Sympatric primate seed dispersers and predators jointly contribute to plant diversity in a subtropical forest.

Mutualistic and antagonistic plant-animal interactions differentially contribute to the maintenance of species diversity in ecological communities. Although both seed dispersal and predation by fruit-eating animals are recognized as important drivers of plant population dynamics, the mechanisms underlying how seed dispersers and predators jointly affect plant diversity remain largely unexplored. Based on mediating roles of seed size and species abundance, we investigated the effects of seed dispersal and predation by two sympatric primates (Nomascus concolor and Trachypithecus crepusculus) on local plant recruitment in a subtropical forest of China. Over a 26 month period, we confirmed that these primates were functionally distinct: gibbons were legitimate seed dispersers who dispersed seeds of 44 plant species, while langurs were primarily seed predators who destroyed seeds of 48 plant species. Gibbons dispersed medium-seeded species more effectively than small- and large-seeded species, and dispersed more seeds of rare species than common and dominant species. Langurs showed a similar predation rate across different sizes of seeds, but destroyed a large number of seeds from common species. Due to gut passage effects, gibbons significantly shortened the duration of seed germination for 58% of the dispersed species; however, for 54% of species, seed germination rates were reduced significantly. Our study underlined the contrasting contributions of two primate species to local plant recruitment processes. By dispersing rare species and destroying the seeds of common species, both primates might jointly maintain plant species diversity. To maintain healthy ecosystems, the conservation of mammals that play critical functional roles needs to receive further attention.

Phylogenetic relatedness of food plants reveals highest insect herbivore specialization at intermediate temperatures along a broad climatic gradient.

The composition and richness of herbivore and plant assemblages change along climatic gradients, but knowledge about associated shifts in specialization is scarce and lacks controlling for the abundance and phylogeny of interaction partners. Thus, we aimed to test whether the specialization of phytophagous insects in insect-plant interaction networks decreases toward cold habitats as predicted by the 'altitude niche-breadth hypothesis' to forecast possible consequences of interaction rewiring under climate change. We used a non-invasive, standardized metabarcoding approach to reconstruct dietary relationships of Orthoptera species as a major insect herbivore taxon along a broad temperature gradient (~12°C) in Southern Germany. Based on Orthoptera surveys, feeding observations, collection of fecal pellets from >3,000 individuals of 54 species, and parallel vegetation surveys on 41 grassland sites, we quantified plant resource availability and its use by herbivores. Herbivore assemblages were richer in species and individuals at sites with high summer temperatures, while plant richness peaked at intermediate temperatures. Corresponding interaction networks were most specialized in warm habitats. Considering phylogenetic relationships of plant resources, however, the specialization pattern was not linear but peaked at intermediate temperatures, mediated by herbivores feeding on a narrow range of phylogenetically related resources. Our study provides empirical evidence of resource specialization of insect herbivores along a climatic gradient, demonstrating that resource phylogeny, availability, and temperature interactively shape the specialization of herbivore assemblages. Instead of low specialization levels only in cold, harsh habitats, our results suggest increased generalist feeding due to intraspecific changes and compositional differences at both ends of the microclimatic gradient. We conclude that this nonlinear change of phylogeny-based resource specialization questions predictions derived from the 'altitude-niche breadth hypothesis' and highlights the currently limited understanding of how plant-herbivore interactions will change under future climatic conditions.

Disturbance legacy of a 100-year flood event: large wood accelerates plant diversity resilience on gravel-bed rivers.

