Abstract
This study aimed to (i) investigate the congruence among the species composition and diversity of bryophytes and vascular plants in forests; (ii) test if site prioritization for conservation aims by the maximization of the pooled number of vascular plant species is effective to maximize the pooled number of bryophyte species. The study was performed in six forests in Tuscany, Italy. Four-hundred and twenty vascular plant species (61 of which were woody) and 128 bryophyte species were recorded in 109 plots. Despite the good predictive value of the compositional patterns of both woody plants and total vascular with respect to the compositional pattern of bryophytes, the species richness of the latter was only marginally related to the species richness of the former two. Bryophyte rare species were not spatially related to rare plant species and neither coincided with the sites of highest plant species richness. The species accumulation curves of bryophytes behaved differently with respect to those of woody plants or total vascular plants. Reserve selection analysis based on the maximization of the pooled species richness of either woody plants or total vascular plants were not effective in maximizing the pooled species richness of bryophytes. This study indicates that species diversity of vascular plants is not likely to be a good indicator of the bryophyte species diversity in Mediterranean forests.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aleffi M. and Schumacker R. (1995). Check-list and red list of the liverworts (Marchantiophyta) and hornworts (Anthocerotophyta) of Italy. Flora Mediterranea 5: 73–161
Bartolozzi L., Bonini I., Boretti R., Bussotti F., Cenni E., Chiarucci A., Cozzi A., Ferretti M., Grassoni P., Landi G., Leonzio C., Vignozzi G. and Dominicis V. (2002). Forest ecosystem monitoring in Tuscany (Italy): past activities, present status and future perspectives. J. Limnol. 61: 129–136
Bernetti G. (1987). I boschi della Toscana. Giunta Regionale Toscana. Edagricole, Bologna
Chiarucci A., Wilson J.B. and Dominicis V. (2001). Structure and floristic diversity in permanent monitoring plots in forest ecosystems of Tuscany. For. Ecol. Manage. 141: 203–212
Chiarucci A. and Bonini I. (2005). Quantitative floristics as a tool for the assessment of plant diversity in Tuscan forests. For. Ecol. Managem. 212: 160–170
Chiarucci A., D’Auria F., Laganà A., Perini C., Salerni E. and Dominicis V. (2005). Using vascular plants as a surrogate taxon to maximize fungal species richness in reserve design. Conserv. Biol. 19: 1644–1652
Church R.L., Stoms D.M. and Davis F.W. (1996). Reserve selection as a maximal covering location problem. Biol. Conserv. 76: 105–112
Colwell R.K. and Coddington J.A. (1994). Estimating terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 345: 101–118
Cortini Pedrotti C. (2001). New check-list of Mosses of Italy. Flora Mediterranea 11: 23–107
Csuti B., Polasky S., Williams P.H., Pressey R.L., Camm J.D., Kershaw M., Kiester A.R., Downs B., Hamilton R., Huso M. and Sahr K. (1997). A comparison of reserve selection algorithms using data on terrestrial vertebrates in Oregon. Biol. Conserv. 80: 83–97
Garson J., Aggarwal A. and Sarkar S. (2002). Birds as surrogates for biodiversity: an analysis of a data set from southern Québec. J. Biosci. 27: 347–360
Gotelli N.J. and Colwell R.K. (2001). Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecol. Lett. 4: 379–391
Gray J.S., Ugland K.I. and Lambshead J. (2004). Species accumulation and species area curves – a comment on Scheiner (2003). Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 13: 473–476
Howard P.C., Viskanic P., Davenport T.R.B., Kigenyi F.W., Baltzer M., Dickinson C.J., Lwanga J.S., Matthews R.A. and Balmford A. (1998). Complementarity and the use of indicator groups for reserve selection in Uganda. Nature 394: 472–475
ILOG (1999). CPLEX 6.5. ILOG. Gentilly, France
Ingerpuu N., Vellak K., Kukk T. and Pärtel M. (2001). Bryophyte and vascular plant species richness in boreo-nemoral moist forests and mires. Biodivers. Conserv. 10: 2153–2166
