Diversity of plant assemblages dampens the variability of the growing season phenology in wetland landscapes

Rheault, G., Lévesque, E. et Proulx, R. (2021). Diversity of plant assemblages dampens the variability of the growing season phenology in wetland landscapes. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 21 (1). ISSN 1472-6785 DOI 10.1186/s12862-021-01817-6

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Résumé

Background:
The functioning of ecosystems is highly variable through space and time. Climatic and edaphic factors are forcing ecological communities to converge, whereas the diversity of plant assemblages dampens these effects by allowing communities’ dynamics to diverge. This study evaluated whether the growing season phenology of wetland plant communities within landscapes is determined by the climatic/edaphic factors of contrasted regions, by the species richness of plant communities, or by the diversity of plant assemblages. From 2013 to 2016, we monitored the phenology and floristic composition of 118 wetland plant communities across five landscapes distributed along a gradient of edaphic and climatic conditions in the Province of Québec, Canada.

Results:
The growing season phenology of wetlands was driven by differences among plant assemblage within landscapes, and not by the species richness of each individual community (< 1% of the explained variation). Variation in the growing season length of wetlands reflected the destabilizing effect of climatic and edaphic factors on green-up dates, which is opposed to the dampening effect of plant assemblage diversity on green-down dates.

Conclusions:
The latter dampening effect may be particularly important in the context of increasing anthropogenic activities, which are predicted to impair the ability of wetlands to adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. Our findings suggest that stakeholders should not necessarily consider local species-poor plant communities of lower conservation value to the global functioning of wetland ecosystems.

Type de document:	Article
Mots-clés libres:	Biodiversity ecosystem functioning Bogs Diversity stability relationship Marshes Plant phenology Temporal asynchrony Wet meadows Biodiversity Bog Community composition Ecosystem function Marsh Meadow Phenology Seasonal variation Spatiotemporal analysis Species diversity Canada Quebec [Canada] Quebec [Quebec (PRV)] Ecosystem Quebec Season Wetland Seasons Wetlands
Date de dépôt:	04 janv. 2024 18:46
Dernière modification:	04 janv. 2024 18:46
Version du document déposé:	Version officielle de l'éditeur
URI:	https://depot-e.uqtr.ca/id/eprint/11072

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