RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Climate vs. topography – spatial patterns of plant species diversity and endemism on a high-elevation island
A1 Irl, Severin D.H.
A1 Harter, David E. V.
A1 Steinbauer, Manuel J.
A1 Gallego Puyol, David
A1 Fernández-Palacios, José María
A1 Jentsch, Anke
A1 Beierkuhnlein, Carl
K1 Canary Islands
K1 Climatic rarity
K1 Climatic stability
K1 Island ecology
K1 Landscape ecology
K1 Landscape scale
K1 Mini-continent
K1 Multimodel inference
K1 Spatial ecology
AB Climate and topography are among the most fundamental drivers of plant diversity. Here, weassessed the importance of climate and topography in explaining diversity patterns of species richness,endemic richness and endemicity on the landscape scale of an oceanic island and evaluated theindependent contribution of climatic and topographic variables to spatial diversity patterns.2. We constructed a presence/absence matrix of perennial endemic and native vascular plant species(including subspecies) in 890 plots on the environmentally very heterogeneous island of La Palma,Canary Islands. Species richness, endemic richness and endemicity were recorded, interpolated andrelated to climate (i.e. variables describing temperature, precipitation, variability and climatic rarity)and topography (i.e. topographic complexity, solar radiation, geologic age, slope and aspect). Weused multimodel inference, spatial autoregressive models, variance partitioning and linear regressionkriging as statistical methods.3. Species richness is best explained by both climatic and topographic variables. Topographicvariables (esp. topographic complexity and solar radiation) explain endemic richness, and climaticvariables (esp. elevation/temperature and rainfall seasonality) explain endemicity. Spatial patterns ofspecies richness, endemic richness and endemicity were in part geographically decoupled from eachother.4. Synthesis. We identified several topography-dependent processes ranging from evolutionary processes(micro-refugia, in situ speciation, pre-adaptation to rupicolous conditions, dispersal limitations)to human-induced influences (introduced herbivores, fire, land use) that possibly shape theendemic richness pattern of La Palma. In contrast, climate mainly drives endemicity, which is connectedto ecological speciation and specialization to local conditions. We highlight the importanceof incorporating climatic variability into future studies of plant species diversity and endemism. Thespatial incongruence in hot spots of species richness, endemic richness and endemicity emphasizesthe need for an integrated conservation approach acknowledging different diversity measures to protectthe complete spectrum of diversity. High-elevation islands such as La Palma are highly suitableto study drivers of diversity and endemism, as they offer environmental gradients of continentalmagnitude on the landscape scale of a single climatic mini-continent and a large array of in situspeciatedendemics.
PB British Ecological Society
YR 2015
FD 2015
LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/16885
UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/16885
LA en
DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
RD 25-nov-2024