Elsevier, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 1-2(105), p. 283-290, 2005
DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2004.02.006
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Plant communities are affected by land-use and landscape heterogeneity and can be used as indicators of environmental change. At small-scale, species composition and species richness of plant communities are influenced by local environment and by diaspores from the surroundings. Thus, they reflect the influence of both land-use type and land-use diversity. Plant community composition was studied along a gradient of agricultural disturbance in the Morvan Regional Natural Park (Burgundy, France). Six landscape units of 1 km2 were selected along a range of increasing land-use intensity. Sixteen 0.2 m2 sampling plots per unit were selected according to a grid-based design to estimate the percent cover of all plant species. Pattern analysis showed that local species richness increased from woodland to crop to grassland, and also increased with land-use diversity. Local plant biodiversity was maximized under intermediate disturbance intensity and minimized at low (woodland) and high (crop) disturbance levels.