Livestock settlement affects shrub abundance via plant functional diversity but not species richness in arid environment
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Livestock settlement affects shrub abundance via plant functional diversity but not species richness in arid environments Gabriel Gatica
. Adria´n Escudero . Eduardo Pucheta
Received: 14 February 2020 / Accepted: 4 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Recent theoretical and empirical studies have assumed that livestock grazing acts as a biotic filter favouring plant species with functional traits that confer resistance to herbivory. Considering that plant functional traits affect the species abundance and persistence in a community, alterations in functional diversity would result in changes in species richness, evenness or growth form composition. However, empirical tests of the intermediary role of functional diversity among livestock pressure, climate and Communicated by Leland Russell.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-020-01079-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. G. Gatica (&) E. Pucheta Departamento de Biologı´a, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fı´sicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. Ignacio de la Roza 599 (Oeste), Rivadavia, J5402DCS San Juan, Argentina e-mail: [email protected]
species diversity and composition remain rare. We evaluated if functional diversity acts as an intermediary between livestock pressure and several components of taxonomical diversity in plant communities located along an aridity gradient in central-western Argentina. We estimated functional diversity using four plant traits that are expected to reflect trade-offs between resource-use strategies and grazing resistance. We found that livestock pressure increased shrub abundance by negatively affecting functional diversity, and this effect was amplified by increases in aridity. On the other hand, aridity promoted declines in species richness by reductions in functional diversity. Overall, our results suggest that functional diversity acts as intermediary component between livestock pressure and growth form composition; and also A. Escudero Departamento de Biologı´a, Geologı´a, Fı´sica y Quı´mica Inorga´nica, Escuela Superior de Ciencias experimentales y Tecnolo´gicas, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C/ Tulipa´n s/n, C.P. 28933 Mo´stoles, Madrid, Spain
Present Address: G. Gatica CIFICEN – Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Paraje Arroyo Seco, Campus Universitario, B7000GHG Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Plant Ecol
between aridity and species richness. Finally, our findings highlight that livestock grazing may be considered as a biotic filter affecting growth form composition but not species richness and evenness. Keywords Biotic filter Environmental filter Functional dispersion Functional redundancy Goat grazing Path analysis Watering points
Introduction In arid regions, pastoral grazing is the most important land use type affecting different components of plant diversity such as taxonomica
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