Different Effects of Regional Species Pool on Plant Diversity between Forest and Grassland Biomes in Arid Northwest China
Liping LiYining LiuXiangping WangJingyun FangQingchun WangBengang ZhangPei‐Gen XiaoAnwar MohammatAndré Terwei
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Abstract:
Species pool hypothesis is broadly known and frequently tested in various regions and vegetation types. However it has not been tested in the arid Xinjiang region of China due to lack of data. Here with systematic data from references and field survey, we comprehensively examined species pool hypothesis in this region. Took species richness in 0.1° × 0.1° grid cells as regional species richness (RSR) which were obtained from the distribution maps of vascular plant species, and took species diversity of 190 and 103 plots in forest and grassland biomes across Xinjiang as local species richness (LSR), together with the digitalized soil pH and climate data, we tested the species pool hypothesis in this region. We found that: (1) the average RSR was higher in mountains than that in basins and it was negatively correlated with soil pH in mountains while positively correlated with soil pH in basins in Xinjiang; (2) RSR showed a positive correlation with mean annual precipitation (MAP) while showed a hump-shaped pattern with mean annual temperature (MAT); and the changing patterns of LSR were different for forest and grassland along the geographical and climate gradients; (3) LSR of forest was more affected by RSR than by climate, while on the contrary, LSR of grassland was more affected by climate than by RSR. Our results validated the species pool hypothesis in revealing that RSR had a significant role in shaping LSR patterns in addition to climate. We concluded that the relative effects of climate vs. RSR on LSR differed markedly between the forest and grassland communities across Xinjiang. Our results also showed that RSR revealed a contrasting relationship with soil pH in mountains and in basins, which might reflect differences in evolutionary processes of various habitats. In summary, our research systematically analyzed the correlation of species richness in regional and local scales in Xinjiang which provides more insights into the understanding of species pool hypothesis.Keywords:
Biome
Biome
Grassland ecosystem
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Nonnative plant species are considered one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, yet we still are unable to predict how production and diversity of a community will change once a species has invaded. Ponderosa pine woodlands in the Front Range of Colorado are ideal for studying the impacts of nonnative plants on production and species richness. We selected 5 sites along the northern Front Range with varying proportions of nonnative and native species and compared understory production and species richness along the gradient of nonnative species dominance. Total species production was positively and significantly related to total species richness, and total species production increased significantly with increasing nonnative species richness. There was a negative relationship between native and nonnative species production, and there was no relationship between nonnative species richness and native species richness. This study demonstrates the complex nature of species richness and productivity relationships and should serve as a starting point for future research in which a variety of other variables are considered.
Dominance (genetics)
Understory
Native plant
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Rank abundance curve
Gamma diversity
Global biodiversity
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Tawny grass floating in an indigo sky bowl . . . pungent sage . . . prickly wind rushing the nostrils . . . deserted homestead, covered wagon tracks . . . tepee circles, dinosaur bones.... These are remnants of America gone by. They are also what remain of the American prairies. These, the Pawnee National Grasslands between Nunn, Colo., and Cheyenne, Wyo., serve as headquarters for one of the more ambitious ecological undertakings in the United States today-the grassland biome studies of the International Biological Program
Biome
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Species richness and distribution patterns of wood-inhabiting fungi and mycetozoans (slime moulds) were investigated in the canopy of a Central European temperate mixed deciduous forest. Species richness was described with diversity indices and species-accumulation curves. Nonmetrical multidimensional scaling was used to assess fungal species composition on different tree species. Different species richness estimators were used to extrapolate species richness beyond our own data. The reliability of the abundance-based coverage estimator, Chao, Jackknife and other estimators of species richness was evaluated for mycological surveys. While the species-accumulation curve of mycetozoans came close to saturation, that of wood-inhabiting fungi was continuously rising. The Chao 2 richness estimator was considered most appropriate to predict the number of species at the investigation site if sampling were continued. Gray's predictor of species richness should be used if statements of the number of species in larger areas are required. Multivariate analysis revealed the importance of different tree species for the conservation and maintenance of fungal diversity within forests, because each tree species possessed a characteristic fungal community. The described mathematical approaches of estimating species richness possess great potential to address fungal diversity on a regional, national, and global scale.
Rank abundance curve
Jackknife resampling
Relative abundance distribution
Species distribution
Rarefaction (ecology)
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Aimed at status of grassland serious degradation in arid and semi-arid regions in northern China,the scientific problems involved in the cause and diving mechanism of grassland degradation,territorial characteristics of grassland ecological reconstruction,and appropriate policies of grassland management and production were analyzed and discussed.The reasons of problems produced and related strategies were pointed out.
Grassland Degradation
Degradation
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Gamma diversity
Dominance (genetics)
Rank abundance curve
Diversity index
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Abstract Biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) studies aim to understand how ecosystems respond to a gradient of species diversity. Generalised Diversity‐Interactions (DI) models are suitable for analysing the BEF relationship. These models relate an ecosystem function response of a community to the identity of the species in the community, their evenness (proportions) and interactions. The number of species in the community (richness) is included implicitly in a DI model. It is common in BEF studies to model an ecosystem function as a function of richness; while this can uncover trends in the BEF relationship, by definition, species diversity is broader than richness alone, and important patterns in the BEF relationship may remain hidden. Here, we introduce the DImodels R package for implementing DI models. We show how richness is mathematically equivalent to a simplified DI model under certain conditions, and illustrate how using the DI multidimensional definition of species diversity can provide deeper insight to the BEF relationship compared to traditional approaches. Using DI models can lead to considerably improved model fit over other methods; it does this by incorporating variation due to the multiple facets of species diversity. Predicting from a DI model is not limited to the study design points, the model can interpolate or extrapolate to predict for any species composition and proportions (assuming there is sufficient coverage of this space in the study design). Expressing the BEF relationship as a function of richness alone can be useful to capture overall trends. However, collapsing the multiple dimensions of species diversity to a single dimension (such as richness) can result in valuable ecological information being lost. DI modelling provides a framework to test the multiple components of species diversity in the BEF relationship. It facilitates uncovering a deeper ecological understanding of the BEF relationship and can lead to enhanced inference. The open‐source DImodels R package provides a user‐friendly way to implement this modelling approach.
Global biodiversity
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Abstract The land snail community of Idanre hills was studied using a combination of direct search and leaf litter‐sieving techniques. In total, 36 species and 2192 individuals in nine molluscan families were collected from 19 plots of 400 m 2 each. Species richness varied from 8 to 23 and the number of individuals from 21 to 566 per plot. Species richness was dominated by the carnivorous Streptaxidae, while numerical abundance was dominated by the Subulinidae, Streptaxidae and Urocyclidae, contributing to more than 95% of the total number of individuals. The single most abundant species was the urocyclid Trochozonites talcosus , contributing to almost 20% of the total number of individuals. The species richness and high abundance of land snails make Idanre hills a unique site for molluscan conservation in Nigeria.
Land snail
Global biodiversity
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