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Plant species diversity and composition of wet grasslands in relation to environmental factors

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Abstract

Relationships between environmental factors and plant species-richness as well as the composition of plant species in wet grasslands from the order Molinietalia caeruleae were studied with a view to quantifying the relative contribution of different abiotic factors, such as soil chemical parameters, climatic conditions and human impact to diversity of vascular plants and floristic composition. Data and soil samples were collected from 88 plots across Slovenia from regions at the eastern edge of the Po plain, karstic and pre-Alpine mountain regions and the western part of the Pannonian plain, which are classified to sub-Mediterranean, Dinnaric, pre-Alpine and sub-Pannonian phytogeographic areas. Plant diversity was positively correlated with the content of exchangeable Ca2+ in soil and the amount of annual precipitation, while significant negative correlation was calculated in case of the plant-available phosphorous content and altitude. Moreover, plant species richness was also negatively correlated with altitude. Among the groups of environmental factors the group of soil factors revealed the strongest correlation with species richness, followed by climatic and topographic group. The order of these groups was the same in the explanation of species composition. Variance of plant species composition was best explained with altitude, soil pH, geographical gradient, frequency of flooding, mean annual temperature, date of mowing, humidity, annual amount of precipitation as well as with the content of plant-available phosphorous, total nitrogen, exchangeable Mg2+ and Ca2+ in the soil.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. Andrej Martinčič for help and revision of this paper, as well as to Prof. Alenka Gaberščik and Prof. Mateja Germ for critical comments that helped to improve this paper. We also would like to thank Prof. Franc Lobnik and others from the Centre for Soil and Environmental Sciences (University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty) for soil analyses. We thank G. W. A. Milne for the English revision of the manuscript and Monika Janišová and two reviewers, whose comments improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot 111, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Igor Zelnik

  2. Institute of Biology, Scientific Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Novi trg 2, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Andraž Čarni

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  1. Igor Zelnik
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Correspondence to Igor Zelnik.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table 4 Shortened synoptic table of taxa percentage occurence in three vegetation types/alliances of wet grasslands. Species which occurrence in the given vegetation type is not random at p < 0.05 (Fisher’s test) are in bold
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Zelnik, I., Čarni, A. Plant species diversity and composition of wet grasslands in relation to environmental factors. Biodivers Conserv 22, 2179–2192 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013-0448-x

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