Abstract
This study aims to understand the effects of recent tree encroachment on plant richness and diversity of Sphagnum-dominated bogs isolated in an agricultural landscape. A nested paired sampling design was used to compare plant species richness and beta diversity between open and forested habitats of 14 bogs in southern Québec, Canada. We evaluated the impact of tree encroachment at regional and local scales (between and within bogs, respectively). Tree basal area, canopy openness and stand age were evaluated in forested habitats. We used permutation paired sample t-tests to compare species richness between open and forested sites. Beta diversity was calculated as between-site similarities in composition, and differences were evaluated using tests for homogeneity in multivariate dispersion. Forested habitats had greater species richness than open habitats due to enrichment by facultative and non-peatland species as well as by mid- and shade-tolerant vascular plants. At both scales, this species enrichment was associated with flora differentiation (increase of beta diversity), although at regional scale, this was true for bryophytes only. Tree basal area had a positive influence on forested habitats species richness. These compositional changes are expected to increase similarity between bog flora and upland vegetation, and consequently decrease regional diversity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson MJ (2001) A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Austral Ecology 26:32–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2001.01070.pp.x
Anderson MJ (2006) Distance-based tests for homogeneity of multivariate dispersions. Biometrics 62:245–253. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0420.2005.00440.x
Anderson MJ, Walsh DCI (2013) PERMANOVA, ANOSIM, and the Mantel test in the face of heterogeneous dispersions: What null hypothesis are you testing? Ecological Monographs 83:557–574. https://doi.org/10.1890/12-2010.1
Bart D, Davenport T, Yantes A (2016) Environmental predictors of woody plant encroachment in calcareous fens are modified by biotic and abiotic land-use legacies. Journal of Applied Ecology 53:541–549. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12567
Beauregard, P (2017) Dynamique du bouleau gris (Betula populifolia) dans les tourbières ombrotrophes de la Montérégie (Québec). Dissertation, Université Laval
Beauvais M-P, Pellerin S, Lavoie C (2016) Beta diversity declines while native plant species richness triples over 35 years in a suburban protected area. Biological Conservation 195:73–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.12.040
Berendse F, Van Breemen N, Rydin H et al (2001) Raised atmospheric CO2 levels and increased N deposition cause shifts in plant species composition and production in Sphagnum bogs. Global Change Biology 7:591–598. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2486.2001.00433.x
Berg EE, Hillman KM, Dial R, DeRuwe A (2009) Recent woody invasion of wetlands on the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands, south-central Alaska: a major regime shift after 18000 years of wet Sphagnum–sedge peat recruitment. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39:2033–2046. https://doi.org/10.1139/X09-121
Bowman DMJS, Riley JE, Boggs GS et al (2008) Do feral buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) explain the increase of woody cover in savannas of Kakadu National Park, Australia? Journal of Biogeography 35:1976–1988. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.01934.x
Brice M-H, Pellerin S, Poulin M (2016) Environmental filtering and spatial processes in urban riparian forests. Journal of Vegetation Science 27:1023–1035. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12425
Brice M-H, Pellerin S, Poulin M (2017) Does urbanization lead to taxonomic and functional homogenization in riparian forests? Diversity and Distributions 23:828–840. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12565
Broman KW, Broman AT (2017) broman: Karl Broman’s R Code. R package version 0.67–4. Available at https://CRAN.r-project.org/package=broman
Brouillet L, Coursol F, Meades SJ et al (2017) VASCAN, the Database of Vascular Plants of Canada. Available at http://data.canadensys.net/vascan/. Accessed 28 Mar 2017 https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.25.3100
Bruce KA, Cameron GN, Harcombe PA (1995) Initiation of a new woodland type on the Texas coastal prairie by the Chinese Tallow Tree (Sapium sebiferum (L.) Roxb.). Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 122:215–225. https://doi.org/10.2307/2996086
Calmé S, Desrochers A, Savard J-PL (2002) Regional significance of peatlands for avifaunal diversity in southern Québec. Biological Conservation 107:273–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00063-0
