Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile

It is well known that the number of plant species associated with nurse plants increases with elevation. However, studies conducted so far have largely ignored the effect of nurse plants on other community attributes, such as the species abundances, diversity and evenness. Moreover, changes in these...

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Autores principales:	QUIROZ,CONSTANZA L, BADANO,ERNESTO I, CAVIERES,LOHENGRIN A
Lenguaje:	English
Publicado:	Sociedad de Biología de Chile 2009
Materias:	positive associations community structure elevation environmental gradients nurse effect
Acceso en línea:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2009000200001
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spelling	oai:scielo:S0716-078X20090002000012009-09-09Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central ChileQUIROZ,CONSTANZA LBADANO,ERNESTO ICAVIERES,LOHENGRIN A positive associations community structure elevation environmental gradients nurse effect It is well known that the number of plant species associated with nurse plants increases with elevation. However, studies conducted so far have largely ignored the effect of nurse plants on other community attributes, such as the species abundances, diversity and evenness. Moreover, changes in these community attributes along environmental gradients have also been seldom examined. The present study evaluates the effect of the cushion plant Azorella madrepórica (Apiaceae) on species richness, species abundance, diversity and evenness of vascular plants at two elevations in the Andes of central Chile. Theoretically, the impact of this nurse cushion plant on these community attributes should be grater at a higher elevation. Results showed that the proportion of plant species associated with cushion plants increases with elevation, and the abundance of some species is also greater within cushions than on bare ground. Although the proportion of species growing within cushions increased with elevation, diversity and evenness were higher on bare ground. This is due to some few species that attained very high densities within cushions, generating assemblages highly dominated by some few species. Ordination analyses indicated differences in species assemblages within and outside A. madrepórica at the higher elevation. Therefore, the influence of cushion plants on community structure changes with elevation. Accordingly, we suggest that attributes other than species richness must be included in future studies in order to analyze the impact of nurse species on community structure along environmental gradients.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessSociedad de Biología de ChileRevista chilena de historia natural v.82 n.2 20092009-06-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2009000200001en10.4067/S0716-078X2009000200001
institution	Scielo Chile
collection	Scielo Chile
language	English
topic	positive associations community structure elevation environmental gradients nurse effect
spellingShingle	positive associations community structure elevation environmental gradients nurse effect QUIROZ,CONSTANZA L BADANO,ERNESTO I CAVIERES,LOHENGRIN A Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile
description	It is well known that the number of plant species associated with nurse plants increases with elevation. However, studies conducted so far have largely ignored the effect of nurse plants on other community attributes, such as the species abundances, diversity and evenness. Moreover, changes in these community attributes along environmental gradients have also been seldom examined. The present study evaluates the effect of the cushion plant Azorella madrepórica (Apiaceae) on species richness, species abundance, diversity and evenness of vascular plants at two elevations in the Andes of central Chile. Theoretically, the impact of this nurse cushion plant on these community attributes should be grater at a higher elevation. Results showed that the proportion of plant species associated with cushion plants increases with elevation, and the abundance of some species is also greater within cushions than on bare ground. Although the proportion of species growing within cushions increased with elevation, diversity and evenness were higher on bare ground. This is due to some few species that attained very high densities within cushions, generating assemblages highly dominated by some few species. Ordination analyses indicated differences in species assemblages within and outside A. madrepórica at the higher elevation. Therefore, the influence of cushion plants on community structure changes with elevation. Accordingly, we suggest that attributes other than species richness must be included in future studies in order to analyze the impact of nurse species on community structure along environmental gradients.
author	QUIROZ,CONSTANZA L BADANO,ERNESTO I CAVIERES,LOHENGRIN A
author_facet	QUIROZ,CONSTANZA L BADANO,ERNESTO I CAVIERES,LOHENGRIN A
author_sort	QUIROZ,CONSTANZA L
title	Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile
title_short	Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile
title_full	Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile
title_fullStr	Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile
title_full_unstemmed	Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile
title_sort	floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant azorella madreporica (apiaceae) in the andes of central chile
publisher	Sociedad de Biología de Chile
publishDate	2009
url	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2009000200001
work_keys_str_mv	AT quirozconstanzal floristicchangesinalpineplantcommunitiesinducedbythecushionplantazorellamadreporicaapiaceaeintheandesofcentralchile AT badanoernestoi floristicchangesinalpineplantcommunitiesinducedbythecushionplantazorellamadreporicaapiaceaeintheandesofcentralchile AT caviereslohengrina floristicchangesinalpineplantcommunitiesinducedbythecushionplantazorellamadreporicaapiaceaeintheandesofcentralchile
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Floristic changes in alpine plant communities induced by the cushion plant Azorella madreporica (Apiaceae) in the Andes of central Chile

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