmental drivers that drove the decrease in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants through the forest chronosequence. Based on the path analyses results, canopy cover had an indirect effect on plant functional diversity, mediated by leaf litter depth, soil pH, and plant species richness. The high dispersal potential, annual, barochorous, and zoochorous plant species were the functional traits more affected by the eucalypt plantations. We recommend two management practices: reducing forest densities to allow higher light input to the understory and, due to the fact that leaf litter was negatively associated with all diversity facets, we recommend reducing their accumulation or generate heterogeneity in its distribution to enhance biodiversity. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-05-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8144202/ /pubmed/34031446 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89988-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Pairo, Pamela E. Rodriguez, Estela E. Bellocq, M. Isabel Aceñolaza, Pablo G. Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations |
title | Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations |
title_full | Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations |
title_fullStr | Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations |
title_full_unstemmed | Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations |
title_short | Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of Eucalyptus grandis plantations |
title_sort | changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of plants in a chronosequence of eucalyptus grandis plantations |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8144202/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34031446 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89988-6 |
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