Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 174, Issue -, Pages 10-15Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2012.11.001
Keywords
Terrestrial acidification; pH; Species richness; Species sensitivity distribution
Categories
Funding
- European Commission [ENV.2009.33.2.1: LC-IMPACT, 243827]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study estimates the potential losses of vascular plant species richness due to terrestrial acidification for different world's biomes. We used empirical occurrence data of 2409 species from 140 studies and estimated the relative species richness - pH response curves using logistic regressions. The regressions were then used to quantify the fraction of species that are potentially lost due to soil pH changes. Although we found considerable variability within biomes, out results show that the pH at which species richness was maximized was found to be the lowest in (sub)tropical forests (pH = 4.1) and the highest in deserts (pH = 7.4). We also found that (sub)tropical moist forests are highly sensitive to decreases of in soil pH below 4.1. This study can be coupled with existing atmospheric deposition models to quantify the risk of species richness loss following soil acidification. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available