Taxonomic homogenization of plant communities in Illinois wetlands and the role of wetland compensation
type: CreativeWork
description: Biotic homogenization, a process by which β-diversity erodes, represents a severe threat to biodiversity. Wetlands are especially susceptible to biotic homogenization; however, this process has rarely been documented and represents just one of many possible outcomes of compositional change. Additionally, it has been suggested that the practice of compensatory wetland mitigation, which seeks maintain the integrity of wetlands at the national level by offsetting the destruction of wetlands with the restoration of wetlands elsewhere, may inadvertently result in homogenization. This thesis consists of two studies that address these issues. In the first, I investigated how β-diversity has changed through 15 years in 59 Illinois wetlands (48 herbaceous emergent wetlands and 11 floodplain forests). This study focused on both within-site and regional scales, and assessed whether taxonomic homogenization has occurred in these wetlands. In the second study, I used 38 compensation wetlands (26 herbaceous emergent and 12 floodplain forest wetlands) and 146 natural wetlands (107 herbaceous emergent wetlands and 39 floodplain forests) to investigate whether plant communities in compensation wetlands were more homogenous than those of natural wetlands in Illinois at within-site and regional scales. In both studies, pairwise occurrence- and abundance-based dissimilarity metrics were used to quantify β-diversity. In the first study, these metrics were used to track changes in β-diversity over four sampling periods over 15 years. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling was used map these changes in compositional similarity through time, and repeated measures ANOVA via randomization was used to test for a significant effect of time on β-diversity. Results indicate that herbaceous emergent wetlands homogenized in Illinois over the period spanning 1997 to 2015 due to the increased presence and abundance of Phalaris arundinacea L. and the decline of several other species. The canopy layer of …
abstract: Biotic homogenization, a process by which β-diversity erodes, represents a severe threat to biodiversity. Wetlands are especially susceptible to biotic homogenization; however, this process has rarely been documented and represents just one of many possible outcomes of compositional change. Additionally, it has been suggested that the practice of compensatory wetland mitigation, which seeks maintain the integrity of wetlands at the national level by offsetting the destruction of wetlands with the restoration of wetlands elsewhere, may inadvertently result in homogenization. This thesis consists of two studies that address these issues. In the first, I investigated how β-diversity has changed through 15 years in 59 Illinois wetlands (48 herbaceous emergent wetlands and 11 floodplain forests). This study focused on both within-site and regional scales, and assessed whether taxonomic homogenization has occurred in these wetlands. In the second study, I used 38 compensation wetlands (26 herbaceous emergent and 12 floodplain forest wetlands) and 146 natural wetlands (107 herbaceous emergent wetlands and 39 floodplain forests) to investigate whether plant communities in compensation wetlands were more homogenous than those of natural wetlands in Illinois at within-site and regional scales. In both studies, pairwise occurrence- and abundance-based dissimilarity metrics were used to quantify β-diversity. In the first study, these metrics were used to track changes in β-diversity over four sampling periods over 15 years. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling was used map these changes in compositional similarity through time, and repeated measures ANOVA via randomization was used to test for a significant effect of time on β-diversity. Results indicate that herbaceous emergent wetlands homogenized in Illinois over the period spanning 1997 to 2015 due to the increased presence and abundance of Phalaris arundinacea L. and the decline of several other species. The canopy layer of …
author: Price, Edward P.
language: en
keywords: Biotic homogenization, wetland mitigation, wetland restoration, Phalaris arundinacea, compositional similarity, beta diversity
date published: 2017-03-01T15:49:15Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:37Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/95363