Drivers of vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen richness in grasslands along a precipitation gradient (central Apennines, Italy)

Questions: Semi-natural grasslands in Southern Europe are biodiversity hotspots, yet their patterns of plant species richness are less studied than in Central Europe. In the Central Apennines (Italy), there are large areas of dry calcareous grasslands, across a steep gradient of mean annual precipitation (from 650 to 1350 mm within c. 30 km). We asked: How do these grasslands compare to other Palaearctic grasslands in richness levels? How do the precipitation gradient and other environmental predictors influence species richness? Does this influence differ among taxonomic groups? Location: Submontane and lower-montane belt of the Central Apennines (Abruzzo and Lazio, Italy). Methods: We recorded the species richness of vascular plants and (terricolous) bryophytes and lichens in 97 plots of 10 m2, aligning them with the precipitation gradient while maintaining geological substrate and elevation similar. Mean temperature and precipitation were estimated with a high-resolution regional model. A wide array of environmental variables (including soil properties and grazing load) were measured for each plot. Multivariate relationships within and between response and predictor variables were studied with Canonical Correlation. The relative importance of predictors on response variables was modeled with Boosted Regression Trees.