Factors affecting the biodiversity of historical landscape elements: detailed analyses from three case studies in Slovakia.

A direct, positive correlation between biodiversity and the traditional agricultural landscape is evident on the national or regional scale. It is mostly conditioned by higher landscape diversity and less intensive farming. We have carried out research on a detailed scale at plot level (productive plots of arable lands, grasslands, vineyards, orchards, and unproductive agrarian landforms (mostly field margins) such as terraced slopes, terraced steps, heaps, mounds, and unconsolidated walls) in three traditional agricultural landscapes: the mountain village Liptovská Teplicka, the vineyard landscape in Svätý Jur, and dispersed settlements in a submontane area in Hrinová. We determined the statistical significance of the impact of the selected landscape ecological factors (a set of factors concerning land use and management, agrarian landforms and relief properties) on the distribution of vegetation and selected invertebrate groups (spiders, millipedes, grasshoppers, and crickets). We also explored whether maintaining traditional land use and traditional management helped to enhance the biodiversity. We found that the management regime is the most important factor determining the species composition of vascular plants and all studied animal groups. Also, present land use and agrarian landforms character (type, skeleton content, continuity) are significant factors. Our expectation of a positive relationship between biodiversity and the maintaining traditional land use and traditional management was, in general, not confirmed: such a relation was only found in Svätý Jur for biodiversity of spiders.

Alpine cushion plants inhibit the loss of phylogenetic diversity in severe environments.

Biotic interactions can shape phylogenetic community structure (PCS). However, we do not know how the asymmetric effects of foundation species on communities extend to effects on PCS. We assessed PCS of alpine plant communities around the world, both within cushion plant foundation species and adjacent open ground, and compared the effects of foundation species and climate on alpha (within-microsite), beta (between open and cushion) and gamma (open and cushion combined) PCS. In the open, alpha PCS shifted from highly related to distantly related with increasing potential productivity. However, we found no relationship between gamma PCS and climate, due to divergence in phylogenetic composition between cushion and open sub-communities in severe environments, as demonstrated by increasing phylo-beta diversity. Thus, foundation species functioned as micro-refugia by facilitating less stress-tolerant lineages in severe environments, erasing a global productivity - phylogenetic diversity relationship that would go undetected without accounting for this important biotic interaction.