Soil pH as a strong driver of plant species distribution in alpine-nival ecotone of the Central  Caucasus

Tamar Jolokhava; Otar Abdaladze; Arsen Bakhia; Zezva Asanidze; Jana Ekhvaia; Zaal Kikvidze

doi:10.3986/hacq-2025-0022

Authors

Tamar Jolokhava School of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Ecology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia & Science-Research Center of Agriculture, Soil Fertility Division, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3868-0526
Otar Abdaladze School of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Ecology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8140-0900
Arsen Bakhia School of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Ecology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3809-1124
Zezva Asanidze School of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Ecology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7859-7917
Jana Ekhvaia School of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Ecology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia & Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7104-1561
Zaal Kikvidze Institute of Ethnobiology and Socio-ecology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia & Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7375-3634

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3986/hacq-2025-0022

Keywords:

community assembly, regional patterns of species distribution, the climate and bedrock, environmental gradient

Abstract

Soil pH can be a strong driver of species distributions in general, however, its role in alpine-nival ecotone is little known. We compared the composition of plant species of two locations located 25km apart from each other, one near Mt. Kazbegi and another near Mt. Gudauri (Georgia). These locations have similar abiotic environments but significantly different soil pH levels. The sampled communities were located at 3000 m a.s.l., which in the Central Caucasus corresponds to the alpine-nival ecotone. North- versus south-facing slopes were sampled with a standardized stratified-random design. Soil samples were collected from the same vegetation sampling plots. The analysis of climate data from available databases showed that these two locations were climatically similar but distinguishable in soil pH values. In total, 74 species were recorded, of which the relatively frequent 33 species (those with a frequency of occurrence ≥10) were used for multivariate statistical analyses. The floristic similarity between the locations was low. Axis 1, which was primarily linked to soil pH and, to a lesser extent, vegetation cover, accounted for nearly all the variation in the Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) ordination. Our results suggest that soil pH is a key factor in community assembly in the alpine-nival ecotone of the Central Caucasus.

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