Corbin Jeffrey D, Flatland Emma L
Department of Biological Sciences Union College Schenectady New York USA.
Ecol Evol. 2022 Sep 11;12(9):e9282. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9282. eCollection 2022 Sep.
Small habitat patches can be important reservoirs for biodiversity, capable of hosting unique species that are largely absent from the surrounding landscape. In cases where such patches owe their existence to the presence of particular soil types or hydrologic conditions, local-scale edaphic variables may be more effective components for models that identify patch location than regional-scale macroclimatic variables often used in habitat and species distribution models. We modeled the edaphic soil conditions that support pine barren, sandplain, and related ecosystems in New York State with the purpose of identifying potential locations for biodiversity conservation. We quantified soil percent sand and soil depth of 156 known high-quality remnant pine barren and sandplain ecosystems to calculate threshold soil characteristics. We then mapped all soils in the state that were at least as sandy and deep as the threshold values we calculated. The total area of our map of suitable soil conditions was over 9500 km, made up of forested (57%), urban (26%), agricultural (13%), and open (4%) land covers. Our analysis nearly doubled the recognized area of barren, shrubland, and grassland habitat on deep, sandy soils in New York State. Extensive forested and even agricultural cover on these soils could also be the subject of restoration to further support the biodiversity of these unique ecosystems. The presence of extensive soils in coastal and interior New York that, with the appropriate disturbance regime, have the potential to host pine barren and sandplain ecosystems offers a new perspective on these ecosystems' distribution in the past-and about how to better align conservation and restoration to preserve the future.
小型栖息地斑块可能是生物多样性的重要储存库，能够容纳周围景观中基本不存在的独特物种。在这些斑块的存在归因于特定土壤类型或水文条件的情况下，对于识别斑块位置的模型而言，局部尺度的土壤变量可能比栖息地和物种分布模型中常用的区域尺度宏观气候变量更有效。我们对支撑纽约州松树荒地、沙地平原及相关生态系统的土壤条件进行了建模，目的是确定生物多样性保护的潜在地点。我们对156个已知的高质量残留松树荒地和沙地平原生态系统的土壤含沙百分比和土壤深度进行了量化，以计算阈值土壤特征。然后，我们绘制了该州所有至少与我们计算出的阈值一样多沙且深厚的土壤地图。我们的适宜土壤条件地图总面积超过9500平方千米，由森林覆盖地（57%）、城市用地（26%）、农业用地（13%）和开阔地（4%）组成。我们的分析使纽约州深沙地的荒地、灌丛地和草地栖息地的公认面积几乎增加了一倍。这些土壤上广泛的森林甚至农业覆盖也可能成为恢复的对象，以进一步支持这些独特生态系统的生物多样性。纽约州沿海和内陆存在大量土壤，在适当的干扰制度下，有可能承载松树荒地和沙地平原生态系统，这为这些生态系统过去的分布以及如何更好地协调保护与恢复以保护未来提供了新视角。
