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Differential effects of soil waterlogging on herbaceous and woody plant communities in a Neotropical savanna

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Abstract

The impacts of soil properties and fire regime on Neotropical savannas are well-known, but the importance of hydrological regime for plant species assembly has received less attention. Here, we assessed changes in diversity patterns of herbaceous and woody communities along a water table gradient in a fire-excluded Neotropical savanna. We found that increased waterlogging of soils was associated with declines in both herbaceous and woody species richness. Woody species richness decreased once the water table depth is less than 4 m and no woody species occurred once water table depth was less than 23 cm. Herbaceous communities remained species rich until the shallowest water table depth, where there is flooding at some point in the year, and even there, over a dozen species occurred. Woody species that occurred in areas with shallower water tables were a nested subset of those in areas with deeper water tables. In contrast, herbaceous communities showed turnover over the hydrological gradient, with distinct species specialized for different water table levels. However, we found that those specialists are restricted to few evolutionary lineages, evidenced by increased phylogenetic clustering over the water table gradient in herbaceous communities. We suggest that evolutionarily conserved hydrological niches define the herbaceous layer over the hydrological gradient, whereas only generalist woody species persist under high water tables. Our findings show that the effect of soil waterlogging differs between the herbaceous and woody layer of savannas, indicating that these communities will respond differently to shifts in the hydrological regime under future environmental change.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the funding granted to R.O. Xavier and M.B. Leite and to the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) for the scholarship granted to R.O. Xavier (Grant 2011/21019-6). K.G. Dexter was supported be a Leverhulme International Academic Fellowship during the time this work was completed. We also thank the São Paulo Forestry Institute for the research permit and to the Itirapina Ecological Station staff for logistical assistance, and the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh for providing full access to its collection. We thank A. Magurran for her initial contribution on the conceptual direction of the study manuscript. J. Veldman and an anonymous reviewer made valuable suggestions to improve later versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Biosciences Institute, University of São Paulo, Rua do matão 123, São Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil

    Rafael de Oliveira Xavier

  2. School of Geosciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JN, UK

    Rafael de Oliveira Xavier & Kyle Dexter

  3. Ecology and Conservation Lab, Department of Hydrobiology, Federal University of São Carlos, Washington Luís highway, km 235, São Carlos, SP, 13565-905, Brazil

    Marcelo Boccia Leite & Dalva Maria da Silva Matos

  4. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, UK

    Kyle Dexter

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  1. Rafael de Oliveira Xavier
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  2. Marcelo Boccia Leite
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  3. Kyle Dexter
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  4. Dalva Maria da Silva Matos
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Contributions

ROX, MBL and DMS conceived the ideas and designed the methodology; ROX and MBL collected the data; ROX and KD analysed the data; ROX and KD led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Rafael de Oliveira Xavier.

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Communicated by Brian J. Wilsey.

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de Oliveira Xavier, R., Leite, M.B., Dexter, K. et al. Differential effects of soil waterlogging on herbaceous and woody plant communities in a Neotropical savanna. Oecologia 190, 471–483 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-019-04423-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-019-04423-y

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