Clark DL, Wilson MV (2001) Fire, mowing, and hand-removal of woody species in restoring a native wetland prairie in the Willamette valley of Oregon. Wetlands 21:135–144. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2001)021[0135:FMAHRO]2.0.CO;2
Dyderski MK, Gdula AK, Jagodziński AM (2015) Encroachment of woody species on a drained transitional peat bog in ‘Mszar Bogdaniec’ nature reserve (Western Poland). Folia Forestalia Polonica 57:160–172. https://doi.org/10.1515/ffp-2015-0016
Eldridge DJ, Soliveres S (2014) Are shrubs really a sign of declining ecosystem function? Disentangling the myths and truths of woody encroachment in Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 62(7):594–608. https://doi.org/10.1071/BT14137
Eldridge DJ, Bowker MA, Maestre FT et al (2011) Impacts of shrub encroachment on ecosystem structure and functioning: towards a global synthesis: Synthesizing shrub encroachment effects. Ecology Letters 14:709–722. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01630.x
Environment Canada (2011) Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010. Available at http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/index_e.html. Accessed 12 Oct 2017
Eppinga MB, Rietkerk M, Wassen MJ, Ruiter PCD (2009) Linking habitat modification to catastrophic shifts and vegetation patterns in bogs. Plant Ecology 200:53–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9309-6
Faubert J (2012) Flore des bryophytes du Quebec-Labrador : Volume 1. Anthocérotes et hépatiques. Société québécoise de bryologie, Saint-Valérien, Québec
Faubert J (2013) Flore des bryophytes du Québec-Labrador : Volume 2, Mousses, première partie. Société québécoise de bryologie, Saint-Valérien, Québec
Faubert J (2014) Flore des bryophytes du Québec-Labrador : Volume 3, Mousses, seconde partie. Société québécoise de bryologie, Saint-Valérien, Québec
Flinn KM, Lechowicz MJ, Waterway MJ (2008) Plant species diversity and composition of wetlands within an upland forest. American Journal of Botany 95:1216–1224. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0800098
França F, Louzada J, Korasaki V, Griffiths H, Silveira JM, Barlow J (2016) Do space-for-time assessments underestimate the impacts of logging on tropical biodiversity? An Amazonian case study using dung beetles. Journal of Applied Ecology 53:1098–1105. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2264.12657
Frankl R, Schmeidl H (2000) Vegetation change in a South German raised bog: Ecosystem engineering by plant species, vegetation switch or ecosystem level feedback mechanisms? Flora 195:267–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0367-2530(17)30980-5
Galatowitsch SM, Anderson NO, Ascher PD (1999) Invasiveness in wetland plants in temperate North America. Wetlands 19:733–755. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161781
Garneau M (2001) Statut trophique des taxons préférentiels et des taxons fréquents mais non préférentiels des tourbières naturelles du Québec-Labrador. In: Payette S, Rochefort L (eds) Écologie des tourbières du Québec-Labrador. Presses Université Laval, Québec, pp 523–532
Guido A, Salengue E, Dresseno A (2017) Effect of shrub encroachment on vegetation communities in Brazilian forest-grassland mosaics. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation 15:52–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecon.2016.11.002
Gunnarsson U, Malmer N, Rydin H (2002) Dynamics or constancy in Sphagnum dominated mire ecosystems? A 40-year study. Ecography 25:685–704. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0587.2002.250605.x
Heijmans MMPD, van der Knaap YAM, Holmgren M, Limpens J (2013) Persistent versus transient tree encroachment of temperate peat bogs: effects of climate warming and drought events. Global Change Biology 19:2240–2250. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12202
Helm A, Hanski I, Pärtel M (2006) Slow response of plant species richness to habitat loss and fragmentation. Ecology Letters 9:72–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00841.x
Holmgren M, Lin C-Y, Murillo JE et al (2015) Positive shrub–tree interactions facilitate woody encroachment in boreal peatlands. Journal of Ecology 103:58–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12331
Ingerpuu N, Vellak K, Kukk T, Pärtel M (2001) Bryophyte and vascular plant species richness in boreo-nemoral moist forests and mires. Biodiversity & Conservation 10:2153–2166. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013141609742
Ireland AW, Booth RK (2012) Upland deforestation triggered an ecosystem state-shift in a kettle peatland. Journal of Ecology 100:586–596. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2012.01961.x