Understanding biodiversity resilience after a major disturbance is a key issue in basic and applied science. Plant diversity in gravel-bed rivers is affected by flood events, which are one of the most effective disturbance agents in the flow regime, affecting species distribution, and ecosystem dynamics. Although disturbance plays a critical role in community assembly mechanisms, how plant diversity recovers after a severe disturbance, such as a 100-year flood event remains unknown. The present study examined how the disturbance legacy of large wood in gravel-bed river ecosystems contributes to the resilience of plant diversity. The present study demonstrated that the resilience of plant species in disturbance legacy sites, namely deposited large wood sites, was higher than that in open habitat sites. Indicator species analysis revealed that perennial plants were the most important indicator species of disturbance legacy sites. These results suggest that perennial species richness contributes to the resilience of high plant diversity across the disturbance legacy sites in this region. After major flood events, land managers often remove large wood and debris jams to avoid secondary disasters, such as embankment collapse. However, we suggest that large wood should be retained on the gravel beds to aid the recovery of biodiversity and ecosystems. Furthermore, understanding the relationships between disturbance legacies and ecosystem resilience can contribute to the formulation of strategies for sustainable ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation in the future.

Suppression of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Aggravates the Negative Interactive Effects of Warming and Nitrogen Addition on Soil Bacterial and Fungal Diversity and Community Composition.

We examined the impacts of warming, nitrogen (N) addition, and suppression of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on soil bacterial and fungal richness and community composition in a field experiment. AMF root colonization and the concentration of an AMF-specific phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) were significantly reduced after the application of the fungicide benomyl as a soil drench. Warming and N addition had no independent effects but interactively decreased soil fungal richness, while warming, N addition, and AMF suppression together reduced soil bacterial richness. Soil bacterial and fungal species diversity was lower with AMF suppression, indicating that AMF suppression has a negative effect on microbial diversity. Warming and N addition decreased the net loss of plant species and the plant species richness, respectively. AMF suppression reduced plant species richness and the net gain of plant species but enhanced the net loss of plant species. Structural equation modeling (SEM) demonstrated that the soil bacterial community responded to the increased soil temperature (ST) induced by warming and the increased soil available N (AN) induced by N addition through changes in AMF colonization and plant species richness; ST directly affected the bacterial community, but AN affected both the soil bacterial and fungal communities via AMF colonization. In addition, higher mycorrhizal colonization increased the plant species richness by increasing the net gains in plant species under warming and N addition. IMPORTANCE AMF can influence the composition and diversity of plant communities. Previous studies have shown that climate warming and N deposition reduce the effectiveness of AMF. However, how AMF affect soil bacterial and fungal communities under these global change drivers is still poorly understood. A 4-year field study revealed that AMF suppression decreased bacterial and fungal diversity irrespective of warming or N addition, while AMF suppression interacted with warming or N addition to reduce bacterial and fungal richness. In addition, bacterial and fungal community compositions were determined by mycorrhizal colonization, which was regulated by soil AN and ST. These results suggest that AMF suppression can aggravate the severe losses to native soil microbial diversity and functioning caused by global changes; thus, AMF play a vital role in maintaining belowground ecosystem stability in the future.

Fertility-related interplay between fungal guilds underlies plant richness-productivity relationships in natural grasslands.

The plant richness-productivity relationship is a central subject in ecology, yet the mechanisms behind this pattern remain debated. Soil fungi are closely associated with the dynamics of plant communities, however empirical evidence on how fungal communities integrate into the richness-productivity relationships of natural environments is lacking. We used Illumina high-throughput sequencing to identify rhizosphere fungal communities across a natural plant richness gradient at two sites with different fertility conditions, and related the subsequent information to plant richness and productivity to elucidate the role of fungal guilds in integrating the linkages of both plant components. Saprotrophs, mycorrhizal fungi and potential plant pathogens interacted differently between the sites, with saprotrophic and mycorrhizal fungal abundances being positively correlated at the high-nutrient site and abundances of mycorrhizal fungi and potential plant pathogens being negatively correlated at the low-nutrient site. The synergistic associations between these fungal guilds with plant richness and productivity operated in concert to promote positive richness-productivity relationships. Our findings provide empirical evidence for the importance of soil fungal guilds in integrating the linkages of plant richness and productivity, and suggest that future work incorporating soil fungal communities into richness-productivity relationships would advance our mechanistic understanding of their linkages.

Plant diversity effect on water quality in wetlands: a meta-analysis based on experimental systems.

