Maximum air temperature controlled by landscape topography affects plant species composition in temperate forests

0517754 - BÚ 2020 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Macek, Martin - Kopecký, Martin - Wild, Jan
Maximum air temperature controlled by landscape topography affects plant species composition in temperate forests.
Landscape Ecology. Roč. 34, č. 11 (2019), s. 2541-2556. ISSN 0921-2973. E-ISSN 1572-9761
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA17-13998S
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : microclimate * species composition * topoclimate
OECD category: Ecology
Impact factor: 3.385, year: 2019
Method of publishing: Limited access

Forest microclimates differ from regional macroclimates because forest canopies affect energy fluxes near the ground. However, little is known about the environmental drivers of understorey temperature heterogeneity and its effects on species assemblages, especially at landscape scales. Objectives We aimed to identify which temperature variables best explain the landscape-scale distribution of forest vegetation and to disentangle the effects of elevation, terrain attributes and canopy cover on understorey temperatures. Maximum temperature was the best predictor of understorey plant species composition. Landscape-scale variation in maximum temperature was jointly driven by elevation and terrain topography but not by canopy cover. Modelled maximum temperature derived from our topoclimatic maps explained significantly more variation in plant community composition than WorldClim 2 grids. Terrain topography creates landscape-scale variation in maximum temperature, which in turn controls plant species assembly within the forest understorey. Maximum temperature is therefore an important but neglected microclimatic driver of species distribution across landscapes.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0303050