Predictive power of vegetation and environmental factors for explaining variation of meadow snail communities
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| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | A total of 22 sites were studied in dry and mesic meadows in the White Carpathians (Czech Republic). The sites were chosen along the gradients of soil calcium content and soil moisture. Vegetation, Ellenberg plant indicator values (for moisture and soil reaction), plant and moss cover, soil moisture, pH and calcium content were established for all sampling plots. The aim was to investigate the influence of these factors on snail species composition and richness. Principal component analysis showed that soil calcium and moisture explained the variation in snail communities the best. Moreover an interaction between these factors was found. Using Redundant analysis with Monte Carlo permutation test we found only two significant factors: (1) interaction between soil calcium and moisture, (2) Ellenberg moisture value, which highly correlated with numbers of alive snail species. Thus, the vegetation appears to be a very important predictor for explaining variation in snail communities. |
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