Abstract
Based on hypotheses related to environmental filtering vs. stochastic community assembly, we tested taxon-specific predictions regarding the relationships of alpha diversity, beta diversity and species composition of epiphytic macrolichens and bryophytes with elevation and the lateral gradient on trees (the different sides of the tree bole related to aspect and trunk inclination) at Parc national du Mont-Mégantic in Southeastern Québec, Canada. For lichens on firs, increasing elevation was associated with increasing alpha diversity, and a marked shift in community composition, at the scale of whole trees. In contrast, for bryophytes on maples, tree inclination and the lateral gradient had the strongest effects: more inclined trees had greater whole-tree alpha diversity and stronger within-tree contrasts in composition between the upper and lower bole surfaces. For lichens on maples, whole-tree alpha diversity showed a weak, negative relationship with inclination, and beta diversity increased slightly with elevation. Our results are consistent with theories predicting greater alpha diversity in more favorable environments (for lichens: high elevation with high relative air humidity and lower temperatures; for bryophytes: upper surfaces of tree boles with liquid water available), but support was weak for the prediction of greater beta diversity in more favorable environments. Overall, the important predictors of epiphytic cryptogam diversity vary more among the species of tree host (maple vs. fir) than focal taxa (lichens vs. bryophytes), with patterns likely related to different effects of water, temperature, and competition between lichens and bryophytes.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Parc national du Mont-Mégantic for letting us conduct research there. Jennifer Doubt provided much assistance with bryophyte identification. Dr. Nicole Fenton, Dr. Bill Shipley, Etienne Lacroix-Carignan, and Florence Normand-Boisseau provided input on the manuscript, study design, field work, or statistical analyses. An additional thank you to Anna Crofts, Ming Ni, Christine Wallis, Madelaine Anderson, and Hasanki Gamhewa for their support.
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The authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Fonds de Recherche Nature et Technologies Québec for their financial support.
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CR, MV and TM conceived the ideas and designed the methodology; CR collected the data; CR and TM identified the specimens; CR, MV, and FR analyzed the data; CR and MV led the writing of the manuscript with critical inputs from TM and FR.
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Communicated by Anne Pringle.
We have revealed some surprising insights into the mechanisms of community assembly in an understudied group of organisms, pointing to the utility of this model system in studies in plant ecology.
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Rinas, C.L., McMullin, R.T., Rousseu, F. et al. Diversity and assembly of lichens and bryophytes on tree trunks along a temperate to boreal elevation gradient. Oecologia 202, 55–67 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05369-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05369-y