RT Journal Article
T1 The mossy north: an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient in European bryophytes
A1 Mateo, Rubén G.
A1 Broennimann, Olivier
A1 Normand, Signe
A1 Petitpierre, Blaise
A1 Bastos Araújo, Miguel
A1 Svenning, Jens-Christian
A1 Baselga Fraga, Andrés
A1 Fernández-González, Federico
A1 Gómez-Rubio, Virgilio
A1 Muñoz, Jesús
A1 Suárez, Guillermo M.
A1 Luoto, Miska
A1 Guisan, Antoine
A1 Vanderpoorten, Alain
K1 Biodiversity
K1 Biogeography
K1 Ecological modelling
AB It remains hotly debated whether latitudinal diversity gradients are common across taxonomic groups and whether a single mechanism can explain such gradients. Investigating species richness (SR) patterns of European land plants, we determine whether SR increases with decreasing latitude, as predicted by theory, and whether the assembly mechanisms differ among taxonomic groups. SR increases towards the south in spermatophytes, but towards the north in ferns and bryophytes. SR patterns in spermatophytes are consistent with their patterns of beta diversity, with high levels of nestedness and turnover in the north and in the south, respectively, indicating species exclusion towards the north and increased opportunities for speciation in the south. Liverworts exhibit the highest levels of nestedness, suggesting that they represent the most sensitive group to the impact of past climate change. Nevertheless, although the extent of liverwort species turnover in the south is substantially and significantly lower than in spermatophytes, liverworts share with the latter a higher nestedness in the north and a higher turn-over in the south, in contrast to mosses and ferns. The extent to which the similarity in the patterns displayed by spermatophytes and liverworts reflects a similar assembly mechanism remains, however, to be demonstrated
PB Nature Publishing Group
SN 2045-2322
YR 2016
FD 2016-05-06
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/16320
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/16320
LA eng
NO Mateo, R. G. et al. The mossy north: an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient in European bryophytes. Sci. Rep. 6, 25546; doi: 10.1038/srep25546 (2016)
NO RGM was funded by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (ACONITE, PIEF-GA-2013-622620). Many thanks are due to two referees for their constructive comments on the manuscript
DS Minerva
RD 4 may 2026