Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

History and environment shape species pools and community diversity in European beech forests

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 2, pages 483–490 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

A central hypothesis of ecology states that regional diversity influences local diversity through species-pool effects. Species pools are supposedly shaped by large-scale factors and then filtered into ecological communities, but understanding these processes requires the analysis of large datasets across several regions. Here, we use a framework of community assembly at a continental scale to test the relative influence of historical and environmental drivers, in combination with regional or local species pools, on community species richness and community completeness. Using 42,173 vegetation plots sampled across European beech forests, we found that large-scale factors largely accounted for species pool sizes. At the regional scale, main predictors reflected historical contingencies related to post-glacial dispersal routes, whereas at the local scale, the influence of environmental filters was predominant. Proximity to Quaternary refugia and high precipitation were the main factors supporting community species richness, especially among beech forest specialist plants. Models for community completeness indicate the influence of large-scale factors, further suggesting community saturation as a result of dispersal limitation or biotic interactions. Our results empirically demonstrate how historical factors complement environmental gradients to provide a better understanding of biodiversity patterns across multiple regions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A multi-regional framework for community assembly.
Fig. 2: The number of plant species in European beech forests.
Fig. 3: Path coefficients of structural equation models indicating relationships between large-scale environmental and historical factors, local habitat conditions, species pools and community species richness across European beech forests.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ricklefs, R. E. Disintegration of the ecological community. Am. Nat. 172, 741–750 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Pärtel, M., Bennett, J. A. & Zobel, M. Macroecology of biodiversity: disentangling local and regional effects. New. Phytol. 211, 404–410 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Kier, G. et al. Global patterns of plant diversity and floristic knowledge. J. Biogeogr. 32, 1107–1116 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Šímová, I. et al. Global species-energy relationship in forest plots: role of abundance, temperature and species climatic tolerances. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 20, 842–856 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Götzenberger, L. et al. Ecological assembly rules in plant communities: approaches, patterns and prospects. Biol. Rev. Camb. Philos. Soc. 87, 111–127 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Reich, P. B., Frelich, L. E., Voldseth, R. A., Bakken, P. & Adair, E. C. Understorey diversity in southern boreal forests is regulated by productivity and its indirect impacts on resource availability and heterogeneity. J. Ecol. 100, 539–545 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Lessard, J.-P., Belmaker, J., Myers, J., Chase, J. M. & Rahbek, C. Inferring local ecological processes amid species pool influences. Trends Ecol. Evol. 27, 600–607 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Diamond, J. M. in Ecology and Evolution of Communities (eds. Cody, M. L. C. & Diamond, J. M.) 342–444 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1975).

  9. Eriksson, O. The species-pool hypothesis and plant community diversity. Oikos 68, 371–374 (1993).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Zobel, M. The relative role of species pools in determining plant species richness: an alternative explanation of species coexistence? Trends Ecol. Evol. 2, 266–269 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cornell, H. V. & Harrison, S. P. What are species pools and when are they important? Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 45, 45–67 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Herben, T. Correlation between richness per unit area and the species pool cannot be used to demonstrate the species pool effect. J. Veg. Sci. 11, 123–126 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Zobel, M. The species pool concept as a framework for studying patterns of plant diversity. J. Veg. Sci. 27, 8–18 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mittelbach, G. G. & Schemske, D. W. Ecological and evolutionary perspectives on community assembly. Trends Ecol. Evol. 30, 241–247 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Pärtel, M., Szava-Kovats, R. & Zobel, M. Community completeness: linking local and dark diversity within the species pool concept. Folia Geobot. 48, 307–317 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ricklefs, R. E. Community diversity: relative roles of local and regional processes. Science 235, 167–171 (1987).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Pither, J. & Aarssen, L. W. The evolutionary species pool hypothesis and patterns of freshwater diatom diversity along a pH gradient. J. Biogeogr. 32, 503–513 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Pärtel, M. Local plant diversity patterns and ecolutionary history at the reigonal scale. Ecology 83, 2361–2366 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Zobel, M. et al. The formation of species pools: historical habitat abundance affects current local diversity. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 20, 251–259 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Scheiner, S. M. et al. The underpinnings of the relationship of species richness with space and time. Ecol. Monogr. 81, 195–213 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Brown, J. H. & Nicoletto, P. F. Spatial scaling of species composition: body masses of north american land mammals. Am. Nat. 138, 1478–1512 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Graves, G. R. & Rahbek, C. Source pool geometry and the assembly of continental avifaunas. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 7871–7876 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Fraser, L. H. et al. Response to comment on ‘worldwide evidence of a unimodal relationship between productivity and plant species richness’. Science 350, 1177–1178 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Marcenò, C., Bueno, Á., Gavilán, R. & Obeso, J. R. Biogeographic deconstruction of alpine plant communities along altitudinal and topographic gradients. J. Veg. Sci. 25, 160–171 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Horvat, V., Biurrun, I. & García-Mijangos, I. Herb layer in silver fir-beech forests in the western Pyrenees: does management affect species diversity? For. Ecol. Manag. 385, 87–96 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Paillet, Y. et al. Biodiversity differences between managed and unmanaged forests: meta-analysis of species richness in Europe. Conserv. Biol. 24, 101–112 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Magri, D. Patterns of post-glacial spread and the extent of glacial refugia of European beech (Fagus sylvatica). J. Biogeogr. 35, 450–463 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Fukami, T. Historical contingency in community assembly: integrating niches, species pools, and priority effects. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 46, 1–23 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Willner, W., Di Pietro, R. & Bergmeier, E. Phytogeographical evidence for post-glacial dispersal limitation of European beech forest species. Ecography 32, 1011–1018 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Sabatini, F. M., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Burrascano, S., Lora, A. & Chytrý, M. Beta-diversity of Central European forests decreases along an elevational gradient due to the variation in local community assembly processes. Ecography https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.02809 (2017).

