Stochastic losses of fire-dependent endemic herbs revealed by a 65-year chronosequence of dispersal-limited woody plant encroachment.

ABSTRACT: The factors responsible for maintaining diverse groundcover plant communities of high conservation value in frequently burned wet pine savannas are poorly understood. While most management involves manipulating extrinsic factors important in maintaining species diversity (e.g., fire regimes), most ecological theory (e.g., niche theory and neutral theory) examines how traits exhibited by the species promote species coexistence. Furthermore, although many ecologists focus on processes that maintain local species diversity, conservation biologists have argued that other indices (e.g., phylogenetic diversity) are better for evaluating assemblages in terms of their conservation value. I used a null model that employed beta-diversity calculations based on Raup-Crick distances to test for determi

SUBMITTER: Brewer JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5478063 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature