The role of surrounding landscape in determining species richness of mesic grasslands in Pannonian basin and Carpathian mountains

Abstract

Alpha diversity of mesic grasslands of the Arrhenatheretalia order was related to the surrounding landscape structure. The following questions were addressed: i) Does structure of surrounding landscape affect local species richness? How important is the influence of surrounding landscape in comparison with influence of climatic-topographical and soil-geological variables? ii) Do the landscape effects differ in climatically distinct regions (Pannonian, Carpathian colline-submontane and Carpathian montane-subalpine)? iii) Which of the surrounding habitats contribute to species richness and which species immigrate to grasslands most frequently? Species data were extracted from Slovak vegetation plot database. Surrounding land-use (in terms of cover and diversity of various habitat types in plot neighbourhood of 4 km2) was derived from CORINE land cover maps and National Grassland Inventory. Both, percentage cover and diversity of different habitat types in plot neighbourhood affected local species richness. In the Pannonian Basin, mesic grasslands had the lowest species richness but the landscape factors explained the highest proportion of its variance. In the montane-subalpine Carpathian region, the effect of landscape factors was least pronounced. The surrounding landscape affected number, proportion and cover of satellite species in plots. Mesic grasslands of the Pannonian Basin hosted the largest number, proportion and cover of archaeophytes and neophytes.