The ecological literature reports little empirical evidence from biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments in wetland systems, even though wetlands are widely known for their water filtering capacity. Experiments comparing the effect of plant monocultures and mixtures on water quality to improve pollutant removal efficiency in treatment wetlands share the characteristics of classical BEF experiments, and so could provide insights for wetland management. To add to our understanding of BEF relationships in wetlands, we evaluated plant diversity effects on water purification through a meta-analysis of freshwater experimental wetlands comparing monocultures to mixtures. We found 28 studies that matched our criteria for BEF analysis, for a total of 561 diversity effects on pollutant removal. Overall, the meta-analysis shows no significant effect of plant richness on removal of total suspended solids, but a positive effect on chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen removal, and a marginal effect on phosphorus removal. Thus, the results of this meta-analysis are consistent with reports of an overall positive biodiversity effect on ecosystem properties. An analysis of moderator variables shows that the experimental context (size of the experimental units, nutrient load, duration of the experiment) does not explain much of the residual variance. For pollutants that benefit from a positive plant richness effects on removal, mixtures do not perform better than the best monoculture. We found no evidence that plant richness effects are due to functional complementarity among species rather than to the presence of particularly efficient species. Complementarity effects may be less prevalent in highly productive, nutrient-rich wetlands, compared to nutrient-limited environments such as natural grasslands. Although findings must be confirmed by long-term field experiments under natural conditions, result from experimental wetland systems may contribute to a better understanding of biodiversity effect on ecosystem functions in wetlands, in addition to guide practices in natural wetland restoration and the use of constructed wetlands for water treatment.

Belowground plant parts are crucial for comprehensively estimating total plant richness in herbaceous and woody habitats.

Most studies consider aboveground plant species richness as a representative biodiversity measure. This approach inevitably assumes that the partitioning of total plant species richness into above- and belowground components is constant or at least consistent within and across vegetation types. However, with studies considering belowground plant richness still scarce and completely absent along vegetation gradients, this assumption lacks experimental support. Novel DNA sequencing techniques allow economical, high-throughput species identification of belowground environmental samples, enabling the measurement of the contributions of both above- and belowground plant components to total plant richness. We investigated above- and belowground plant species richness in four vegetation types (birch forest, heath, low alpine tundra, high alpine tundra) at the scale of herbaceous plant neighborhoods (dm) using 454 sequencing of the chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron to determine the plant species richness of environmental root samples and combined it with aboveground data from vegetation surveys to obtain total plant species richness. We correlated the measured plant species richness components with each other and with their respective plant biomass components within and across vegetation types. Total plant species richness exceeded aboveground richness twice on average and by as much as three times in low alpine tundra, indicating that a significant fraction of belowground plant richness cannot be recorded aboveground. More importantly, no consistent relationship among richness components (above- and belowground) was found within or across vegetation types, indicating that aboveground richness alone cannot predict total plant richness in contrasting vegetation types. Finally, no consistent relationship between plant richness and the corresponding biomass component was found. Our results clearly show that aboveground plant richness alone is a poor estimator of total plant species richness within and across different vegetation types. Consequently, it is crucial to account for belowground plant richness in future plant ecological studies in order to validate currently accepted plant richness patterns, as well as to measure potential changes in plant community composition in a changing environment.

Urban meadows as an alternative to short mown grassland: effects of composition and height on biodiversity.

