Environmental thresholds and predictors of macrophyte species richness in aquatic habitats in central Europe

• Published in: Folia geobotanica Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 227 - 238
• Main Authors: Svitok, Marek, Hrivnák, Richard, Kochjarová, Judita, Oťaheľová, Helena, Paľove-Balang, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences 01.09.2016; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic habitats; Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Ditches; Fresh water; Habitats; Hydrology; Life Sciences; Organic chemistry; Plant Ecology; Plant Sciences; Plant species; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Ponds; Recursive methods; Species; Species richness; Strategic management; Substrates; Thresholds; Turbidity; Central Europe; Europe; random forests; regression trees; diversity; Slovakia; aquatic plants
• ISSN: 1211-9520; 1874-9348
• DOI: 10.1007/s12224-015-9211-2

The degradation of habitats and species loss in freshwaters is far greater than in any other ecosystem. The decline in biodiversity has a strong potential to alter the functioning of the ecosystem and the services they provide to human society. Therefore, there is an urgent need for accurate information on patterns and drivers of diversity that could be used in the management of freshwater ecosystems. We present the results of an analysis of the relationships between macrophyte species richness and environmental characteristics using an extensive dataset collected from 160 sites in two centralEuropean bioregions. We modelled macrophyte species richness using recursive partitioning methods to assess the diversity-environmental relationships and to estimate the environmental thresholds of species richness in rivers, streams, ditches and ponds. Several hydrological and chemical variables were identified as significant predictors of macrophyte richness. Among them, pH, conductivity, turbidity and substrate composition appeared as the most important. There is also evidence that natural ponds support a greater number of plant species than man-made ponds. Based on the detected environmental thresholds, we offer a series of simple rules for maintaining higher macrophyte species richness, which is potentially useful in the conservation and management of aquatic habitats in central Europe.