J 2021

Land snail community patterns related to regional habitat conservation status of European spring fens

COUFAL, Radovan, Julien RYELANDT, Tomáš PETERKA, Daniel DÍTĚ, Petra HÁJKOVÁ et. al.

Basic information

Original name

Land snail community patterns related to regional habitat conservation status of European spring fens

Authors

COUFAL, Radovan (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Julien RYELANDT (250 France), Tomáš PETERKA (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Daniel DÍTĚ (703 Slovakia), Petra HÁJKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Michal HÁJEK (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Veronika HORSÁKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution) and Michal HORSÁK (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Science of The Total Environment, Elsevier, 2021, 0048-9697

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

10618 Ecology

Country of publisher

Netherlands

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Impact factor

Impact factor: 10.753

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14310/21:00119030

Organization unit

Faculty of Science

UT WoS

000656998400013

Keywords in English

Gastropod communities; Species richness; Species composition; Fens; Vertigo geyeri

Tags

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 25/10/2021 14:24, Mgr. Marie Šípková, DiS.

Abstract

V originále

Human activities have enormous impact on current biodiversity distribution across all spatial scales. Despite the numerous studies showing the difference between preserved and impaired sites, only little is known about the regional scale. Therefore, we selected four European regions differing in habitat conservation status (HCS) to explore if the variation in land snail communities reflects regional differences. We collected quantitative land snail samples at 169 isolated spring fen sites and measured environmental parameters. The species richness of habitat specialists expressed low variation and weak associations with local conditions in the two regions of adequate HCS, presumably because of their common occurrence throughout most sites. In contrast, the richness of matrix-derived species, i.e. predominantly habitat generalists, was highly variable in these two regions and also tightly associated with local conditions, especially moisture. In both the intermediate and the inadequate HCS region, these associations were much weaker as the fens are less extreme and allow for penetration of matrix-derived species. Population densities of Vertigo geyeri, an umbrella species internationally protected by the EU Habitats Directive, were highest in the two adequate HCS regions. Species composition was primarily controlled by moisture in the regions of adequate HCS, while in the remaining regions, those predictors that are less easily jeopardized by human impact, such as climate, water chemistry and terrain topography, gained importance. In the inadequate HCS region, none of the analysed predictors was associated with the main compositional gradient, suggesting a complete disruption of community-environment relationships. Our results suggest that the species richness and community responses to natural gradients might be substantially modified by human impact, although the effect of some other region-specific factors cannot be easily disentangled because of inevitably low number of studied regions.

Links

GA19-01775S, research and development project
Name: Současná a budoucí diverzita evropských slatinišť v měnícím se světě
Investor: Czech Science Foundation