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Rocks and Walls: Natural Versus Secondary Habitats

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Abstract

Walls are often considered secondary habitats for vegetation of natural rock surfaces. Compared with rocks, walls differ in many features, for example the presence of a binding material (mainly calcareous mortar), location in settlements and exposure to human impact. A data set of 1,205 phytosociological relevés recorded on horizontal wall tops, wall verticals and rock verticals in the Czech Republic was used to compare their vegetation with regard to i) species composition (frequent species, species diversity, endangered and alien species) and ii) the ecological requirements of the respective species. Gamma diversity of vascular plant species was comparable in all habitat types (242 species on wall tops, 212 species on wall verticals and 197 species on rock verticals). Wall verticals had higher beta diversity, but lower alpha diversity than rocks. Remarkable differences were found comparing the diversity of alien species. Whereas alpha and gamma diversities of aliens were higher on both wall habitats, beta diversity of aliens was the highest on rocks. The high floristic heterogeneity of walls is mainly attributable to the large pool of species from the surrounding urbanized landscape (e.g., cultivated ornamental species and synanthropic weeds) that are favoured by high nutrient inputs. In contrast, species characteristic of rocks are mainly substrate specialists. Walls and rocks share the frequent occurrence of ferns, grasses and herbs typical of forest understorey and clearings. Compared with rocks, walls are generally colonized by species requiring higher nutrient content, soil reaction, temperature and moisture. Secondary wall habitats might be suitable for some rare and endangered species, but contrary to rocks their occurrences are only accidental and temporary. The representation of aliens was considerably higher on walls (approximately 35%) than on rocks (9%).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Milan Chytrý for comments on previous versions of the text. J. Ewald and two anonymous referees helped us to improve the paper. This project was supported by long-term research plan funded by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic (MSM 0021622416), and by grants 206/09/0329 from the Czech Science Foundation and IAA 601630803 from the Czech Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Poříčí 3b, CZ-603 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Deana Láníková

  2. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, CZ-611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    Deana Láníková & Zdeňka Lososová

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, Poříčí 7, CZ-603 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Zdeňka Lososová

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  1. Deana Láníková
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  2. Zdeňka Lososová
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Correspondence to Deana Láníková.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

  Endangered species recorded on walls (wall tops, wall verticals) and rock verticals. C1 – critically endangered, C2 – endangered, C3 – vulnerable species (according to Holub and Procházka 2000). Number of localities within the individual habitat types are shown in parentheses (presence recorded in multiple surveys on the same locality was taken as one record). Species recorded on both biotopes (walls and rocks) are in bold
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Láníková, D., Lososová, Z. Rocks and Walls: Natural Versus Secondary Habitats. Folia Geobot 44, 263–280 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-009-9045-x

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