Assessing the habitat conservation status by soil parameters and plant ecoindicators

doi:10.3832/ifor0963-007

Assessing the habitat conservation status by soil parameters and plant ecoindicators

Flavia Sicuriello^(1-2) , Cristina De Nicola⁽³⁾, Giuseppina Dowgiallo⁽³⁾, Anna Testi⁽³⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 7, Issue 3, Pages 170-177 (2014)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0963-007
Published: Feb 14, 2014 - Copyright © 2014 SISEF

Research Articles

PDF Version

Full Text

Citation

Geo-mapping

The aim of this study is to evaluate the conservation status of a Natural Reserve through an integrated approach analysing simultaneously soils, lithotypes, land forms, edaphic parameters and plant species. In focusing the relationships between soil and vegetation, plant ecoindicators, expressed by i) the Ellenberg bioindication model and by ii) the Hemeroby Index, and soil measured parameters were utilized.Vegetation and soil data have been collected simultaneously through thirty vegetation relevés and soil profiles. Cluster analysis, performed on matrix 12 variables/ 30 relevés allowed a division into two main clusters, each one divided into sub-clusters, distinguished by floristic composition and soil characteristics. The clusters were markedly discriminated by soil Available Water Capacity (AWC). Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA), performed on variables and species matrices, allowed to discriminate two main habitats: i) a core habitat represented by patches of temperate forest correlated to soil cycles of water and nutrients; ii) an ecotonal habitat shaped by mixed evergreen and thermophilous deciduous oak forest depending on light, temperature and human disturbance.

Keywords

Mediterranean Forest Vegetation, Soil, AWC, Ellenberg’s Indicators, Hemeroby Index, CCA

Authors’ address

(1)

Department of Forest Environment and Resources, University of Tuscia, v. S. Camillo de Lellis snc, I-01100 Viterbo (Italy)

(2)

IBAF-CNR, v. Salaria km 29.3, I-00016 Monterotondo Scalo (RM - Italy)

(3)

Department of Environmental Biology, Botanical Garden, “La Sapienza” University of Rome, l.go Cristina di Svezia 24, I-00165 Rome (Italy)

Corresponding author

Flavia Sicuriello
flavia.sicuriello@ibaf.cnr.it

Citation

Sicuriello F, De Nicola C, Dowgiallo G, Testi A (2014). Assessing the habitat conservation status by soil parameters and plant ecoindicators. iForest 7: 170-177. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0963-007

Academic Editor

Raffaele Lafortezza

Paper history

Received: Feb 01, 2013
Accepted: Dec 03, 2013

First online: Feb 14, 2014
Publication Date: Jun 02, 2014
Publication Time: 2.43 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 44657
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 37274
Abstract Page Views: 1607
PDF Downloads: 4363
Citation/Reference Downloads: 17
XML Downloads: 1396

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 3723
Overall contacts: 44657
Avg. contacts per week: 83.96

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Feb 2023)

Total number of cites (since 2014): 6
Average cites per year: 0.60

(no Plumx Metrics available for this paper)

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ^©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

Angermeier PL, Karr JR (1994)
Biological integrity versus biological diversity as policy directives: protecting biotic resources. BioScience 44: 690-697.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(2)

Anonymous (1993)
Guide geologiche nazionali: Lazio. Società Geologica Italiana, Roma, Italy, pp. 368. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(3)

Benbi DK, Brar JS (2009)
A 25-year record of carbon sequestration and soil properties in intensive agriculture. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 29 (2): 257-265.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Borhidi A (1995)
Social behaviour types, the naturalness and relative ecological indicator values of the higher plants in the Hungarian flora. Acta Botanica Hungarica 39: 97-181.
Gscholar

(5)

Braun-Blanquet J (1932)
Plant sociology. McGraw-Hill, New York, USA, pp. 439.
Gscholar

(6)

Cairns J, McCormick PV, Niederlehner BR (1993)
A proposed framework for developing indicators of ecosystem health. Hydrobiologia 236: 1-44.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(7)

