Dissimilarity in plant species diversity between salt marsh and neighboring environments decreases as environmental harshness increases

How species similarity changes between habitats along environmental gradients is still a central challenge in ecological studies. We assessed whether marsh plant characteristics are associated with geographic changes in environmental conditions and whether there are environmental factors associated with marsh-inland dissimilarity in species composition. Field samples of vegetation were collected at 6 sites along the SW Atlantic to determine plant characteristics (cover, tallness, richness and a-diversity), and marsh-inland dissimilarity (beta-diversity) in species composition was calculated. PERMANOVA analysis showed that plant assemblage changes among sites. Forward stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that in lower marsh, plant cover increased in association with tidal range and decreased in association with salinity. In the high marsh, plant cover decreased in association with tidal range, salinity and with minimum temperatures. Plant richness increased in association with tidal range and with marsh area, while alpha-diversity decreased in association with precipitation and increased with salinity. Beta-diversity, estimated by SIMPER analysis, increased in association with precipitation and decreased with salinity and daily thermal amplitude. We present evidence that there is an increase in alpha-diversity but a decrease in beta-diversity with environmental severity among co-specific marshes distributed along the SW Atlantic coast. Thus, communities developing in more benign conditions, regardless of their low local diversity, may increase biodiversity at a landscape scale by decreasing their similarities.