• Corpus ID: 59025510

Environmental drivers of species composition and richness in dry grasslands of northern and central Bohemia, Czech Republic

@article{Merunkov2014EnvironmentalDO,
  title={Environmental drivers of species composition and richness in dry grasslands of northern and central Bohemia, Czech Republic},
  author={Kristina Merunkov{\'a} and Zdenka Preislerov{\'a} and Milan Chytr{\'y}},
  journal={Tuexenia},
  year={2014},
  volume={2014},
  pages={447-466}
}

• Kristina Merunková, Zdenka Preislerová, M. Chytrý
• Published 2014
• Environmental Science
• Tuexenia

Central European dry grasslands are remarkably diverse plant
communities that occur at the western edge of the Eurasian
forest-steppe zone and harbour many species of continental
distribution. Although their plant community types have been
described in detail, the diversity patterns and their
environmental determinants are still poorly known for these
grasslands. Here, we study environmental drivers of species
composition and richness in dry grasslands of northern Bohemia
(Ceske stredohori Mts) and central Bohemia (Krivoklat region),
both in the Czech Republic. In vegetation plots of 100 m(2) we
recorded all vascular plant species, measured soil chemistry
variables, above-ground biomass production and nutrient
concentrations in biomass. Species richness in these plots
ranged from 13 to 55. The relationships between species
composition and the environment were explored using detrended
correspondence analysis and canonical correspondence analysis,
while the relationships between species richness and the
environment were assessed using univariate and multiple
regression models. In both regions, species composition and
richness strongly responded to the soil pH (ranging from 4.0 to
7.8), which was positively correlated with calcium and
magnesium concentrations and negatively with annual
precipitation. The response of species richness to soil pH was
unimodal with a peak at pH of about 6.5 in the Ceske stredohori
Mts, and positive in the Krivoklat region. Plots on soils with
a pH higher than 5 consistently contained more than 35 species.
In the Ceske stredohori Mts, species richness was positively
related to the aboveground biomass production, whereas in the
Krivoklat region, this relationship was only significant for
graminoid species. In both areas, plots with soils deeper than
20 cm and with aboveground biomass dry weight above 200 g/m(2)
harboured more than 40 species per 100 m(2). Moreover, in the
Ceske stredohori Mts, nitrogen concentrations in the biomass
had considerable effects on both species composition and
richness: species numbers were lower at sites with higher
nitrogen concentration. This indicates a threat to diversity of
these dry grasslands under currently high atmospheric nitrogen
deposition coupled with the absence of management at most of
the studied sites.