There are increasing calls to provide greenspace in urban areas, yet the ecological quality, as well as quantity, of greenspace is important. Short mown grassland designed for recreational use is the dominant form of urban greenspace in temperate regions but requires considerable maintenance and typically provides limited habitat value for most taxa. Alternatives are increasingly proposed, but the biodiversity potential of these is not well understood. In a replicated experiment across six public urban greenspaces, we used nine different perennial meadow plantings to quantify the relative roles of floristic diversity and height of sown meadows on the richness and composition of three taxonomic groups: plants, invertebrates, and soil microbes. We found that all meadow treatments were colonized by plant species not sown in the plots, suggesting that establishing sown meadows does not preclude further locally determined grassland development if management is appropriate. Colonizing species were rarer in taller and more diverse plots, indicating competition may limit invasion rates. Urban meadow treatments contained invertebrate and microbial communities that differed from mown grassland. Invertebrate taxa responded to changes in both height and richness of meadow vegetation, but most orders were more abundant where vegetation height was longer than mown grassland. Order richness also increased in longer vegetation and Coleoptera family richness increased with plant diversity in summer. Microbial community composition seems sensitive to plant species composition at the soil surface (0-10 cm), but in deeper soils (11-20 cm) community variation was most responsive to plant height, with bacteria and fungi responding differently. In addition to improving local residents' site satisfaction, native perennial meadow plantings can produce biologically diverse grasslands that support richer and more abundant invertebrate communities, and restructured plant, invertebrate, and soil microbial communities compared with short mown grassland. Our results suggest that diversification of urban greenspace by planting urban meadows in place of some mown amenity grassland is likely to generate substantial biodiversity benefits, with a mosaic of meadow types likely to maximize such benefits.

Plant Community Richness Mediates Inhibitory Interactions and Resource Competition between Streptomyces and Fusarium Populations in the Rhizosphere.

Plant community characteristics impact rhizosphere Streptomyces nutrient competition and antagonistic capacities. However, the effects of Streptomyces on, and their responses to, coexisting microorganisms as a function of plant host or plant species richness have received little attention. In this work, we characterized antagonistic activities and nutrient use among Streptomyces and Fusarium from the rhizosphere of Andropogon gerardii (Ag) and Lespedeza capitata (Lc) plants growing in communities of 1 (monoculture) or 16 (polyculture) plant species. Streptomyces from monoculture were more antagonistic against Fusarium than those from polyculture. In contrast, Fusarium isolates from polyculture had greater inhibitory capacities against Streptomyces than isolates from monoculture. Although Fusarium isolates had on average greater niche widths, the collection of Streptomyces isolates in total used a greater diversity of nutrients for growth. Plant richness, but not plant host, influenced the potential for resource competition between the two taxa. Fusarium isolates had greater niche overlap with Streptomyces in monoculture than polyculture, suggesting greater potential for Fusarium to competitively challenge Streptomyces in monoculture plant communities. In contrast, Streptomyces had greater niche overlap with Fusarium in polyculture than monoculture, suggesting that Fusarium experiences greater resource competition with Streptomyces in polyculture than monoculture. These patterns of competitive and inhibitory phenotypes among Streptomyces and Fusarium populations are consistent with selection for Fusarium-antagonistic Streptomyces populations in the presence of strong Fusarium resource competition in plant monocultures. Similarly, these results suggest selection for Streptomyces-inhibitory Fusarium populations in the presence of strong Streptomyces resource competition in more diverse plant communities. Thus, landscape-scale variation in plant species richness may be critical to mediating the coevolutionary dynamics and selective trajectories for inhibitory and nutrient use phenotypes among Streptomyces and Fusarium populations in soil, with significant implications for microbial community functional characteristics.

Potential supply of floral resources to managed honey bees in natural mistbelt forests.

Honey bees play a vital role in the pollination of flowers in many agricultural systems, while providing honey through well managed beekeeping activities. Managed honey bees rely on the provision of pollen and nectar for their survival and productivity. Using data from field plot inventories in natural mistbelt forests, we (1) assessed the diversity and relative importance of honey bee plants, (2) explored the temporal availability of honey bee forage (nectar and pollen resources), and (3) elucidated how plant diversity (bee plant richness and overall plant richness) influenced the amount of forage available (production). A forage value index was defined on the basis of species-specific nectar and pollen values, and expected flowering period. Up to 50% of the overall woody plant richness were found to be honey bee plant species, with varying flowering period. As expected, bee plant richness increased with overall plant richness. Interestingly, bee plants' flowering period was spread widely over a year, although the highest potential of forage supply was observed during the last quarter. We also found that only few honey bee plant species contributed 90 percent of the available forage. Surprisingly, overall plant richness did not significantly influence the bee forage value. Rather, bee plant species richness showed significant and greater effect. The results of this study suggest that mistbelt forests can contribute to increase the spatial and temporal availability of diverse floral resources for managed honey bees. Conservation efforts must be specifically oriented towards honey bee plant species in mistbelt forests to preserve and enhance their potential to help maintain honey bee colonies. The implications for forest management, beekeeping activities and pollination-based agriculture were discussed.

