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Different temporal trends in vascular plant and bryophyte communities along elevational gradients over four decades

ABSTRACT: Abstract Despite many studies showing biodiversity responses to warming, the generality of such responses across taxonomic groups remains unclear. Very few studies have tested for evidence of bryophyte community responses to warming, even though bryophytes are major contributors to diversity and functioning in many ecosystems. Here, we report an empirical study comparing long‐term change in bryophyte and vascular plant communities in two sites with contrasting long‐term warming trends, using “legacy” botanical records as a baseline for comparison with contemporary resurveys. We hypothesized that ecological changes would be greater in sites with a stronger warming trend and that vascular plant communities, with narrower climatic niches, would be more sensitive than bryophyte communities to climate warming. For each taxonomic group in each site, we quantified the magnitude of changes in species' distributions along the elevation gradient, species richness, and community composition. We found contrasted temporal changes in bryophyte vs. vascular plant communities, which only partially supported the warming hypothesis. In the area with a stronger warming trend, we found a significant increase in local diversity and dissimilarity (β‐diversity) for vascular plants, but not for bryophytes. Presence–absence data did not provide sufficient power to detect elevational shifts in species distributions. The patterns observed for bryophytes are in accordance with recent literature showing that local diversity can remain unchanged despite strong changes in composition. Regardless of whether one taxon is systematically more or less sensitive to environmental change than another, our results suggest that vascular plants cannot be used as a surrogate for bryophytes in terms of predicting the nature and magnitude of responses to warming. Thus, to assess overall biodiversity responses to global change, abundance data from different taxonomic groups and different community properties need to be synthesized. We report an empirical study comparing long‐term change of bryophyte and vascular plant communities in two forest sites with contrasting long‐term warming trends, using resurvey data. We hypothesized that ecological changes would be greater in sites with a stronger warming trend, and that vascular plant communities, with narrower climatic niches, would be more sensitive than bryophyte communities to climate warming. We found a contrasted pattern of change, in the area with a stronger warming trend, we found a significant increase of local diversity and beta‐diversity for vascular plant, but not for bryophytes and presence‐absence data fail to detect shift in species distributions. The patterns observed for bryophytes support that local diversity can remain unchanged despite strong changes in composition. Our results suggest that vascular plants cannot be used as a surrogate for bryophytes in terms of predicting the direction and magnitude of responses to warming.

SUBMITTER: Becker‐Scarpitta A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9395318 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Different temporal trends in vascular plant and bryophyte communities along elevational gradients over four decades

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