Matrix quality and habitat type drive the diversity pattern of forest steppe fragments

Abstract

The quality of the surrounding landscape matrix often determines the biodiversity pattern of the remaining natural habitat fragments. Dispersal of organisms depends mostly on species traits related to mobility and the contrast between the habitat fragment and the matrix. Therefore, variation in species composition among fragments, i.e. beta-diversity, can also be affected by matrix quality. In our study, we focused on structurally complex forest steppe fragments in Central Europe for revealing the effects of fragment size and matrix quality. We investigated 18 fragments along a gradient ranging in size from 0.2 to 6 ha, and embedded in a gradient of changing matrix quality. We collected data on plants, spiders and ants in three different habitat types: natural forest and steppe parts of the forest steppe fragments and in the directly neighboring dominant element of the landscape matrix, being pine plantations. Species turnover (beta diversity) was higher for steppes than for forests indicating a higher degree of isolation for steppes. Increasing matrix quality decreased plant species richness in small fragments. The low dispersal between fragments prevents the displacement of poor competitors by stronger competitors and promotes the coexistence of species. Matrix quality positively affected spider richness independently of fragment size, but had no effect on ants. These differences among taxa highlight the complexity of the effects of landscape structure, and calls for a situation-specific optimization of landscape management in nature conservation. For our particular situation, the findings provide evidence that improving matrix quality would help preserving the threatened forest steppe biota.

Keywords

• Beta diversity
• Community composition
• Fragment size
• Habitat fragmentation
• Landscape structure
• Pine plantation