Species richness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: associations with grassland plant richness and biomass.

Although experiments show a positive association between vascular plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) species richness, evidence from natural ecosystems is scarce. Furthermore, there is little knowledge about how AMF richness varies with belowground plant richness and biomass. We examined relationships among AMF richness, above- and belowground plant richness, and plant root and shoot biomass in a native North American grassland. Root-colonizing AMF richness and belowground plant richness were detected from the same bulk root samples by 454-sequencing of the AMF SSU rRNA and plant trnL genes. In total we detected 63 AMF taxa. Plant richness was 1.5 times greater belowground than aboveground. AMF richness was significantly positively correlated with plant species richness, and more strongly with below- than aboveground plant richness. Belowground plant richness was positively correlated with belowground plant biomass and total plant biomass, whereas aboveground plant richness was positively correlated only with belowground plant biomass. By contrast, AMF richness was negatively correlated with belowground and total plant biomass. Our results indicate that AMF richness and plant belowground richness are more strongly related with each other and with plant community biomass than with the plant aboveground richness measures that have been almost exclusively considered to date.

Host plant richness explains diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi: Response to the comment of Tedersoo et al. (2014).

Exploring the relationships between the biodiversity of groups of interacting organisms yields insight into ecosystem stability and function (Hooper et al. ; Wardle ). We demonstrated positive relationships between host plant richness and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungal diversity both in a field study in subtropical China (Gutianshan) and in a meta-analysis of temperate and tropical studies (Gao et al. ). However, based on re-evaluation of our data sets, Tedersoo et al. () argue that the observed positive correlation between EM fungal richness and EM plant richness at Gutianshan and also in our metastudies was based mainly from (i) a sampling design with inconsistent species pool and (ii) poor data compilation for the meta-analysis. Accordingly, we checked our data sets and repeated the analysis performed by Tedersoo et al. (). In contrast to Tedersoo et al. (), our re-analysis still confirms a positive effect of plant richness on EM fungal diversity in Gutianshan, temperate and tropical ecosystems, respectively.

Effects of land-use types and the exotic species, Hypochaeris radicata, on plant diversity in human-transformed landscapes of the biosphere reserve, Jeju Island, Korea.

Land-use and plant invasion influence biodiversity. Understanding the effects of land-use types and invasive plants on the ecosystem is crucial for better management and the development of strategic plans for increasing biodiversity in Jeju Island, Korea, a designated Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The effect of the most dominant invasive exotic species, Hypochaeris radicata, on the four land-use types of Jeju Island was investigated. Plant composition, soil characteristics, and plant diversity among four land-use types (cropland, green space, neglected land, and residential) were compared. Among the land-use types, croplands had the most diverse plant composition and the highest richness in exotic and native plant species. Croplands, such as tangerine orchards, which are widely distributed throughout Jeju Island, showed the highest plant diversity because of medium intensity disturbance caused by weed removal. The relative cover of H. radicata did not differ between land-use types. However, H. radicata invasion was negatively related with plant species richness, making this invasive species a threat to the biodiversity of native herbs present in land-use areas. H. radicata adapts to areas with a broad range of soil properties and a variety of land-use types. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor land-use types and patterns of plant invasion to guide the implementation of consistent management and conservation strategies for maintaining ecosystem integrity of the transformed habitat in Jeju Island.

Grazing during the grassland greenup period promotes plant species richness in alpine grassland in winter pastures.