Moore J.L., Folkmann M., Balmford A., Brooks T., Burgess N., Rahbek C., Williams P.H. and Krarup J. (2003). Heuristic and optimal solutions for set-covering problems in conservation biology. Ecography 26: 595–601
Negi H.R. and Gadgil M. (2002). Cross-taxon surrogacy of biodiversity in the Indian Garhwal Himalaya. Biol. Conserv. 105: 143–155
Nekola J.C. and White P.S. (1999). The distance decay of similarity in biogeography and ecology. J. Biogeogr. 26: 867–878
Palmer M.W., Earls P.G., Hoagland B.W., White P.S. and Wohlgemuth T. (2002). Quantitative tools for perfecting species lists. Environmetrics 13: 121–137
Panzer R. and Schwartz M.W. (1998). Effectiveness of a vegetation based approach to invertebrate conservation. Conserv. Biol. 12: 693–702
Pharo E.J., Beattie A.J. and Binns D. (1999). Vascular plant diversity as a surrogate for bryophyte and lichen diversity. Conserv. Biol. 13: 282–292
Pharo E.J., Beattie A.J. and Pressey R.L. (2000). Effectiveness of using vascular plants to select reserves for bryophytes and lichens. Biol. Conserv. 96: 371–378
Pignatti S. (1982). Flora d’Italia. Edagricole, Bologna
Polasky S., Csuti B., Vossler C.A. and Meyers S.M. (2001). A comparison of taxonomic distinctness versus richness as criteria for setting conservation priorities for North American birds. Biol. Conserv. 97: 99–105
Prendergast J.R., Quinn R.M., Lawton J.H., Eversham B.C. and Gibbons D.W. (1993). Rare species, the coincidence of diversity hotspots and conservation strategies. Nature 365: 335–337
Pressey R.L., Humphries C.J., Margules C.R., Vane-Wright R.I. and Williams P.H. (1993). Beyond opportunisms: key principles for systematic reserve selection. Trends Ecol. Evol. 8: 124–128
Ricotta C., Carranza M.L. and Avena G. (2002). Computing ß-diversity from species area curves. Basic Appl. Ecol. 3: 15–18
Rodrigues A.S., Cerdeira J.O. and Gaston K.J. (2000). Flexibility, efficiency, and accountability: adapting reserve selection algorithms to more complex conservation problems. Ecography 23: 565–574
Rodrigues A.S.L., Andelman S.J., Bakarr M.I., Boitani L., Brooks T.M., Cowling R.M., Fishpool L.D.C., Gaston K.J., Hoffmann M., Long J.S., Marquet P.A., Pilgrim J.D., Pressey R.L., Schipper J., Sechrest W., Stuart S.N., Underhill L.G., Waller R.W., Watts M.E.J., Yan X. and Fonseca G.A.B. (2004). Effectiveness of the global protected area network in representing species diversity. Nature 428: 640–643
Rodrigues A.S.L. and Gaston K.J. (2002). Optimisation in reserve selection procedures – why not?. Biol. Conserv. 107: 123–129
Ryti R.T. (1992). Effect of the focal taxon on the selection of nature reserves. Ecol. Appl. 2: 404–410
Saetersdal M., Gjerde I., Blom H.H., Ihlen Per.G., Myrseth E.W., Pommeresche R., Skartveit J., Solhoy T. and Aas O. (2004). Vascular plants as a surrogate species group in complementary site selection for bryophytes, macrolichens, spiders, carabids, staphylinids, snails, and wood living polypore fungi in a northern forest. Biol. Conserv. 115: 21–31
Sanders H.L. (1968). Marine benthic diversity: a comparative study. Am. Nat. 102: 243–282
Scheiner S.M. (2003). Six types of species-area curves. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 12: 441–447
Tardif B. and DesGranges J.-L. (1998). Correspondence between bird and plant hotspots of the St. Lawrence River and influence of scale on their location. Biol. Conserv. 84: 53–63
Virolainen K.M., Ahlroth P., Hyvarinen E., Korkeamaki E., Mattila J., Paiivinen J., Rintala T., Suomi T. and Suhonen J. (2000). Hot spots, indicator taxa, complementarity and optimal networks of taiga. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 267: 1143–1147
Williams P.H. (1999). Key sites for conservation: area selection methods for biodiversity. In: Mace, G.M., Balmford, A. and Ginsberg, J.R. (eds) Conservation in a Changing World: Integrating Processes into Priorities for Action, pp 211–249. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chiarucci, A., D’auria, F. & Bonini, I. Is vascular plant species diversity a predictor of bryophyte species diversity in Mediterranean forests?. Biodivers Conserv 16, 525–545 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-006-6733-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-006-6733-1