Di Biase Letizia, Tsafack Noelline, Pace Loretta, Fattorini Simone
Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
cE3c-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Azorean Biodiversity Group, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Environment, CHANGE-Global Change and Sustainability Institute, University of the Azores, Rua Capitão João d'Ávila, Pico da Urze, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal.
Biology (Basel). 2023 Jan 19;12(2):161. doi: 10.3390/biology12020161.
Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs) express plant preferences for temperature, light, continentality, soil moisture, pH, and soil nutrients, and have been largely used to deduce environmental characteristics from plant communities. However, EIVs might also be used to investigate the importance of filtering mechanisms in shaping plant communities according to species ecological preferences, a so far overlooked use of EIVs. In this paper, we investigated how community-weighted means (CWM), calculated with EIVs, varied along an elevational gradient in a small mountain in Central Italy. We also tested if species abundances varied according to their ecological preferences. We found that the prevalence of thermophilous species declines with elevation, being progressively replaced by cold-adapted species. Heliophilous species prevail at low and high elevations (characterized by the presence of open habitats), whereas in the middle of the gradient (occupied by the beech forest), sciophilous species predominate. Variations for moisture and soil nutrient preferences followed a similar pattern, probably because of the high moisture and nutrient levels of forest soils with a lot of humus. No distinct pattern was detected for EIVs for pH and continentality since these factors are subject to more local variations. These results highlight the possible role of EIVs to investigate how environmental gradients shape plant communities.
埃伦伯格指示值（EIVs）表示植物对温度、光照、大陆性、土壤湿度、pH值和土壤养分的偏好，并且已被广泛用于从植物群落中推断环境特征。然而，EIVs也可用于根据物种生态偏好研究过滤机制在塑造植物群落中的重要性，这是迄今为止EIVs被忽视的一种用途。在本文中，我们研究了用EIVs计算的群落加权均值（CWM）如何在意大利中部一座小山的海拔梯度上变化。我们还测试了物种丰度是否根据其生态偏好而变化。我们发现嗜热物种的优势度随海拔升高而下降，逐渐被适应寒冷的物种所取代。喜阳物种在低海拔和高海拔地区占优势（其特征是存在开阔生境），而在梯度中间区域（被山毛榉林占据），喜阴物种占主导。对水分和土壤养分偏好的变化遵循类似模式，可能是因为富含腐殖质的森林土壤具有较高的水分和养分水平。对于pH值和大陆性的EIVs未检测到明显模式，因为这些因素受更局部变化的影响。这些结果突出了EIVs在研究环境梯度如何塑造植物群落方面的可能作用。
