Our paper has recently been published in the
Research Topic entitled 'Roles and Implications of Functional Traits and Phylogenies to Characterize Refugia Under Increasing Climate Variability' in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
The citation of our paper is:
Deák, B., Rádai, Z., Bátori, Z.,
Kelemen, A., Lukács, K., Kiss, R., Maák, I.E., Valkó, O. (2021): Ancient burial
mounds provide safe havens for grassland specialist plants in transformed
landscapes – A trait-based analysis. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9:
619812. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2021.619812
The paper is open access and can be downloaded
from here.
The aim of our study was to compare the
functional characteristics of grassland specialist plant species in three types
of lowland loess grasslands in Hungary, which serve as model grassland habitats typical
of agricultural landscapes. The studied habitat types were: 1) Kurgans (i.e.
millennia-old ancient burial mounds built by nomadic steppic tribes), that are
ancient, relatively undisturbed, highly isolated habitat islands; 2) Verges,
that are younger linear structures subjected to several types of human
disturbance and 3) Extensive grasslands, that remained intact from arable farming
and serve as the reference state of the studied habitat. We were curious about
the plant functional traits that make specialist species able to survive in the
different habitat types and also, about the community level functional
diversity of the studied habitat types.
One of our most interesting result is that we
found that kurgans, as terrestrial habitat islands are characterised by
specialist species that are functionally similar to species inhabiting oceanic
islands. In particular, species on kurgans were more self compatible, had
larger seed mass and taller stature than species of verges and extensive
grasslands. It is very interesting to see the similar community assembly
processes on the younger and less isolated kurgans and the more ancient and more
isolated oceanic islands.
Another interesting results is that lurgans and
extensive grasslands were characterized by higher functional diversity (both at
the level of single traits and multi-trait based functional dispersion) than
the verges. This is probably due to the higher level of environmental
heterogeneity (you can read about this in our earlier blog post) compared to
the homogeneous environment in verges.
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Dry grassland on the Falcon-mound, with crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum).
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Abstract
Due to the intensified land use in transformed
landscapes, grassland biodiversity is often restricted to habitat fragments
inadequate for arable use or for urban development. In continental parts of
Eurasia, the ∼600,000 ancient burial mounds
(called “kurgans”) built by nomadic tribes of the steppes are
amongst the most widespread landmarks providing refuge for dry grassland
species. In our study by using plant functional groups and functional traits,
we aimed at gaining insight into the ecological and evolutionary processes
shaping the structure and the composition of assemblages of grassland
specialist plant species on kurgans embedded in the agricultural landscapes of
East-Hungary. As a comparison, we also studied roadside verges and pristine
extensive grasslands in the same region. We found that despite their small
size, due to the lack of human disturbances and high microhabitat diversity
kurgans can maintain a high species richness and percentage cover of
specialists, especially when compared to verges. We revealed that assemblages
of specialist plants on kurgans are characterized by traits typical to
terrestrial habitat islands such as self-compatibility, large seed mass and
tall stature. Kurgans and extensive grasslands were characterized by higher
functional diversity (both at the level of single traits and multi-trait based functional
dispersion) which is probably due to the higher level of environmental
heterogeneity compared to the homogeneous environment in verges.
* Finally, a few words about the Research Topic. The Research Topic is a thematic collection of methodological, theoretical and
applied frameworks that apply functional and/or
phylogenetic analyses to advance the eco-evolutionary understanding
around the emergence, functioning, and dynamics of refugia. If you
are interested in the Research Topic, it is worth to read the other papers
published in the future.
** We also recommend another paper in the
Research Topic, by Zoltán Bátori, about the functional characteristics of ant
assemblages in karstic microrefugia. We thank for the lot of work of Zoltán and
the colleagues at the University of Szeged, Department of Ecology; and we are
happy that we could take part in this interesting study.
The citation of the paper
Bátori, Z., Lőrinczi, G.,
Tölgyesi, C., Módra, G., Juhász, O., Aguilon, D. J., Vojtkó, A., Valkó, O.,
Deák, B., Erdős, L., Maák, I. E. (2020): Karstic microrefugia host functionally
specific ant assemblages. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8: 613738. doi:
10.3389/fevo.2020.613738
This paper is also open access, and can be
downloaded from here.
