The influence of agricultural land-use intensity on bryophyte species richness |
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Authors: | Harald Gustav Zechmeister Dietmar Moser |
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Affiliation: | (1) Division of Conservation Biology, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Conservation Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstraße 14, A-1091 Vienna, Austria |
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Abstract: | This study is a quantitative approach to the estimation of bryophyte species richness in relation to land-use intensity at three spatial scales in highly cultivated areas. A total of 460 randomly selected habitats and their various substrates within 29 study sites were investigated with regard to their land-use intensity and their bryophyte species richness in an agricultural region of eastern Austria. On bare soils (substrate-scale), low but regular disturbance increases bryophyte diversity in comparison to lower land-use intensity. However, more frequent disturbance (e.g. ploughing more than two times a year) dramatically reduces species richness at these sites, with more than 50% of these sites showing no bryophytes. The production of reproductive units (sporophytes and vegetative units) is highest at an intermediate disturbance regime. On the habitat, as well as on the landscape-scale, there is a significant increase in total bryophyte species number as well as in the number of threatened species with decreasing land-use intensity. This is mainly due to habitat and structural diversity, which increases with decreasing land-use intensity. There are significant correlations between landuse intensity, structural diversity and species richness at the habitat as well as on the landscape scale. |
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Keywords: | bryophytes habitat diversity habitat-scale landscape-scale substrate-scale threatened bryophytes |
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