Knapp, Sonja and Kuehn, Ingolf and Bakker, Jan P. and Kleyer, Michael and Klotz, Stefan and Ozinga, Wim A. and Poschlod, Peter and Thompson, Ken and Thuiller, Wilfried and Roemermann, Christine (2009) How species traits and affinity to urban land use control large-scale species frequency. DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, 15 (3). pp. 533-546. ISSN 1366-9516,
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Although urban areas only occupy c. 2.8% of the earth's land surface, urbanization threatens biodiversity as areas of high human population density often coincide with high biodiversity. Therefore, nature conservation should concentrate on both remote areas and densely populated regions. Protecting rare plant species in rural and urban areas can contribute to the protection of biodiversity. We therefore need to understand why species are rare. Studies on causes of rarity often concentrate on either plant traits or extrinsic threats (such as habitat fragmentation or nitrogen enrichment). However, there are only a few studies that combine traits and extrinsic threats, although such analyses might clarify causes of rarity. We assessed how the affinity of vascular plant species to urban land use ('urbanity') interacts with plant traits in determining species frequency. Germany, resolution c. 12 km x 11 km. Species with a low frequency may be rare because they occur in rare habitats or because of other reasons, although their habitat is frequent. Therefore, we calculated the frequency of species corrected for habitat frequency, i.e. relative species frequency. We explained relative species frequency by the interactions of species traits and species affinity to urban land use using generalized linear models. Simultaneous autoregressive error models controlled for phylogenetic relationships of species. Relative species frequency depends on species affinity to urban land use, independent of the different interactions between traits and urbanity used as predictors. The higher the urbanity the higher is species frequency. Urbanity interacts with species preferences towards temperature and soil acidity. Moreover, dispersal, nitrogen preferences and origin explain relative species frequency, amongst others. Many rare species, especially those preferring cool or acidic habitats might already have disappeared from urban areas. Analyses that combine species traits and environmental effects can explain the causes of rarity and help to derive better conservation strategies.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS; INDICATOR VALUES; SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION; PLANT ECOLOGY; MODELS; PATTERNS; EUROPE; AREAS; FLORA; BIODIVERSITY; Functional traits; niche models; phylogenetic autocorrelation; plant rarity; species distribution models; urban ecology |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 580 Botanical sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften > Lehrstuhl für Ökologie und Naturschutzbiologie (Prof. Dr. Peter Poschlod) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Sep 2020 10:05 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Sep 2020 10:05 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/29036 |
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