History and environment shape species pools and community diversity in European beech forests

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Authors

JIMÉNEZ ALFARO GONZÁLEZ Borja GIRARDELLO Marco CHYTRÝ Milan SVENNING Jens-Christian WILLNER Wolfgang GÉGOUT Jean-Claude AGRILLO Emiliano CAMPOS Juan Antonio JANDT Ute KĄCKI Zygmunt ŠILC Urban SLEZÁK Michal TICHÝ Lubomír TSIRIPIDIS Ioannis TURTUREANU Pavel Dan UJHÁZYOVÁ Mariana WOHLGEMUTH Thomas

Year of publication 2018
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Nature Ecology and Evolution
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0462-6
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0462-6
Keywords Vegetation classification; Plant communities; Fagus sylvatica; Patterns; Richness; Heterogeneity; Hypothesis; Abundance; Impacts; Refugia
Description A central hypothesis of ecology states that regional diversity influences local diversity through species-pool effects. Species pools are supposedly shaped by large-scale factors and then filtered into ecological communities, but understanding these processes requires the analysis of large datasets across several regions. Here, we use a framework of community assembly at a continental scale to test the relative influence of historical and environmental drivers, in combination with regional or local species pools, on community species richness and community completeness. Using 42,173 vegetation plots sampled across European beech forests, we found that large-scale factors largely accounted for species pool sizes. At the regional scale, main predictors reflected historical contingencies related to post-glacial dispersal routes, whereas at the local scale, the influence of environmental filters was predominant. Proximity to Quaternary refugia and high precipitation were the main factors supporting community species richness, especially among beech forest specialist plants. Models for community completeness indicate the influence of large-scale factors, further suggesting community saturation as a result of dispersal limitation or biotic interactions. Our results empirically demonstrate how historical factors complement environmental gradients to provide a better understanding of biodiversity patterns across multiple regions.
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