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The effect of exotic plants on taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of common reeds communities
master's thesis

Abstract: Macrophytes have a pivotal role as point of interaction between many of the organisms, and the water and sediment chemistry in a freshwater system. Despite their low floristic diversity, reeds beds can support a wide range of wildlife, and provide a variety of functions for the wetland ecosystems. Recent studies show the existence of a threshold effect of alien plant cover or density on plant communities dominated by P. australis, whereby more increased the alien plant impact is, more reduced may be the native plant species diversity. However, many of these studies were based on taxonomical or traits information, whereas no investigations have considered the phylogenetic dimension so far. This study aims to investigate the incidence of alien species on the phylogenetic diversity of wetland vegetation dominated by P. australis. To do this, we investigated the floristic composition of a total of 98 natural reeds beds from Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, analysing separately lentic and lotic communities. We constructed a phylogenetic tree of the plant species and compared the differences in taxonomic/functional/phylogenetic diversity, evaluating the role of the incidence of the alien species. The results showed that the relative abundance of exotic plant species is positively related to the taxonomic diversity of the common reeds communities and doesn’t affect the phylogenetic diversity. Probably, the human impact promoted the entrance of the exotic species already represented at evolutionary level. Also, the presence of exotic species influenced functional diversity, especially it promoted the adaptive strategies ruderals of the communities.
Keywords: Phylogeny, Phragmites australis, wetlands, exotic species, taxonomic diversity, functional diversity
Published in RUNG: 22.12.2020; Views: 2011; Downloads: 0
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