  31. Stein, A., Gerstner, K. & Kreft, H. Environmental heterogeneity as a universal driver of species richness across taxa, biomes and spatial scales. Ecol. Lett. 17, 866–880 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Gavin, D. G. et al. Climate refugia: joint inference from fossil records, species distribution models and phylogeography. New. Phytol. 204, 37–54 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Wohlgemuth, T., Moser, B., Brändli, U.-B., Kull, P. & Schütz, M. Diversity of forest plant species at the community and landscape scales in Switzerland. Plant Biosyst. 142, 604–613 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Ujházyová, M. et al. Diversity of beech forest vegetation in the Eastern Alps, Bohemian Massif and the Western Carpathians. Preslia 88, 435–457 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Ewald, J. The calcareous riddle: why are there so many calciphilous species in the Central European flora? Folia Geobot. 38, 357–366 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Biurrun, I., Campos, J. A., García-Mijangos, I., Herrera, M. & Loidi, J. Floodplain forests of the Iberian Peninsula: vegetation classification and climatic features. Appl. Veg. Sci. 19, 336–354 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Franklin, J., Serra-Diaz, J. M., Syphard, A. D. & Regan, H. M. Big data for forecasting the impacts of global change on plant communities. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 26, 6–17 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Härdtle, W., von Oheimb, G. & Westphal, C. The effects of light and soil conditions on the species richness of the ground vegetation of deciduous forests in northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). For. Ecol. Manag. 182, 327–338 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Tzedakis, P. C., Lawson, I. T., Frogley, M. R., Hewitt, G. M. & Preece, R. C. Buffered tree population changes in a Quaternary refugium: evolutionary implications. Science 297, 2044–2047 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Karger, D. N. et al. Delineating probabilistic species pools in ecology and biogeography. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 25, 489–501 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Gerhold, P., Cahill, J. F., Winter, M., Bartish, I. V. & Prinzing, A. Phylogenetic patterns are not proxies of community assembly mechanisms (they are far better). Funct. Ecol. 29, 600–614 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Wiser, S. K. Achievements and challenges in the integration, reuse and synthesis of vegetation plot data. J. Veg. Sci. 27, 868–879 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Lehsten, D. et al. Modelling the Holocene migrational dynamics of Fagus sylvatica L. and Picea abies (L.) H. Karst. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 23, 658–668 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Willner, W. et al. Classification of European beech forests: a Gordian Knot? Appl. Veg. Sci. 20, 494–512 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Chytrý, M. et al. European Vegetation Archive (EVA): an integrated database of European vegetation plots. Appl. Veg. Sci. 19, 173–180 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Hennekens, S. M. & Schaminée, J. H. J. TURBOVEG, a comprehensive data base management system for vegetation data. J. Veg. Sci. 12, 589–591 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Tichý, L. JUICE, software for vegetation classification. J. Veg. Sci. 13, 451–453 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Houston Durrant, T., de Rigo, D. & Caudullo, G. in European Atlas of Forest Tree Species (eds. San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., de Rigo, D., Caudullo, G., Houston Durrant, T. & Mauri, A.) 94–95 (Publications Office of the EU, Luxembourg, 2016).

