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Austral Ecology - 2024 - Pearl - Abiotic correlates with diversity and distinctiveness in Sunshine Coast heathlands 4.81 MB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Abiotic correlates with diversity and distinctiveness in Sunshine Coast heathlands: Moisture, volcanic landscapes and patterned mounds
Austral Ecology, Vol.49(2), pp.1-31
2024
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
The ongoing management and protection of conservation areas can be informed by understanding factors that affect the integrity of these communities. Abiotic factors associated with diversity and phylogenetic dispersion within communities, as well as distinctiveness between communities, may potentially be impacted by climate change or changes in hydrology due to urbanization. This study used a range of diversity metrics, along with nominal and quantitative abiotic data, to examine correlates with diversity patterns in the Sunshine Coast heathlands, ecosystems under threat from urban development. Metrics for 80 heathland sites over a variety of substrates, moisture levels and topographic factors were compared using univariate and multivariate statistics. Moisture is a key abiotic factor correlated with the diversity and distinctiveness of heath, and also with higher phylogenetic dispersion of moist and wet sites, indicating possible refuges. Vegetation composition patterns were distinct in the heaths on Tertiary and Triassic rocky volcanic substrates, with the overlapping composition of heath on other substrates, confirming the tolerance of many heath species to a variety of substrates. Patterned natural ‘mounds’ and ‘trenches’ were associated with phylogenetic evenness and are possible refugia. Multivariate analysis had a weak positive correlation of environmental factors with vegetation and phylogenetic composition, emphasizing the complexity of correlates with diversity for the heathlands. This study suggests that both the management of hydrological changes and protection of potential refugial areas are likely to be critical in maintaining the integrity and diversity of the Sunshine Coast heathlands.
Details
- Title
- Abiotic correlates with diversity and distinctiveness in Sunshine Coast heathlands: Moisture, volcanic landscapes and patterned mounds
- Authors
- Hilary Pearl (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringTim Ryan (Author) - Queensland HerbariumMarion Howard (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringYoko Shimizu (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringAlison Shapcott (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Austral Ecology, Vol.49(2), pp.1-31
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1111/aec.13481
- ISSN
- 1442-9993; 1442-9985
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Authors. Austral Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Ecological Society of Australia. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Data Availability
- Individual site variables used in the analyses are summarized in Appendix S1. Full individual site species lists and data are available for download from the Queensland Biodiversity and Ecology Information System (QBEIS) https://researchdata.edu.au/queensland-biodiversity-ecology-system-qbeis/2029010. The GenBank and BOLD accession numbers and vouchers for the heath species are listed in supplementary material by Pearl et al. (2022). Further data that support this study will be shared upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99999998102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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