Kapfer J, Grytnes J-A, Gunnarsson U, Birks HJB (2011) Fine-scale changes in vegetation composition in a boreal mire over 50 years. Journal of Ecology 99:1179–1189. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01847.x
Lachance D, Lavoie C, Desrochers A (2005) The impact of peatland afforestation on plant and bird diversity in southeastern Québec. Écoscience 12:161–171. https://doi.org/10.2980/i1195-6860-12-2-161.1
Laine J, Vasander H, Laiho R (1995) Long-term effects of water level drawdown on the vegetation of drained pine mires in southern Finland. Journal of Applied Ecology 32:785–802. https://doi.org/10.2307/2404818
Lapointe M (2014) Plantes de milieux humides et de bord de mer du Québec et des Maritimes. Michel Quintin, Montréal, Québec
Lee A, Fujita H, Kobayashi H (2017) Effects of drainage on open-water mire pools: open water shrinkage and vegetation change of pool plant communities. Wetlands 37:741–751. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0907-3
Legendre P (2014) Interpreting the replacement and richness difference components of beta diversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 23:1324–1334. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12207
Legendre P, De Cáceres M (2013) Beta diversity as the variance of community data: dissimilarity coefficients and partitioning. Ecology Letters 16:951–963. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12141
Lemmon PE (1956) A spherical densiometer for estimating forest overstory density. Forest Science 2:314–320. https://doi.org/10.1093/forestscience/2.4.314
Lenth RV (2016) Least-Squares Means: The R Package lsmeans. Journal of Statistical Software 69:1–33. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v069.i01
Lett MS, Knapp AK (2003) Consequences of shrub expansion in mesic grassland: Resource alterations and graminoid responses. Journal of Vegetation Science 14:487–496. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2003.tb02175.x
Lieffers VJ, Rothwell RL (1986) Effects of depth of water table and substrate temperature on root and top growth of Picea mariana and Larix laricina seedlings. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 16:1201–1206. https://doi.org/10.1139/x86-214
Limpens J, Berendse F, Klees H (2003) N deposition affects N availability in interstitial water, growth of Sphagnum and invasion of vascular plants in bog vegetation. The New Phytologist 157:339–347. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1469-8137.2003.00667.x
Lindborg R, Eriksson O (2004) Historical landscape connectivity affects present plant species diversity. Ecology 85:1840–1845. https://doi.org/10.1890/04-0367
Macdonald SE, Lieffers VJ (1990) Photosynthesis, water relations, and foliar nitrogen of Picea mariana and Larix laricina from drained and undrained peatlands. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 20:995–1000. https://doi.org/10.1139/x90-133
McKinney ML, Lockwood JL (1999) Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14:450–453. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(99)01679-1
Middleton BA, Holsten B, van Diggelen R (2006) Biodiversity management of fens and fen meadows by grazing, cutting and burning. Applied Vegetation Science 9:307–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2006.tb00680.x
Moore PD (2002) The future of cool temperate bogs. Environmental Conservation 29:3–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892902000024
New England Wild Flower Society (2017) Go Botany. Available at https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/. Accessed 29 Sep 2017
Ohlson M, Økland RH, Nordbakken J-F, Dahlberg B (2001) Fatal interactions between Scots Pine and Sphagnum mosses in bog ecosystems. Oikos 94:425–432. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0706.2001.940305.x
Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Friendly M et al (2017) vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version 2:4–6 Available at https://CRAN.rproject.org/packag=broman
Olden JD, Poff NL (2003) Toward a mechanistic understanding and prediction of biotic homogenization. The American Naturalist 162:442–460. https://doi.org/10.1086/378212
Osland MJ, Enwright N, Day RH, Doyle TW (2013) Winter climate change and coastal wetland foundation species: salt marshes vs. mangrove forests in the southeastern United States. Global Change Biology 19:1482–1494. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12126
Paradis É, Rochefort L (2017) Management of the margins in cutover bogs: ecological conditions and effects of afforestation. Wetlands Ecology and Management 25:177–190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-016-9508-9