Although grazing is the most common use of grassland, the ecological function of grassland far exceeds its productivity. Therefore, the protection of plant diversity is of the utmost importance and cannot be ignored. Existing research on the effect of grazing on grassland mainly focuses on grazing intensity and the type of livestock, but the consequences of the timing of the grazing on the vegetation community remains unclear. We investigated plant community characteristics of winter pastures in alpine meadow with different grazing termination times (grazing before and during the grassland greenup periods) in Maqu County, eastern QTP. The results showed that vegetation height, coverage, aboveground biomass and Graminoid biomass were lower in grassland when grazing happened during the greenup period compared to grassland where grazing was terminated before the greenup period. However, the total plant species richness and forbs richness were higher in grassland with grazing during the greenup period compared to grassland without grazing during the greenup period. Our structural equation modeling reveals a potential indirect implication for the total plant species richness and forbs richness of winter pastures mainly through a decrease in the vegetation coverage and grass biomass abundance. Our findings imply that grazing during the grassland greenup period may facilitate the maintenance of plant diversity in winter pastures. These findings have important implications for grassland ecosystem functioning and for the conservation of plant diversity.

Leaf Nutritional Content, Tree Richness, and Season Shape the Caterpillar Functional Trait Composition Hosted by Trees.

Nutritional content of host plants is expected to drive caterpillar species assemblages and their trait composition. These relationships are altered by tree richness-induced neighborhood variation and a seasonal decline in leaf quality. We tested how key functional traits related to the growth and defenses of the average caterpillar hosted by a tree species are shaped by nutritional host quality. We measured morphological traits and estimated plant community-level diet breadth based on occurrences from 1020 caterpillars representing 146 species in a subtropical tree diversity experiment from spring to autumn in one year. We focused on interspecific caterpillar trait variation by analyzing presence-only patterns of caterpillar species for each tree species. Our results show that tree richness positively affected caterpillar species-sharing among tree species, which resulted in lowered trait variation and led to higher caterpillar richness for each tree species. However, community-level diet breadth depended more on the nutritional content of host trees. Higher nutritional quality also supported species-poorer but more abundant communities of smaller and less well-defended caterpillars. This study demonstrates that the leaf nutritional quality of trees shapes caterpillar trait composition across diverse species assemblages at fine spatial scales in a way that can be predicted by ecological theory.

Competition for soil resources forces a trade-off between enhancing tree productivity and understorey species richness in managed beech forests.

Traditionally focussed on maximising productivity, forest management increasingly has to consider other functions performed by the forest stands, such as biodiversity conservation. Terrestrial plant communities typically possess a hump-back relationship between biomass productivity and plant species richness. However, there is evidence of a reverse relationship in forests dominated by beech, one of the most competitive and widespread tree species in temperate Europe. To fully explore the tree productivity-species richness relationship, we investigated above- and below-ground drivers of understorey plant species richness. We focussed on managed beech forests growing along an elevation gradient in Central Europe. We found that the lowest understorey plant diversity was under conditions optimal for beech. Tree fine root mass, canopy openness, soil C/N ratio, the interaction between tree fine root mass and stoniness, and stand structural diversity explain the variation of understorey species richness. We show that the competition for soil resources is the main driver of plant species diversity in managed forests; maximising beech growth in optimal conditions may thus come at the expense of understorey plant richness.

Warming effects on the flux of CH4 from peatland mesocosms are regulated by plant species composition: Richness and functional types.

