Dispersal potentials determine responses of woody plant species richness to environmental factors in fragmented Mediterranean landscapes

While maximizing plant species richness continues to be central in the design, conservation and reforestation action plans, plant life histories are receiving increasing attention in assessments for the conservation of biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. We investigated the determinants of woody plant species (trees, shrubs and climbers) richness in the forest patches of the Guadalquivir river valley, a Mediterranean agricultural landscape with ∼1% forest cover. We analyzed three species richness variables, total, and those corresponding to species with short-distance (ballistic, barochorous, myrmecochorous and short-distance anemochorous) and long-distance (anemochorous, endozochorous, exozoochorous, hydrochorous and dyszoochorous) dispersal systems, which significantly characterize earlier and late successional stages, respectively. We selected eleven predictor variables related to habitat structure (patch area, shape, distances to the nearest patch and reserve, and general isolation), physical environment (temperature, precipitation, elevation, and lithological heterogeneity), and anthropogenic influences (disturbance and proportion of old-growth forest). We used ordinary-least-squares multiple regression (OLS) and the Akaike's information criterion (corrected for spatial autocorrelation) and derived indices to generate parsimonious models including multiple predictors. These analyses indicated that plant species richness increase primarily along with increasing patch area and decreasing disturbance, but also detected secondary effects of other factors when dispersal was considered. While the number of species with potential long-distance dispersal tended to increase in more isolated patches of areas with greater precipitation and lithological heterogeneity (e.g. highlands at the valley edges), the number of species with short-distance dispersal increased towards drier and less lithologically complex zones with shorter between-patch distances (e.g. central lowlands). Beyond emphasizing the need to consider dispersal in fragmentation studies, our results show that woody plant species richness would be favoured by actions that increase patch area and reduce anthropogenic disturbances particularly in lowland forests.