Evol Ecol Res 19: 209-213 (2018)     Full PDF if your library subscribes.

One for all: can individual plant species indicate the overall number of plant species?

Polina A. Volkova^1,2, Maria O. Ivanova¹ and Liudmila A. Abramova¹

¹Moscow grammar school in the South-West No. 1543, Moscow, Russia and ²Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters, Russian Academy of Sciences, Borok, Russia

Correspondence: P.A. Volkova, Moscow grammar school in the South-West No. 1543, 26 Bakinskikh Komissarov Street, 3–5, 119571 Moscow, Russia. email: polina.an.volkova@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Questions: Is the number of forest vascular plant species an indicator of the total number of plant species? Is there a forest species that might serve to indicate a high number of plant species?

Data: The flora of the sparsely populated Udomlya district (Tver region, central part of European Russia) mapped into 99 squares, each 5 km × 5 km.

Methods: Test for a correlation between the number of forest species and the total number of species in a grid-cell. For each species, test for a correlation between the range in the number of species within grid-cells it occupies versus the mean number of species within those same grid-cells.

Conclusion: The number of forest vascular plant species correlates positively but weakly with the total number of plant species. In general, a high number of species should be associated with species that are typical of rare habitat types (in the district). Thus indicators of a high number of species were not forest species, but species typical of open, mainly disturbed habitats (e.g. Avena sativa, Crataegus sanguinea, Lycopsis arvensis). Due to their unavoidable rarity, we cannot recommend using any of the species consistently found in speciose grid-cells as indicators of a high number of species in grid-cells within the central part of Eastern Europe. Floristic surveys remain an essential tool for studies of biodiversity and for evaluating human impact on ecosystems.

Keywords: anthropogenic disturbance, diversity of forest species, Eastern Europe, indicators, number of plant species, Russia.

DOWNLOAD A FREE, FULL PDF COPY
IF you are connected using the IP of a subscribing institution (library, laboratory, etc.)
or through its VPN.

 

        © 2018 Polina A. Volkova. All EER articles are copyrighted by their authors. All authors endorse, permit and license Evolutionary Ecology Ltd. to grant its subscribing institutions/libraries the copying privileges specified below without additional consideration or payment to them or to Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. These endorsements, in writing, are on file in the office of Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. Consult authors for permission to use any portion of their work in derivative works, compilations or to distribute their work in any commercial manner.

       Subscribing institutions/libraries may grant individuals the privilege of making a single copy of an EER article for non-commercial educational or non-commercial research purposes. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also use articles for non-commercial educational purposes by making any number of copies for course packs or course reserve collections. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also loan single copies of articles to non-commercial libraries for educational purposes.

       All copies of abstracts and articles must preserve their copyright notice without modification.