Peatlands in northeast China are experiencing severe climate warming. Most studies on peatlands focus on the responses of CH4 dynamics to temperature. However, they rarely consider the synchronous changes in the composition of plant communities caused by the expansion of vascular plants. In this study, an experiment combined warming with the manipulation of plants to examine the concentrations of CH4 porewater and its fluxes in the mesocosm. We found that warming increased the concentration of CH4 and its fluxes relative to the control treatments, and it was strongly modulated by plant richness and functional types. The average CH4 fluxes in the warming and non-warming mesocosms varied from 72.10 to 119.44 and 97.95 to 194.43 mg m-2 h-1, respectively. Plant species richness significantly increased CH4 flux at the warming level of 3.2 °C (P < 0.01). The presence of vascular plants, such as Carex globularis and Vaccinium uliginosum, significantly increased the CH4 fluxes after warming had occurred. Our results suggest that the distinct response of CH4 to richness and species primarily stemmed from the direct or indirect effects of plant biomass and functional characteristics. Therefore, more consideration should be given to the diversity changes caused by vascular plant expansion when estimating CH4 flux in boreal peatland, especially in the context of future climate warming.

Bloom evenness modulates the influence of bloom abundance on insect community structure in suburban gardens.

As land use change drives global insect declines, the value of enhancing habitat in urban and suburban landscapes has become increasingly important for flower-visiting insects. In order to help identify best landscaping practices, we conducted plant surveys and insect bowl-trap surveys in 34 suburban yards for 21 months in Gainesville, FL, USA, which resulted in 274 paired days of plant and insect survey data. We assessed the impact of nearest greenspace size, distance to greenspace, yard area, plant richness, plant type, bloom abundance, bloom richness and bloom evenness on insect abundance and richness. Our samples include 34,972 insects captured, 485,827 blooms counted and 774 species of plants recorded. We found that bloom evenness had a modulating effect on bloom abundance-a more even sample of the same number of blooms would have a disproportionately greater positive impact on flower visitor richness, insect richness and insect abundance. Bloom abundance was also highly significant and positively associated with flower visitor abundance, but nearest greenspace size, distance to greenspace, plant type (native vs. non-native vs. Florida Friendly), and yard area were not found to be important factors. Plant richness was a highly significant factor, but its effect size was very small.

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area.

BACKGROUND: Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of "Parque Nacional do Caparaó" (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states. NEW INFORMATION: "Parque Nacional do Caparaó" houses 8% of the land plant species endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, including 6% of its angiosperms, 31% of its lycophytes and ferns and 14% of its avascular plants. Twelve percent of the threatened species listed for the State of Espírito Santo and 7% listed for the State of Minas Gerais are also protected by PNC. Surprisingly, 79% of the collections analysed here were carried out in Minas Gerais, which represents just 21% of the total extension of the Park. The compiled data uncover a huge botanical collection gap in this federally-protected area.

Is vegetation an indicator for evaluating the impact of tourism on the conservation status of Mediterranean coastal dunes?

Mediterranean coastal dunes are threatened by several factors; particularly, tourism causes modifications to the vegetation and the disappearance of endemic species. Understanding the dunes' conservation status is crucial for preserving these vulnerable environments through appropriate management strategies. This study was conducted on 17 Sardinian coastal dunes, with different levels of touristic pressure. We focused on endemic plant species and developed a new endemicity index (EI). Our study aimed: 1) to assess the conservation status by applying the diversity indices; 2) to verify if the study sites would reveal a general pattern based on different degrees of human disturbance and 3) to test the effectiveness of the EI index. Four m2 plots (2 × 2 m) were placed along orthogonal transects to the coastline (446 plots in total), in which all plant species were identified, and their relative abundance was estimated. We found significant differences among the sites for Hdune and EI values but no statistically significant differences in the N values. The EI showed the high naturalistic value of Sardinian coastal dunes and allowed us to distinguish the sites with higher anthropic pressure. We found significant differences in the indices among the degrees of human disturbance in the coastal systems. The Hdune values were positively related to a medium level of human disturbance, and the EI allowed us to distinguish the sites with varying levels of human disturbance, although it differentiated better those with the highest anthropic pressure. A medium level of human disturbance was positively related to the plant richness and cover, and human trampling could be tolerated by psammophilous vascular plants. Results showed a satisfactory conservation status of Sardinian dune systems and highlighted diversity indices as valuable support for implementing a conservation strategy, compatible with the tourism purposes and the integrated management of the Mediterranean coastal dune systems.