Celesti Grapow L, Pignatti E, Pignatti S (1993)
Ellenbergs Zeigerwerte zur ökologischen Bewertung der archäologischen Zonen in Rom. Phytocoenologia 23: 291-299.
Gscholar

(8)

Chávez V, Macdonald S (2010)
The influence of canopy patch mosaics on understory plant community composition in boreal mixedwood forest. Forest Ecology and Management 259 (6): 1067-1075.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(9)

Costantini EAC (2007)
Linee guida dei metodi di rilevamento e informatizzazione dei dati pedologici. CRA-ABP, Firenze, Italy, pp. 282. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(10)

Daniels WL, Haering KC, Galbraith JM (2004)
Mine soil morphology and properties in pre- and post-SMCRA coal mined landscapes in Southwest Virginia. In: Proceedings of the “National Meeting of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation”. Lexington (KY, USA) 18-24 April 2004. ASMR, Lexington, KY, USA, pp. 421-449.
Gscholar

(11)

Diamond JM (1972)
Biogeographic kinetics: estimation of relaxation times for avifaunas of southwest Pacific islands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 69 (11): 3199-3203.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(12)

Diekmann M (1995)
Use and improvement of Ellenberg’s indicator values in deciduous forests of the Boreo-nemoral zone in Sweden. Ecography 18: 178-189.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(13)

Dowgiallo G, Vannicelli L (1993)
Edaphic characteristics of mixed Quercus cerris communities in Latium. Annali di Botanica 51: 53-75.
Gscholar

(14)

Ellenberg H (1974)
Indicator values of vascular plants in Central Europe. Scripta Geobotanica 9: 1-122.
Gscholar

(15)

Ellenberg H, Weber HE, Düll R, Wirth V, Werner W, Paulißen D (1992)
Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Datenbank. Scripta Geobotanica 18: 1-258.
Gscholar

(16)

Ewald W (2003)
Invasive plants of the world. CABI Publishing, CAB International, Wallingford, UK, pp. 548.
Gscholar

(17)

Fanelli G, De Lillis M (2004)
Relative growth rate and hemerobiotic state in the assessment of disturbance gradients. Applied Vegetation Science 7 (1): 133-140.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

Fanelli G, Testi A (2008)
Detecting large and fine scale patterns of disturbance in towns by means of plant species inventories: maps of hemeroby in the town of Rome - In: “Urbanization: 21st Century Issues and Challenges”. Nova Publisher, NY, USA, pp. 197-211.
Gscholar

(19)

Fanelli G, Tescarollo P, Testi A (2006a)
Ecological indicators applied to urban and suburban flora. Ecological Indicators 6: 444-457.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(20)

Fanelli G, Testi A, Pignatti S (2006b)
Ecological indicator values for species in Central and Southern Italy flora. In: “Il Sistema Ambientale della Tenuta Presidenziale di Castelporziano. Ricerche sulla complessità di un ecosistema forestale costiero mediterraneo”. Accademia delle Scienze, “Scritti e Documenti” XXXVII, Seconda Serie, Vol. II, pp. 505-564. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(21)

Fanelli G, Pignatti S, Testi A (2007)
An application case of ecological indicator values (Zeigerwerte) calculated with a simple algorithmic approach. Plant Biosystems 141: 15-21.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(22)

Feng G, Sharratt B, Vaughan J, Lamb B (2009)
A multiscale database of soil properties for regional environmental quality modelling in the western United States. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 64: 363-373.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(23)

Gary MO, Sharp JM, Caramanna G, Havens RS (2003)
Volcanically influenced speleogenesis: forming El Sistema Zacatón, Mexico, and Pozzo Merro, Italy, the deepest phreatic sinkholes in the world. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, pp. 35.
Gscholar

(24)

Gillet F (2000)
La Phytosociologie synusiale intégrée - Guide méthodologique. Docu. Labo. Ecol. Vég. Université de Neuchatel - Institut de Botanique 1, Neuchatel, Switzerland, pp. 68.
Gscholar

