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  4. Hydroperiod regime controls the organization of plant species in wetlands
 
research article

Hydroperiod regime controls the organization of plant species in wetlands

Foti, R.
•
Del Jesus, M.
•
Rinaldo, A.  
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2012
Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America (PNAS)

With urban, agricultural, and industrial needs growing throughout the past decades, wetland ecosystems have experienced profound changes. Most critically, the biodiversity of wetlands is intimately linked to its hydrologic dynamics, which in turn are being drastically altered by ongoing climate changes. Hydroperiod regimes, e. g., percentage of time a site is inundated, exert critical control in the creation of niches for different plant species in wetlands. However, the spatial signatures of the organization of plant species in wetlands and how the different drivers interact to yield such signatures are unknown. Focusing on Everglades National Park (ENP) in Florida, we show here that cluster sizes of each species follow a power law probability distribution and that such clusters have well-defined fractal characteristics. Moreover, we individuate and model those signatures via the interplay between global forcings arising from the hydroperiod regime and local controls exerted by neighboring vegetation. With power law clustering often associated with systems near critical transitions, our findings are highly relevant for the management of wetland ecosystems. In addition, our results show that changes in climate and land management have a quantifiable predictable impact on the type of vegetation and its spatial organization in wetlands.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1218056109
Web of Science ID

WOS:000312313900026

Author(s)
Foti, R.
Del Jesus, M.
Rinaldo, A.  
Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.
Date Issued

2012

Publisher

Natl Acad Sciences

Published in
Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America (PNAS)
Volume

109

Issue

48

Start page

19596

End page

19600

Subjects

ecology

•

self-organization

•

ecosystems sensitivity

•

wetlands vulnerability

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
ECHO  
Available on Infoscience
January 24, 2013
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/88115
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