Pärtel M (2002) Local plant diversity patterns and evolutionary history at the regional scale. Ecology 83:2361–2366. https://doi.org/10.1890/00129658(2002)083[2361:LPDPAE]2.0.CO;2
Pasquet S, Pellerin S, Poulin M (2015) Three decades of vegetation changes in peatlands isolated in an agricultural landscape. Applied Vegetation Science 18:220–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12142
Pellerin S, Lavoie C (2003a) Reconstructing the recent dynamics of mires using a multitechnique approach. Journal of Ecology 91:1008–1021. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2745.2003.00834.x
Pellerin S, Lavoie C (2003b) Recent expansion of jack pine in peatlands of southeastern Québec: A paleoecological study. Écoscience 10(2):247–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/11956860.2003.11682772
Pellerin S, Mercure M, Desaulniers AS, Lavoie C (2009) Changes in plant communities over three decades on two disturbed bogs in southeastern Québec. Applied Vegetation Science 12:107–118. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2009.01008.x
Pellerin S, Lavoie M, Boucheny A, Larocque M, Garneau M (2016) Recent vegetation dynamics and hydrological changes in bogs located in an agricultural landscape. Wetlands 36:159–168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-015-0726-3
Peringer A, Rosenthal G (2011) Establishment patterns in a secondary tree line ecotone. Ecological Modelling 222:3120–3131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.05.025
Pickett STA (1989) Space-for-time substitution as an alternative to long-term studies. In: Likens GE (ed) Long-Term Studies in Ecology. Springer, New York, pp 110–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7358-6_5
Pollock MM, Naiman RJ, Hanley TA (1998) Plant species richness in riparian wetlands–a test of biodiversity theory. Ecology 79:94–105. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(1998)079[0094:PSRIRW]2.0.CO;2
Poulin M, Careau D, Rochefort L, Desrochers A (2002) From satellite imagery to peatland vegetation diversity: How reliable are habitat maps? Conservation Ecology 24(6):651–665. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00446-060216
Poulin M, Pellerin S, Cimon-Morin J et al (2016) Inefficacy of wetland legislation for conserving Quebec wetlands as revealed by mapping of recent disturbances. Wetlands Ecology and Management 24:651–665. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-016-9494-y
Price JN, Morgan JW (2008) Woody plant encroachment reduces species richness of herb-rich woodlands in southern Australia. Austral Ecology 33:278–289. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2007.01815.x
Qian H, Guo Q (2010) Linking biotic homogenization to habitat type, invasiveness and growth form of naturalized alien plants in North America. Diversity and Distributions 16:119–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2009.00627.x
R Core Team (2016) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria
Ratajczak Z, Nippert JB, Collins SL (2012) Woody encroachment decreases diversity across North American grasslands and savannas. Ecology 93:697–703. https://doi.org/10.1890/11-1199.1
Ratcliffe JL, Creevy A, Andersen R et al (2017) Ecological and environmental transition across the forested-to-open bog ecotone in a west Siberian peatland. Science of the Total Environment 607–608:816–828. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.06.276
Ricklefs RE, Guo Q, Qian H (2008) Growth form and distribution of introduced plants in their native and non-native ranges in Eastern Asia and North America. Diversity & Distributions 14:381–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00457.x
Rooney TP, Olden JD, Leach MK, Rogers DA (2007) Biotic homogenization and conservation prioritization. Biological Conservation 134:447–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2006.07.008
Saintilan N, Rogers K (2015) Woody plant encroachment of grasslands: a comparison of terrestrial and wetland settings. New Phytologist 205:1062–1070. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13147
Santamaría L (2002) Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment. Acta Oecologica 23:137–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-3
Sarkkola S, Hökkä H, Koivusalo H et al (2010) Role of tree stand evapotranspiration in maintaining satisfactory drainage conditions in drained peatlands. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40:1485–1496. https://doi.org/10.1139/X10-084
Savage J, Vellend M (2015) Elevational shifts, biotic homogenization and time lags in vegetation change during 40 years of climate warming. Ecography 38:546–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01131
