Vascular plant assemblages of ephemeral wetland vegetation along the Mediterranean-temperate gradient in Chile
Plant species composition and geographical distribution of vernal pools in Mediterranean Chile are poorly studied. In order to overcome this gap we collected 73 floristic samples in the Mediterranean-temperate gradient from Chile (31- 44°S). Additionally, we carried out an exhaustive collection of p...
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| Autores principales: | , |
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| Lenguaje: | English |
| Publicado: |
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción
2015
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| Acceso en línea: | http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-66432015000200002 |
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| Sumario: | Plant species composition and geographical distribution of vernal pools in Mediterranean Chile are poorly studied. In order to overcome this gap we collected 73 floristic samples in the Mediterranean-temperate gradient from Chile (31- 44°S). Additionally, we carried out an exhaustive collection of published phytosociological relevés made in this area including some relevés from the East side of the Andes in Argentina. The resulting dataset contains 228 observations of 269 species. Hierarchical clustering was applied in order to get co-occurrence assemblages. These sets were compared with diagnostic groups defined a priori, life forms and their status in South America (introduced vs native species). In order to detect geographic and climatic distribution patterns of the assemblages, we extracted climatic summary variables from the WorldClim database and performed a principal component analysis (PCA). We detected seven species assemblages with a significant correspondence to diagnostic groups defined a priori (P < 0.01), though their association is relatively low (Cramér’s V = 0.49). Native species dominate over adventive ones in each assemblage suggesting low risk of out- competition by introduced species adapted to these habitats. The annual life form is over represented in most of the co- occurrence groups. Despite the huge temperature and precipitation gradient in the studied transect, plant assemblages are occurring almost along the whole range, supporting the hypothesis of azonality (low dependence on macro-climate). Assemblages defined in this work can be potentially used for further supervised classification strategies in order to define plant community types within vernal pool vegetation. |
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