RT Journal Article
T1 Recruitment niche segregation of halophytes along the tidal gradient
A1 Muñoz Rodríguez, Adolfo Francisco
A1 Infante Izquierdo, María Dolores
A1 Polo Ávila, Alejandro
A1 Hermoso López, Virgilio
A1 Gallego Tévar, Blanca
A1 Jiménez Nieva, Francisco Javier
A1 Castillo Segura, Jesus Manuel
AB Recruitment is a critical component of the plant life cycle, but little is known about its contribution to community assembly in comparison to later plant stages. We aimed to analyze the relevance of recruitment niche segregation in community assembly using tidal salt marshes in a Mediterranean climate. With this objective, we recorded the spatio-temporal distribution of seedling emergence and its relationships with propagule density and environmental conditions at the community level along the tidal gradient. Results indicate that seedling recruitment was strongly influenced by differential establishment abilities and the effects of sedimentary and meteorological factors that vary seasonally and along the tidal gradient. Taxa colonizing the same habitats showed some similarities in their recruitment patterns, but they also presented enough differences to configure almost a unique recruitment pattern for each taxa. Sediment characteristics segregated recruitment niches at both extremes of the tidal gradient, and the few species colonizing habitats between these two extremes also showed contrasted spatial recruitment patterns. In addition, sequential differences in seedling emergence segregated within high marsh taxa. Most of the taxa exhibited a continuous germination strategy associated to prolonged flowering periods and the ability to germinate along broad salinity ranges. Our results shed light on the importance of recruitment niche segregation to the assembly of plant communities, which is key for understanding their functioning and guiding their management
PB Elsevier
SN 1096-0015
SN 0272-7714 (electrónico)
YR 2024
FD 2024-06
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/24293
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/24293
LA eng
NO Muñoz-Rodríguez, A. F., Infante-Izquierdo, M. D., Polo-Ávila, A., Hermoso-López, V., Nieva, F. J. J., Gallego-Tévar, B., & Castillo, J. M. (2024). Recruitment niche segregation of halophytes along the tidal gradient. In Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (Vol. 305, p. 108859). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2024.108859
NO The authors with to thank the Directorate of the Natural Parks forsupporting field work conducted in this study. María Dolores Infante-Izquierdo wishes to thank the Ministry of Education, Culture andSport (Spain) for a predoctoral fellowship (FPU-2015). Blanca Gallego-T´evar wishes to thank the Regional Autonomous Government of Andalusia(Spain) for a postdoctoral contract (Talento-Doctores, 2021)
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 13 jun 2026