10.5061/DRYAD.1RN8PK0RB
McCune, Jenny
0000-0003-0546-1781
University of Lethbridge
Data for: Comparing the effect of landscape context on vascular plant and
bryophyte communities in a human-dominated landscape
Dryad
dataset
2020
2020-08-14T00:00:00Z
2020-08-14T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3217-y
211388 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Aims: It is important to understand the effect of landscape context on
biological communities to predict how biodiversity will be affected on
human-dominated landscapes. While many studies have tested the effects of
landscape context on the species richness and composition of vascular
plants, few have compared the responses of vascular plants and bryophytes
on the same landscape. We sampled non-epiphytic bryophytes and vascular
plants in 184 plots to test whether three landscape context factors
measured four years or four decades previously could predict bryophyte or
vascular plant species richness and composition after accounting for local
factors. Location: Temperate forests and oak savannahs, Vancouver Island,
British Columbia, Canada. Methods: We used model selection and comparisons
to test the effects of surrounding road density, total amount of forest,
and distance to the nearest forest edge on species richness, species
richness of non-disturbance-associated species, and community composition
after controlling for important local predictors including substrate
availability and topography. Results: The species richness of
non-disturbance-associated vascular plants was lower in plots with greater
surrounding historical road density, and perennial stayer bryophyte
richness declined with increasing historical road density and lower
historical forest amount, suggesting a potential extinction debt.
Landscape context significantly affected total species richness and
community composition of vascular plants, but not bryophytes. Conclusion:
While bryophytes appear to be less sensitive overall to landscape context
than vascular plants, disturbance-intolerant perennial stayer bryophytes
may decline in the future in response to the increased road density and
loss of forest cover that has occurred over the past four decades.
We sampled 184 20m x 20m relevé plots on the Saanich Peninsula, a region
of approximately 330 km2 in 2009. In each plot, we identified all vascular
plants and estimated the percent cover of each. We also identified all
bryophyte species occurring on soil, rock, or decomposing wood, and
estimated the percent cover of each. If a species was estimated to cover
less than 1% of the plot, we entered “0.5” in the data, and if it covered
much less than 1%, we entered “0.1”. We did not survey epiphytic
bryophytes on living trees. We also measured the slope and aspect of each
plot, and estimated the percent cover of soil, exposed rock, and
decomposing wood substrate. We then used a Geographical Information System
(GIS) to measure the total amount of natural vegetated area within a 500m
buffer of each plot, the total length of roads within the same distance of
each plot, and the distance in metres from the plot to the nearest edge
between natural and non-natural vegetation.