SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Environmental and spatial controls of biotic assemblages in a discrete semi-terrestrial habitat:
comparison of organisms with different dispersal abilities sampled in the same plots
Michal Hájek, Jan Roleček, Karl Cottenie, Kateřina Kintrová, Michal Horsák, Aloisie Poulíčková, Petra
Hájková, Markéta Fránková, Daniel Dítě
Journal of Biogeography
Appendix S1 A map of the sites in which biotic fen assemblages were studied in the
Western Carpathian Mountains and an example of a study site and four organism groups.
The map shows the position of the study area in Europe and the distribution of sampling
sites in the Western Carpathian Mountains, sampled between 2000 and 2006. Subset 1 (▲)
includes sites where bryophytes, vascular plants, and diatoms were sampled, but excludes
easternmost sites and molluscs. Subset 2 (○) includes sites where bryophytes, vascular
plants and molluscs were sampled but excludes the most calcium-poor sites and diatoms.
Note that the western sites belong to both subsets in most cases. The second figure shows a
view of one of the largest study sites, Demänová, a well-preserved calcareous fen in the
Western Carpathian Mountains (central Slovakia). Representatives of the studied organisms
and their propagules are depicted: mollusc Vertigo pygmaea, diatom Cavinula
cocconeiformis, vascular plant Eriophorum latifolium and bryophyte Paludella squarrosa.
The numbers refer to the maximum dimension of the object, except for the vascular plant
where it refers to fruit size only; propagule size including the pappus is about 20 mm.
Appendix S2 Descriptive statistics for the data sets of biotic fen assemblages sampled in the Western
Carpathians: minimum, first quartile (25th percentile), mean, median (50th percentile), third quartile
(75th percentile) and maximum.
Tab. S1. Descriptive statistics of the data sets.
A. Subset 1: 98 plots
Distributional characteristics
Number of species per plot
BRYOPHYTES
(total of 58 species in 741 occurrences)
VASCULAR PLANTS
(total of 229 species in 2,816 occurrences)
DIATOMS
(total of 189 species in 1,378 occurrences)
Explanatory variables
WATER CHEMISTRY
pH
conductivity
CLIMATE
mean annual precipitation
mean January temperatures
mean July temperature
duration of snow cover
SELECTED SPATIAL VARIABLES
1. PCoA axis
2. PCoA axis
3. PCoA axis
4. PCoA axis
7. PCoA axis
8. PCoA axis
17. PCoA axis
20. PCoA axis
23. PCoA axis
35. PCoA axis
min
1st Qrt.
mean
median
3rd Qrt.
max
2
6
7.6
7
9
25
7
22
28.7
27.5
35.8
59
3
10.3
14.1
14
18
32
4.2
24.0
6.2
145.0
6.8
354.5
7.0
407.5
7.3
483.2
8.2
1,000.0
750.0
-5.5
13.0
70.0
900.0
-5.5
15.0
90.0
1,043.0
-4.1
15.4
106.7
900.0
-3.5
15.0
90.0
1,100.0
-3.5
17.0
130.0
1,400.0
-2.5
17.0
150.0
-72,461.0
-51,167.1
-48,160.3
-60,883.0
-22,584.2
-66,316.5
-27,374.0
-28,199.8
-34,681.3
-3,020.8
-50,330.0
-29,565.8
-23,698.7
-11,821.9
-11,167.2
-5,681.4
-4,354.3
-4,672.8
-3,301.2
-13.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
5,400.0
-1,689.3
4,851.0
-3,079.0
-2,978.9
807.1
-890.2
1,212.2
-206.2
0.8
48,622.0
37,319.1
10,480.2
12,641.3
1,712.7
7,732.2
2,469.4
4,153.1
3,706.0
18.3
66,339.0
57,114.6
77,259.3
72,721.3
91,327.5
53,991.9
35,834.3
31,124.6
24,202.5
2,945.5
min
1st Qrt.
mean
median
3rd Qrt.
max
2
6
8
7
10
18
11
22
28.9
28
35
60
1
13
16
16
20
29
4.2
27.0
6.8
289.5
7.1
385.0
7.0
390.4
7.3
484.0
8.2
1,000.0
575.0
-6.5
13.0
55.0
850.0
-5.5
13.0
90.0
939.7
-4.6
14.8
106.5
900.0
-5.5
15.0
110.0
1,100.0
-3.5
15.5
130.0
1,400.0
-2.5
18.0
150.0
-58,449.8
-39,970.2
-49,468.4
-36,413.4
-59,466.1
-62,366.0
-45,599.7
-46,340.6
-43,982.3
-33,782.6
-54,469.8
-35,370.0
-10,558.3
-24,792.9
-10,183.9
-14,852.1
-11,930.6
-4,480.0
-8,682.1
-8,795.1
-13,977.0
-13,166.7
-7,432.2
-7,074.7
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
-214.1
-8,561.5
-452.4
-1,656.2
-5.7
6,986.5
-1,401.1
401.4
3,198.8
-337.7
-557.5
-780.4
7,114.4
29,962.6
8,175.2
1,802.4
9,325.2
11,122.0
6,069.9
6,257.5
15,458.3
8,024.3
5,818.8
4,873.4
61,650.5
45,296.8
63,379.9
71,620.9
39,789.3
36,431.3
59,412.1
62,865.1
38,727.3
50,113.2
41,678.0
57,552.0
B. Subset 2: 160 plots
Distributional characteristics
Number of species per plot
BRYOPHYTES
(total of 78 species in 1,286 occurrences)
VASCULAR PLANTS
(total of 305 species in 4,616 occurrences)
MOLLUSCS
(total of 56 species in 2,545 occurrences)
Explanatory variables
WATER CHEMISTRY
pH
conductivity
CLIMATE
mean annual precipitation
mean January temperatures
mean July temperature
duration of snow cover
SELECTED SPATIAL VARIABLES
1. PCoA axis
2. PCoA axis
3. PCoA axis
4. PCoA axis
5. PCoA axis
6. PCoA axis
7. PCoA axis
8. PCoA axis
9. PCoA axis
10. PCoA axis
11. PCoA axis
12. PCoA axis
Appendix S3 The plots illustrating the nonlinear structure of three selected spatial variables in Subset
2 of biotic fen assemblages studied in the Western Carpathians; Subset 2 includes sites where
bryophytes, vascular plants, and molluscs were sampled but excludes the most calcium-poor sites and
diatoms. These spatial variables were produced by the principal coordinates of neighbour matrices
(PCNM) analysis, which models the spatial structure among the plots as an undulation over a wide
range of spatial scales. Small triangles represent positions of the sampling plots. The coordinates used
were obtained by projection of the geographical coordinates to a flat two-dimensional surface. The
circles roughly approximate the area around local maxima (blue) or minima (beige) of plot scores on
principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) axes. Clusters of circles of the same colour may be conceived as
peaks and valleys of the undulating space. The three depicted variables represent three different scales:
A – coarse scale (2nd PCoA axis), B – middle scale (9th PCoA axis), and C – fine scale (25th PCoA
axis).