  49. Elith, J. et al. A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists. Divers. Distrib. 17, 43–57 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Magyari, E. K. et al. Late Pleniglacial vegetation in eastern-central Europe: are there modern analogues in Siberia? Quat. Sci. Rev. 95, 60–79 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Colwell, R., Mao, C. & Chang, J. Interpolating, extrapolating, and comparing incidence-based species accumulation curves. Ecology 85, 2717–2727 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Ellenberg, H. et al. Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scr. Geobot. 18, 1–248 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Zelený, D. & Schaffers, A. P. Too good to be true: pitfalls of using mean Ellenberg indicator values in vegetation analyses. J. Veg. Sci. 23, 419–431 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Wildi, O. Why mean indicator values are not biased. J. Veg. Sci. 27, 40–49 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Mayor, M. Ecología de la Fflora y Vegetación del Principado de Asturias (Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos, Oviedo, 1999).

  56. Pignatti, S. Valori di bioindicazione delle piante vascolari della flora d’Italia. Braun-Blanquetia 39, 1–97 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  57. Elith, J., Leathwick, J. R. & Hastie, T. A working guide to boosted regression trees. J. Anim. Ecol. 77, 802–813 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. Grace, J. B. Structural Equation Modeling and Natural Systems (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2006).

  59. Lefcheck, J. S. piecewiseSEM: piecewise structural equation modelling in R for ecology, evolution, and systematics. Methods Ecol. Evol. 7, 573–579 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Kissling, W. D. & Carl, G. Spatial autocorrelation and the selection of simultaneous autoregressive models. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 17, 59–71 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Bivand, R., Hauke, J. & Kossowski, T. Computing the Jacobian in Gaussian spatial autoregressive models: an illustrated comparison of available methods. Geogr. Anal. 45, 150–179 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to data contributors of the European Vegetation Archive, and also S. Hennekens and I. Knollová for their support with data management. B.J.-A. was supported by the project 'Employment of Best Young Scientists for International Cooperation Empowerment' (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0037) co-financed by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic, and by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research funded by the German Research Foundation. M.C. and L.T. were supported by the Czech Science Foundation (Centre of Excellence PLADIAS, 14-36079 G). J.-C.S. considers this work a contribution to his VILLUM Investigator project funded by VILLUM FONDEN (grant 16549).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Borja Jiménez-Alfaro & Ute Jandt

  2. Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    Borja Jiménez-Alfaro & Ute Jandt

  3. Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Milan Chytrý & Lubomír Tichý

  4. Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Marco Girardello & Jens-Christian Svenning

  5. cE3c–Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Azorean Biodiversity Group, Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal

    Marco Girardello

  6. Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Jens-Christian Svenning

  7. VINCA - Vienna Institute for Nature Conservation and Analyses, Wien, Austria

    Wolfgang Willner

  8. Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Willner

  9. LERFoB, INRA, AgroParisTech, Nancy, France

    Jean-Claude Gégout

  10. Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Roma, Italy

    Emiliano Agrillo

  11. Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Basque Country UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain

    Juan Antonio Campos

  12. Department of Vegetation Ecology, Botanical Garden, University of Wroclaw, Wrocław, Poland

    Zygmunt Kącki

  13. ZRC SAZU, Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Urban Šilc

  14. Institute of Forest Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Zvolen, Slovakia

    Michal Slezák

  15. Plant Science and Biodiversity Center, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Michal Slezák

  16. Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Ioannis Tsiripidis

  17. Alexandru Borza Botanical Garden, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Pavel Dan Turtureanu

  18. Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen, Zvolen, Slovakia

    Mariana Ujházyová

  19. WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Thomas Wohlgemuth

Authors
  1. Borja Jiménez-Alfaro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marco Girardello
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Milan Chytrý
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jens-Christian Svenning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Wolfgang Willner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jean-Claude Gégout
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Emiliano Agrillo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Juan Antonio Campos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Ute Jandt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Zygmunt Kącki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Urban Šilc
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Michal Slezák
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Lubomír Tichý
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Ioannis Tsiripidis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Pavel Dan Turtureanu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Mariana Ujházyová
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Thomas Wohlgemuth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

B.J.-A. designed the study with support of M.C. and J.-C.S. B.J.-A. prepared the data and wrote the manuscript. M.G. performed the statistical analyses. The other co-authors contributed data, interpreted the results and commented on the final version. The first six authors are ordered by relative contribution, the rest are ordered alphabetically.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Borja Jiménez-Alfaro.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Girardello, M., Chytrý, M. et al. History and environment shape species pools and community diversity in European beech forests. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 483–490 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0462-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0462-6

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing