Drivers of vascular plant species area relationships in British broadleaved woodlands and their effects on the species area curve

Abstract

SummaryThe loss of plant biodiversity in Great Britain is a major concern, with a fifth of species endangered or vulnerable according to the latest IUCN Red List. The Government’s 25 Year Plan for the environment aims to halt this loss and build new habitats, including new woodlands. To ensure that biodiversity loss is halted in existing woodlands and gain is maximised in new ones, we need to better understand which drivers have been most influential in controlling biodiversity. Here we focus on vascular plant species’ richness.Previous attempts to explain plant species richness have mainly focussed on alpha diversity in a consistent, fixed unit area. Here, we additionally undertake a novel analysis of the effects of environmental heterogeneity and abiotic factors on species-area relationships derived from 16 randomly placed quadrats in each of 103 semi-natural, broad-leaved woodlands across Britain. Species-area relationships were examined at two scales (4m2 to 200m2 and 200m2 to 3200m2) to explore the relationship between the drivers of species richness and the exponent z, of the canonical species-area curve, S = cAz. We also explore the use of a new metric ζr, based on zeta diversity to quantify heterogeneity. Zeta diversity quantifies the number of species shared between multiple combinations of plots.Habitat heterogeneity increased species richness, as did the proximity of the woodlands to surrounding natural habitats. Higher levels of soil organic matter and the progression of woodlands to later successional stages, decreased species richness. Richness was also seen to have a unimodal response to soil acidity with a peak around pH 6. At the smaller scale, heterogeneity elements in the woodland such as riparian zones or coppicing led to an increase in the value of the exponent of the species area curve. At the larger scale, species turnover led to an increase in the exponent of the curves while succession led to a decrease. At both scales, soil organic matter content had a negative effect. ζr was found to be a significant and important variable and to affect both species richness and the slope of the species accumulation curves at larger scales.SynthesisHabitat heterogeneity measures included the presence of coppicing, open areas such as rides and riparian zones and the difference between species assemblages in different plots in the woodland. Results suggest that to maximize vascular plant diversity, woodlands should be managed for heterogeneity. In addition, the increase in richness with exposure to surrounding natural habitats suggests that woodlands benefit from being embedded in more benign habitats and further, that land management surrounding woodlands has a clear role to play in supporting biodiversity within woodlands. This is an area were Agri-environment schemes have an important role.