(25)

Giordano A (2002)
Pedologia forestale e conservazione del Suolo, Edizioni UTET, Torino, Italy, pp. 600. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(26)

Godefroid S, Monbaliu D, Koedam N (2007)
The role of soil and microclimatic variables in the distribution patterns of urban wasteland flora in Brussels, Belgium. Landscape and Urban Planning 80: 45-55.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(27)

Goslee SC, Urban DL (2007)
The ecodist package for dissimilarity-based analysis of ecological data. Journal of Statistical Software 22: 7.
Online | Gscholar

(28)

Greuter W, Burdet HM, Long G (1984)
Med-Checklist, 1.3.4, Genève, Switzerland.
Online | Gscholar

(29)

Grime JP, Hodgson JG, Hunt R (1988)
Comparative plant ecology. Unwin-Hyman, London, UK, pp. 762.
Gscholar

(30)

Göransson H, Wallander H, Ingerslev M, Rosengren U (2006)
Estimating the relative nutrient uptake from different soil depths in Quercus robur, Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies. Plant and Soil 286 (1-2): 86-97.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(31)

Hawkes JC, Pyatt DG, White IM (1997)
Using Ellenberg indicator values to assess soil quality in British forests from ground vegetation: a pilot study. The Journal of Applied Ecology 34 (2): 375.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(32)

Hill MO, Roy DB, Thompson K (2002)
Hemeroby, urbanity and ruderality: bioindicators of disturbance and human impact. Journal of Applied Ecology 39 (5): 708-720.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(33)

Hillebrand H (2005)
Regressions of local on regional diversity do not reflect the importance of local interactions or saturation of local diversity. Oikos 110: 195-198.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(34)

Jones MLM, Hayes F, Mills G, Sparks TH, Fuhrer J (2007)
Predicting community sensitivity to ozone using Ellenberg Indicator values. Environmental Pollution 146: 744-753.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(35)

Kaiser T, Käding H (2005)
Proposal for a transformation scale between bioindicatively determined water supply levels of grassland sites and mean moisture indicator values according to Ellenberg. Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science 51 (3): 241-246.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(36)

Keddy P (2005)
Putting the plants back into plant ecology: six pragmatic models for understanding and conserving plant diversity. Annals of Botany 96 (2): 177-189.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(37)

Kowarik I (1990)
Some responses of flora and vegetation to urbanization in Central Europe. In: “Urban ecology: plants and plant communities in urban environments” (Sukopp H, Hejny S, Kowarik I eds). SPB Academic Publishing, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, pp. 45-74.
Gscholar

(38)

Lalanne A, Bardat J, Lalanne-Amara F, Ponge JF (2010)
Local and regional trends in the ground vegetation of beech forests. Flora - Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants 205: 484-498.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(39)

Legendre P, Legendre L (1998)
Numerical ecology (2nd edn). Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 880.
Gscholar

(40)

Lucchese F, Pignatti S (1990)
Sguardo sulla vegetazione del Lazio Marittimo. Quaderni Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 264: 5-48. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(41)

Maechler M (2012)
Cluster analysis extended Rousseeuw et al. (v. 1.14.4).
Online | Gscholar

(42)

Martinis B (1992)
L’evoluzione della dorsale tiberina (Lazio centrale). Rendiconti Lincei 3 (2): 97-107. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(43)

MIPAF (2000)
Metodi di analisi chimica del suolo. Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali, Franco Angeli Editore, Rome, Italy, pp. 536. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(44)

Murata N, Ohta S, Ishida A, Kanzaki M, Wachirinrat C, Artchawakom T, Sase H (2009)
Comparison of soil depths between evergreen and deciduous forests as a determinant of their distribution, Northeast Thailand. Journal of Forest Research 14 (4): 212-220.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(45)

