Survival patterns and population stability of cliff plants suggest high resistance to climatic variability

Abstract

Cliffs are marginal and poorly studied habitats that are home to a high proportion of endemic or threatened species. Here, we reviewed the survival patterns and population dynamics of plants growing on vertical cliffs and compared them to other plants with similar life forms that grow on the ground. To this end, we have compiled studies of cliff and ground-level plants from two main sources: MONITO and COMPADRE. The resulting dataset after applying some filters included a total of 243 populations of 134 plant species monitored for several years in the northern hemisphere. We tested whether survival rates of seedlings and older stages, population growth rates, and their temporal variability showed similar patterns between cliff and ground plants, and the relationship between those demographic parameters. Cliff plants showed higher survival rates for both seedlings and older life stages, as well as lower distance to population equilibrium and more stable population trends over time, compared to plants growing in the ground. Population equilibrium and temporal stability was highly correlated with the survival of post-seedling stages in both groups. These results suggest that cliff plants may be better adapted to withstand climatic variability than the more common ground-level plants occurring in less stressful environments.