Tree cover at fine and coarse spatial grains interacts with shade tolerance to shape plant species distributions across the Alps.

ABSTRACT: The role of competition for light among plants has long been recognised at local scales, but its importance for plant species distributions at larger spatial scales has generally been ignored. Tree cover modifies the local abiotic conditions below the canopy, notably by reducing light availability, and thus, also the performance of species that are not adapted to low-light conditions. However, this local effect may propagate to coarser spatial grains, by affecting colonisation probabilities and local extinction risks of herbs and shrubs. To assess the effect of tree cover at both the plot- and landscape-grain sizes (approximately 10-m and 1-km), we fit Generalised Linear Models (GLMs) for the plot-level distributions of 960 species of herbs and shrubs using 6,935 vegetation plots across th

SUBMITTER: Nieto-Lugilde D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4538783 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature