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Changes in stand structure due to the cessation of traditional land use in wooded meadows impoverish epiphytic lichen communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2011

Ede LEPPIK ,
Inga JÜRIADO  and
Jaan LIIRA
Ede LEPPIK*
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 40 Lai St., Tartu 51005, Estonia.
Inga JÜRIADO
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 40 Lai St., Tartu 51005, Estonia.
Jaan LIIRA
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 40 Lai St., Tartu 51005, Estonia.
*
Email: ede.leppik@ut.ee
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Abstract

Wooded meadows with a history of traditional land use over thousands of years support a great diversity of various taxa. Today, however, high-species-rich communities in wooded meadows are threatened because of the cessation of traditional management in large areas. We studied lichen communities on 136 deciduous trees (Betula spp., Fraxinus excelsior and Quercus robur) in 12 wooded meadows in three regions of Estonia, and assessed the effect of habitat change due to the abandonment of traditional management on epiphytic lichen species composition, considering factors on three spatial scales: regional, habitat and individual tree. The variation partitioning approach in partial Canonical Correspondence Analysis (pCCA) revealed that most of the variation in species composition is described by the species of host tree and tree bark pH. Other tree level variables, foremost tree diameter, described as much of the compositional variation as geographic location (region) or environmental conditions in wooded meadows. Of the environmental factors studied, woodland canopy cover is the strongest predictor of the change in epiphytic lichen species composition from the community type of semi-open wooded meadows to species-poor communities characteristic of secondary forest. General Linear Model (GLM) analysis of the abundance of the 35 most frequently observed lichen species revealed that more than half of them (21) are influenced by site openness (canopy cover and/or undergrowth density), showing that increasing canopy cover has a negative effect on the abundance of epiphytic lichen species characteristic of traditionally managed semi-open wooded meadows. The results emphasize that the preservation of large old deciduous trees of various species and the maintenance of the semi-open structure of stands are vitally important for the protection of epiphytic lichen communities in wooded meadows.

Keywords

bark pHBetula spp.canopy coverFraxinus excelsiorhabitat degradationlight conditionsQuercus robursemi-natural woodlandsite managementtrunk diameter
Type
Research Article
Information
The Lichenologist , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 257 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © British Lichen Society 2011

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