TY - JOUR
T1 - Partitioning the plant diversity of semi-natural grasslands across Japan
AU - Koyama, Asuka
AU - Koyanagi, Tomoyo F.
AU - Akasaka, Munemitsu
AU - Kusumoto, Yoshinobu
AU - Hiradate, Syuntaro
AU - Takada, Masayuki
AU - Okabe, Kimiko
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Yu Yoshihara (Mie University) for providing field data, and to Yoshiko Kobayashi (Hokkaido University), Takeshi Osawa (National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences), Taiki Masui (Gifu University) and the members of the grassland research group in western Japan for their help on our field survey. Dr Martin Fisher and two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments. This work was supported financially by Environment Research and Technology Development Funds (D-1001, 1-1401). MA was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (no. 25740048).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © Fauna & Flora International 2017.
PY - 2018/7/1
Y1 - 2018/7/1
N2 - Effective conservation of global species diversity requires a clear understanding of spatial scales that support overall diversity across broad scales. Abandonment of semi-natural grasslands has increased their fragmentation and decreased their areal extent. We quantified diversity patterns of plant communities in Japan across hierarchical scales to facilitate the development of an effective nationwide strategy for conserving species diversity in remnant semi-natural grasslands. We applied additive partitioning of plant species diversity, using a nested hierarchical design at three spatial scales (quadrat, grassland, and western and eastern regions of Japan) for three groups of plant species (all species, grassland species and national Red Listed species). We consistently found lower proportions of among-quadrats diversity, and higher proportions of among-grasslands diversity and between-regions diversity in the overall diversity of the entire species complement than would be expected by chance. The high contribution of among-grasslands diversity to overall diversity suggests that each grassland had a unique species content. The second-ranking contributor to overall diversity differed between grassland species and Red Listed species: the second-ranking contributor for grassland species was diversity at the among-quadrats scale but the second-ranking contributor for all species and for Red Listed species was diversity at the between-regions scale. Thus, effective conservation of diversity of the entire species complement in remnant semi-natural grasslands requires preservation of beta diversity in individual grasslands. Our findings highlight the importance of strengthening local preservation and restoration activities within each grassland, and of nationwide strategies for conserving Red Listed species in remnant semi-natural grassland communities.
AB - Effective conservation of global species diversity requires a clear understanding of spatial scales that support overall diversity across broad scales. Abandonment of semi-natural grasslands has increased their fragmentation and decreased their areal extent. We quantified diversity patterns of plant communities in Japan across hierarchical scales to facilitate the development of an effective nationwide strategy for conserving species diversity in remnant semi-natural grasslands. We applied additive partitioning of plant species diversity, using a nested hierarchical design at three spatial scales (quadrat, grassland, and western and eastern regions of Japan) for three groups of plant species (all species, grassland species and national Red Listed species). We consistently found lower proportions of among-quadrats diversity, and higher proportions of among-grasslands diversity and between-regions diversity in the overall diversity of the entire species complement than would be expected by chance. The high contribution of among-grasslands diversity to overall diversity suggests that each grassland had a unique species content. The second-ranking contributor to overall diversity differed between grassland species and Red Listed species: the second-ranking contributor for grassland species was diversity at the among-quadrats scale but the second-ranking contributor for all species and for Red Listed species was diversity at the between-regions scale. Thus, effective conservation of diversity of the entire species complement in remnant semi-natural grasslands requires preservation of beta diversity in individual grasslands. Our findings highlight the importance of strengthening local preservation and restoration activities within each grassland, and of nationwide strategies for conserving Red Listed species in remnant semi-natural grassland communities.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0030605316001526
DO - 10.1017/S0030605316001526
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85013124647
VL - 52
SP - 471
EP - 478
JO - Oryx
JF - Oryx
SN - 0030-6053
IS - 3
ER -