Naveh Z (1987)
Landcape ecology, management and conservation of European and Levant Mediterranean uplands. In: “Functional analysis in Mediterranean ecosystems” (Tenhunen JD, Catarino FM, Lange OL, Oechel WC eds). Springer, Berlin, Germany, pp. 641-657.
Gscholar

(46)

Newmark WD (1987)
A land-bridge islands perspective on mammalian extinctions in western North American Parks. Nature 325: 430-432.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(47)

Niemela J, Haila Y, Punttila P (1996)
The importance of small-scale heterogeneity in boreal forests: variation in diversity in forest-floor invertebrates across the succession gradient. Ecography 19(8): 352-368.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(48)

Oksanen J, Kindt R, Legendre P, O’Hara RB (2012)
Package “vegan” - Ordination methods, diversity analysis and other functions for community and vegetation ecologists.
Online | Gscholar

(49)

Oswalt SN, Brandeis TJ, Dimick BP (2006)
Phytosociology of vascular plants on an international biosphere reserve: Virgin Islands National Park. Caribbean Journal of Sciences 42: 53-66.
Online | Gscholar

(50)

Perakis SS, Hedin LO (2001)
Fluxes and fates of nitrogen in soil of an unpolluted old-growth temperate forest, southern Chile. Ecology 82 (8): 2245-2260.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(51)

Piccolo A, Pietramellara G, Mbagwu JSC (1996)
Effects of coal derived humic substances on water retention and structural stability of Mediterranean soils. Soil Use and Management 12: 209-213.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(52)

Pignatti S (1982)
Flora d’Italia. Edagricole, Bologna, Italy, pp. 2324. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(53)

Pignatti S (2005)
Biondicazione attraverso le piante vascolari. Valori di indicazione secondo Ellenberg (Zeigerwerte) per le specie della Flora d’Italia. Braun-Blanquetia 39: 1-97. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(54)

Pignatti S, Bianco PM, Fanelli G, Guarino R, Petersen J, Tescarollo P (2001)
Reliability and effectiveness of Ellenberg’s indices in checking flora and vegetation changes induced by climatic variations. In: “Fingerprints of climate changes: adapted behaviour and shifting species ranges” (Walter JR, Burga CA, Edwards PJ eds). Kluwer Academic Publishing, New York, USA and Plenum Publisher, London, UK, pp. 281-304.
Gscholar

(55)

Podani J (2007)
Analisi ed esplorazione multivariata dei dati in ecologia e biologia. Liguori Editore srl, Naples, Italy, pp. 544. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(56)

Pärtel M, Zobel M, Zobel K, van der Maarel E (1996)
The species pool and its relation to species richness: evidence from Estonian plant communities. Oikos 75: 111-117.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(57)

Pärtel M, Kalamees R, Zobel M, Rosén E (1999)
Alvar grasslands in Estonia: variation in species composition and community structure. Journal of Vegetation Science 10 (4): 561-570.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(58)

R Development Core Team (2012)
The R Project for Statistical Computing. Web Site.
Online | Gscholar

(59)

Roo-Zielinska E, Solon J (1988)
Phytosociological typology and bioindicator values of plant communities, as exemplified by meadows in the Nina valley, Southern Poland. Documents Phytosociologiques 11: 543-554.
Gscholar

(60)

Salter PJ, Williams JB (1969)
The influence of texture on the moisture of soils: relationships between particle size composition and moisture content at the upper and lower limits of avai- lable water. Journal of Soil Science 20 (1): 126-131.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(61)

Schaffers AP, Sykora KV (2000)
Reliability of Ellenberg indicator values for moisture, nitrogen and soil reaction: a comparison with field measurements. Journal of Vegetation Science 11 (2): 225-244.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(62)

Schimel JP, Bennet J (2004)
Nitrogen mineralization: challenges of a changing paradigm. Ecology 85: 591-602.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(63)

Schmidtlein S, Ewald J (2003)
Landscape patterns of indicator plants for soil acidity in the Bavarian Alps. Journal of Biogeography 30 (10): 1493-1503.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(64)

