Plant species-area relationships are determined by evenness, cover and aggregation in drylands worldwide.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

Species-area relationships (also known as 'species-area curves' and 'species accumulation curves') represent the relationship between species richness and the area sampled in a given community. These relationships can be used to describe diversity patterns while accounting for the well-known scale-dependence of species richness. Despite their value, their functional form and parameters, as well as their determinants, have barely been investigated in drylands.

Location

171 drylands from all continents except Antarctica.

Time period

2006-2013.

Major taxa studied

Perennial plants.

Methods

We characterized species-area relationships of plant communities by building accumulation curves describing the expected number of species as a function of the number

SUBMITTER: DeMalach N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6420124 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature