Plant community dynamics during the growing season of typical ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau
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The relationships between vegetation and environmental factors have always been a core concern of ecologists. The dynamic characteristics of plant communities during the growing season can directly reflect these relationships, so we examined this issue for three typical ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. During the growing season, the dominant species remained stable while non-dominant species changed significantly in the alpine meadow and alpine steppe and a mono-dominant community was found in the temperate desert shrub. Due to the seasonal variations of temperature and soil water content, plant species diversity varied significantly during the growing season. Patrick richness, Pielou evenness and Simpson diversity indices differed significantly in the alpine meadow and alpine steppe. The total biomass of these three ecosystems was the largest during the middle growing season. Biomass was greater in the alpine meadow than the alpine steeps or temperature desert. The root-to-shoot ratio was the lowest during the middle growing season for the alpine meadow and alpine steppe and largest during the early growing season for temperate desert shrub. RDA showed the belowground and total biomass were greatly affected by soil physicochemical factors. Multiple linear stepwise regression showed the above ground biomass was greatly affected by relative atmospheric humidity and belowground and total biomass were greatly affected by soil organic carbon, total nitrogen at 0–20 cm soil depth and pH at 10–20 cm soil depth. These findings provide insights into understanding the relationships between vegetation and environmental factors and promote the sustainable utilization of local grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.Keywords:
Growing season
Steppe
Terrestrial ecosystem
Abstract Atmospheric and climatic change can alter plant biomass production and plant community composition. However, we know little about how climate change‐induced alterations in biomass production affect plant species composition. To better understand how climate change will alter both individual plant species and community biomass, we manipulated atmospheric [CO 2 ], air temperature, and precipitation in a constructed old‐field ecosystem. Specifically, we compared the responses of dominant and subdominant species to our climatic treatments, and explored how changes in plant dominance patterns alter community evenness over 2 years. Our study resulted in four major findings: (1) all treatments, elevated [CO 2 ], warming, and increased precipitation increased plant community biomass and the effects were additive rather than interactive, (2) plant species differed in their response to the treatments, resulting in shifts in the proportional biomass of individual species, which altered the plant community composition; however, the plant community response was largely driven by the positive precipitation response of Lespedeza , the most dominant species in the community, (3) precipitation explained most of the variation in plant community composition among treatments, and (4) changes in precipitation caused a shift in the dominant species proportional biomass that resulted in lower community evenness in the wet relative to dry treatments. Interestingly, compositional and evenness responses of the subdominant community to the treatments did not always follow the responses of the whole plant community. Our data suggest that changes in plant dominance patterns and community evenness are an important part of community responses to climatic change, and generally, that such compositional shifts can alter ecosystem biomass production and nutrient inputs.
Dominance (genetics)
Mesocosm
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Biodiversity is necessary for mankind life duration, economical issues and for ecosystems stability and function . The most important aspect of this study is determining evenness and diversity important indexes for the herbal and shrub layers in natural and afforestated stands. In this study the diversity of grassy and shrub species in natural and afforestated stands of forests in north of Iran were studied and compared from the view point of diversity and evenness indexes. In order to do this study natural stand which are approximately at the same height above the sea level were selected. The area of each stand was 30 hectares and the inventory was done by a random- systematic method with 10 percent intensity. In each stand 30 circle shape sample pieces with a 5R measurement (500 m 2 ) were selected. In order to study the herbal layer in the center of each sample piece micro plots by the measurement of 125 m 2 were made. The results showed excessiveness of diversity and evenness of herbal layer and shrub species in the
Diversity index
Natural forest
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Plant communities in the modern Yellow River Delta are studied by the methods of TWINSPAN(Two-Way Indication Species Analysis) and DCA(Detrended Correspondence Analysis) in this paper.TWINSPAN classification results show that the vegetation in the study area is divided into three large groups of communities dominated by the species Suaeda salsa,Tamarix chinensis and herbage,which includes 12 community types.Three species diversity indices are used to study the changes in species richness,evenness and diversity in different communities. Diversity and richness indices increase gradually from the communities S.salsa and T.chinensis to herbage,but species evennesses fluctuate greatly in the communities S.salsa and T.chinensis.However evenness fluctuation is little in herbaceous community.Results of ordination by DCA reflect that the plant community distribution patterns are affected by environmental factors such as soil salt content and hydrological situation.In the area with high soil salt content,species composition is single and community structure is simple.In the area with low soil salt content,species composition increases and community structure is complex.
Detrended correspondence analysis
Canonical correspondence analysis
Herbaceous plant
Diversity index
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Soil heterogeneity has been theoretically predicted to promote plant performance, but empirical evidence is often mixed. By focusing on a gradient of microhabitats (single, three and six types of microhabitats), we tested the hypothesis that increasing the number of microhabitats promotes the diversity and productivity of plant communities. We created different types of microhabitats by adding different forms of nitrogen (NH4+, NO3− and glycine) or combinations of these nitrogen in an even or patchy way. Community biomass, but not evenness, differed in different types of single-microhabitat. Increasing the number of microhabitat types did not alter community growth or evenness, but it increased the difference in the relative abundance of plant species within the community. These results suggest that microhabitat diversity can influence plant competitive hierarchies, and that this effect can lead to changed community growth, but may not be decisive for plant evenness.
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Quantitative classification(TWINSPAN) was used to examine the ecological characteristics of plant communities with natural restoration on quarry wastelands in Mentougou District,Beijing.Then the changes of community diversities were analyzed in the process of vegetation restoration of quarry wastelands by the richness indices,diversity indices and evenness indices.The results showed that the communities could be classified 42 samples into nine associated types by TWINSPAN.Three succession stages including the herbaceous community,from herbaceous community to shrub community,shrub community were divided during the restoration process.The richness indices,diversity indices increased along with the formation and succession of plant community,but at the same time,evenness indices fluctuated among different stages.These preliminary studies indicated that the natural restoration of vegetation could be successful in practice and more efforts would be needed in order to make a sound plan.
Diversity index
Restoration Ecology
Herbaceous plant
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The dominant tree species and life form spectrum as well as diversity index of tree and shrub layer and community evenness in Hongjiahe valley were discussed in this paper.The result shows that,the natural community is divided into 5 vegetation type and 17 formation.The complexly community structure and primary life form spectrum are arbor and shrub,so they are zonal climax community.The species diversity index and community evenness show regularly variance accompany with elevation,tree layer and shrub layer as well as vegetation type.The diversity caused by artificial disturbance.
Climax
Climax community
Diversity index
Seral community
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Plant Diversity
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Abstract Plant–soil feedback ( PSF ) has been identified as a key driver of local plant diversity and evenness in competitive communities. However, while it has been shown that spatial PSF heterogeneity can alter plant performance and competitive interactions, there is no proof of principle that spatial PSF heterogeneity enhances community diversity. Using a grassland model system, we separated two aspects of spatial heterogeneity: the number of species conditioning the soil and spatial distribution of the PSF s. Our data show that PSF s promoted a higher plant evenness when the soil was conditioned by multiple species (mixed‐conditioned) than when the soil was conditioned by a single species (mono‐conditioned). On mono‐conditioned soils, heterospecifics typically outperformed the focal species. In addition, there was a trend for increasing community evenness from uniform, via fine‐grained to coarse‐grained mixed‐conditioned soils, but this was not significant. On mixed‐conditioned soils, performance of all competing species was intermediate to the best and the worst mono‐conditioned soils, leading to higher community evenness. Our data demonstrate that PSF s play a role in promoting plant evenness. Across mono‐conditioned soils, PSF led to altered competitive hierarchies. However, on soils conditioned by multiple species, competitive ability among species was more similar and this led to higher plant evenness. The spatial distribution of the heterogeneity, on the other hand, did not significantly affect plant evenness. Our data therefore show that community evenness was more strongly related to the number of plant species that conditioned the soil than the spatial distribution of the PSF heterogeneity. Future studies need to investigate the importance of PSF s in the field across plant life stages and multiple generations. A plain language summary is available for this article.
Spatial heterogeneity
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Subalpine shrub and meadow communities were studied using 12 species diversity indices. The species diversity of subalpine shrub and meadow communities on the Guandi Mountain was closely related to altitude. With increase in altitude, the species richness decreased, the species evenness increased, and species heterogeneity decreased. The diversity was also closely related with slope. As the slope angle decreased, richness slowly decreased, and the evenness and heterogeneity increased. The range of change in the different diversity indices of shrub communities was greater than that for meadow communities.
Gamma diversity
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