Southall EJ, Dale MP, Kent M (2003)
Spatial and temporal analysis of vegetation mosaics for conservation: poor fen communities in a Cornish valley mire. Journal of Biogeography 30 (9): 1427-1443.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(65)

Testi A, Napoleone I, Cigni A (1996)
Floristic and phytogeographical diversity in some protected areas in Italy. Ecologia Mediterranea 22 (3-4): 81-100.
Gscholar

(66)

Testi A, Panzarasa S, Guidi A (2000)
La riserva naturale “Macchia di Gattaceca e Macchia del Barco” nel Lazio: un’importante area forestale di contatto tra la vegetazione mediterranea e balcanica. Linea Ecologica 6: 35-42. [in Italian]
Gscholar

(67)

Testi A, Crosti R, Dowgiallo G, Tescarollo P, De Nicola C, Guidotti S, Bianco PM, Serafini Sauli A (2004)
Soil water availability as a discriminant factor in forest vegetation: preliminary results on sub-coastal mixed oak woodlands in central-southern Latium (Central Italy). Annali di Botanica 4: 49-64.
Gscholar

(68)

Testi A, Cara E, Fanelli G (2006)
An example of realization of Gis ecological maps derived from Ellenberg indicator values in the Biological Reserve of Donana National Park (Spain). Rendiconti Accademia dei Lincei 9: 1-17.
Gscholar

(69)

Testi A, De Nicola C, Dowgiallo G, Fanelli G (2009)
Correspondences between plants and soil/environmental factors in beech forests of Central Apennines: from homogeneity to complexity. Rendiconti Lincei 21: 27-43.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(70)

Testi A, Fanelli G, Crosti R, Castigliani V, D’Angeli D (2012)
Characterizing river habitat quality using plant and animal bioindicators: a case study of Tirino River (Abruzzo Region, Central Italy). Ecological Indicators 20: 24-33.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(71)

Thimonier A, Dupouey JL, Bost F, Becker M (1994)
Simultaneous eutrophication and acidification of a forest ecosystem in North-East France. New Phytologist 126 (3): 533-539.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(72)

USDA (2010)
Keys to soil taxonomy (11th edn). USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, pp. 346.
Online | Gscholar

(73)

Van der Maarel E (1975)
Man-made natural ecosysems in environmental management and planning. In: “Unifying concepts in ecology” (van Dobben WH, McConnel L eds). Junk, The Hague, Pudoc, Wageningen, The Netherlands, pp. 263-274.
Gscholar

(74)

Van der Maarel E, Boot R, van Dorp D, Rijntjes J (1985)
Vegetation succession on the dunes near Oostvoorne, The Netherlands: a comparison of the vegetation in 1959 and 1980. Vegetatio 58: 137-187.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(75)

Vevle O, Aase K (1980)
On the use of ecological factor numbers in Norwegian forest communities. Norske Videnskap Selskovo Rapport Botaniska Serie 5: 178-201. [in Norwegian]
Gscholar

(76)

Westhoff V, Van der Maarel E (1978)
The Braun-Blanquet approach. In: “Classification of plant communities” (Whittaker RH ed). Junk, The Hague, The Netherlands, pp. 287-399.
Gscholar

(77)

Wilson S, Pyatt D, Malcolm D, Connolly T (2001)
The use of ground vegetation and humus type as indicators of soil nutrient regime for an ecological site classification of British forests. Forest Ecology and Management 140 (2-3): 101-116.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(78)

Xamena J, Garcia C, Morey M (1991)
Quercus ilex L. litter decomposition and mineral evolution in an evergreen oak woodland in Majorca (Balearic islands, Spain). In. “Responses of forest ecosystems to environmental changes” (Teller A, Mathy P, Jeffers JNR eds). Elsevier Sciences Publishers Ltd., Oxford, UK, pp. 865-866.
Gscholar

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

Contents

Search

Journal Info

Journal Subjects and Fields

For Authors

For Reviewers

For Readers

SISEF Publishing

Search iForest Contents