Vegetation changes in temperate ombrotrophic peatlands over a 35 year period.

ABSTRACT: Global changes in climate and land use are occurring at an unprecedented rate, often triggering drastic shifts in plant communities. This study aims to reconstruct the changes that occurred over 35 years in the plant communities of temperate bogs subjected to indirect human-induced disturbances. In 2015-17, we resurveyed the vascular flora of 76 plots located in 16 bogs of southern Québec (Canada) first sampled in 1982. We evaluated changes in species richness, frequency of occurrence and abundance, while considering species shade-tolerance and preferential habitat. We calculated beta diversity as between-site similarities in composition, and evaluated differences between the two surveys using tests for homogeneity in multivariate dispersion. We found a significant increase in species rich

SUBMITTER: Pinceloup N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7018058 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature