Water and substrate control of cliff communities: patterns among species and phyla
Aho K, Weaver T, Eversman S. 2014. Water and substrate control of cliff communities: patterns among species and phyla. Journal of Vegetation Science. 25(6):1381–1393
Cliff communities tend to be compositionally simple but taxonomically diverse at the phylum/division level. As a result, they provide a setting for examining the responses of distinct phyla (e.g. Anthophyta, Bryophyta and lichens), species within these phyla and communities comprised of these phyla, to the same environmental gradients. Our aims were both descriptive and hypothesis-driven. We sought to identify major community shifts across water–substrate gradients in a poorly studied system (inland North American cliffs), while considering extant hypotheses concerning the relationships of organisms to environments at different taxonomic scales.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Aho, Ken; Weaver, T; Eversman, Sharon
- Units
- GRYN , YELL
- Keywords
- Cliff ecology, Community ecology, Natural experiment, Substrate gradient, Taxonomic scale, Water gradient
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Sparsely Vegetated Communities