Shirley LJ, Battaglia LL (2006) Assessing vegetation change in coastal landscapes of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Wetlands 26:1057–1070. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2006)26[1057:AVCICL]2.0.CO;2
Siitonen J, Martikainen P, Punttila P, Rauh J (2000) Coarse woody debris and stand characteristics in mature managed and old-growth boreal mesic forests in southern Finland. Forest Ecology and Management 128:211–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(99)00148-6
Statistics Canada (2010) St-Laurent Lowlands ecoregion. Available at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-002-x/2010002/tbl/11285/tbl001-eng.htm. Accessed 20 Sep 2017
Talbot J, Richard PJH, Roulet NT, Booth RK (2010) Assessing long-term hydrological and ecological responses to drainage in a raised bog using paleoecology and a hydrosequence. Journal of Vegetation Science 21:143–156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2009.01128.x
Tilman D, May RM, Lehman CL, Nowak MA (1994) Habitat destruction and the extinction debt. Nature 371:65–66. https://doi.org/10.1038/371065a0
Tousignant M-Ê, Pellerin S, Brisson J (2010) The relative impact of human disturbances on the vegetation of a large wetland complex. Wetlands 30:333–344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-010-0019-9
Turunen J, Roulet NT, Moore TR, Richard PJH (2004) Nitrogen deposition and increased carbon accumulation in ombrotrophic peatlands in eastern Canada. Global Biochemical Cycles. https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GB002154
USDA and NRCS (2018) The PLANTS Database. Available at https://www.plants.usda.gov. Accessed 23 Mar 2018
Van Auken OW (2000) Shrub invasions of North American semiarid grasslands. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31:197–215. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.197
Vitt DH (2006) Functional characteristics and indicators of boreal peatlands. In: Wieder RK, Vitt DH (eds) Boreal Peatland Ecosystems. Springer, Berlin, pp 9–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-31913-9_2
Vitt DH, Li Y, Belland RJ (1995) Patterns of bryophyte diversity in peatlands of continental Western Canada. The Bryologist 98:218–227. https://doi.org/10.2307/3243306
Warner BG, Asada T (2006) Biological diversity of peatlands in Canada. Aquatic Sciences 68:240–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-006-0853-2
Warren RJ, Rossell IM, Moorhead KK, Dan Pittillo J (2007) The influence of woody encroachment upon herbaceous vegetation in a southern Appalachian wetland complex. The American Midland Naturalist 157:39–51. https://doi.org/10.1674/0003-0031(2007)157[39:TIOWEU]2.0.CO;2
Wertebach T-M, Hölzel N, Kleinebecker T (2014) Birch encroachment affects the base cation chemistry in a restored bog. Ecohydrology 7:1163–1171. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1447
Wheeler BD (1993) Botanical diversity in British mires. Biodiversity and Conservation 2:490–512. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00056744
Wilson JB, Peet RK, Dengler J, Pärtel M (2012) Plant species richness: the world records. Journal of Vegetation Science 23:796–802. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2012.01400.x
Woziwoda B, Kopeć D (2014) Afforestation or natural succession? Looking for the best way to manage abandoned cut-over peatlands for biodiversity conservation. Ecological Engineering 63:143–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2012.12.106
Zedler JB, Kercher S (2004) Causes and consequences of invasive plants in wetlands: opportunities, opportunists, and outcomes. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 23:431–452. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352680490514673
Zoltai SC, Vitt DH (1995) Canadian wetlands: Environmental gradients and classification. Plant Ecology 118:131–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00045195
Acknowledgements
This research received financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery grant to S. Pellerin: RGPIN-2014-05367 and M. Poulin RGPIN-2014-05663) and the Québec Centre for Biodiversity Science. We are grateful to all landowners, including the Government of Québec, Nature Action and Transport Canada, who allowed us to conduct field sampling on their lands. Our thanks to numerous field assistants, P. Legendre and S. Daigle for statistical advices and K. Grislis for linguistic revision.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 119 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Favreau, M., Pellerin, S. & Poulin, M. Tree Encroachment Induces Biotic Differentiation in Sphagnum-Dominated Bogs. Wetlands 39, 841–852 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-018-1122-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-018-1122-6