Discriminating ecological processes affecting different dimensions of α‐ and β‐diversity in desert plant communities

Jiang, Longyang; Dong, Hailiang; Wang, Hengfang; Lv, Guanghui

doi:10.1002/ece3.8710

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Changes in soil alkalinity cause changes in soil texture and permeability, which in turn affects the mineralization and release of nutrients. Thus, changes in soil alkalinity influence species phylogenetic diversity (Jiang, Hu, et al, 2022), making pH and soil texture important factors influencing differences in species dissimilarity. Assigning richness information (presence‐absence, abundance, conspicuousness) to species composition shows the influence of BHD and stand density decreased, while the influence of SMC and TN increased.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The drivers of the dissimilarity in species composition across various sites have indeed been a central issue in community ecology (Anderson et al, 2011; Jiang, Hu, et al, 2022; Kobayashi et al, 2005). Generally, the presence of species is filtered through environmental‐species interactions and environmental heterogeneity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecological drivers of dissimilarity in multidimensional plant composition of early‐stage plantations in a loess hilly‐gully region

et al. 2023

Land Degrad Dev

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Plant diversity is an important link between forest ecosystems' structural composition and functional processes. The simple composition of young plantations is weakening the ecological function of restored forest ecosystems in arid regions. The ecological drivers of the plant composition and dissimilarity in plantations remain unclear, especially in the early restoration stage. To fill the gap in knowledge of the differences in species composition in early restored ecosystems, and to reveal the influencing factors of similar species numbers with different compositional structures, based on species' presence‐absence, abundance, and conspicuousness, we explored dissimilarity in the plant composition of young plantations in the loess hilly‐gully region. Our results showed that differences in alpha diversity among plantations were minimal, while the differences in beta diversity were significant. Even if the species diversity of a plantation was low, communities with similar species richness used to have large dissimilarities in their species composition. Turnover components and balanced variation often contributed significantly to species compositional dissimilarity. Co‐inertia analysis results showed species conspicuousness had the greatest consistency with observed environmental variables (RV = 0.65). The redundancy analysis and generalized diversity modeling results showed differences between the drivers of species diversity and dissimilarity. The primary influencing factors for alpha diversity were: soil water content, soil texture, soil total phosphorus, and soil organic carbon. Primary influencing factors for dissimilarity (beta diversity) were: soil nitrogen to phosphorus ratio, breast‐height diameter, soil water content, and stand density. Collectively, plant taxa dissimilarity was influenced by soil nutrient ratio and community structure and plant taxa abundance was influenced by soil nutrient content. Our findings improve the understanding of the plantation species composition and facilitate the prediction of ecological functions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecological drivers of dissimilarity in multidimensional plant composition of early‐stage plantations in a loess hilly‐gully region

et al. 2023

Land Degrad Dev

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“…The main dominant plants include Populus euphratica , Haloxylon ammodendron , Halimodendron halodendron , Reaumuria soongarica , Nitraria roborowskii , Halocnemum strobilaceum , Alhagi sparsifolia , Apocynum venetum , Seriphidium terrae-albae , Phragmites australis , Salsola collina , Suaeda glauca , etc. ( Jiang L. et al, 2022 ). Three large sample plots of 1 hm 2 (100 m × 100 m) was set up in the river bank, the transition zone between riparian forest and desert shrubs (ecotone community), and the desert hinterland in the ELWNNR, respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Ebinur Lake Wetland National Nature Reserve (ELWNNR) is a treasure house of biodiversity in arid desert areas of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the NW China, which provides a good place for studying the maintenance of diversity on community stability in arid desert ecosystem ( Jiang L. et al, 2022 ). Affected by arid climatic conditions, the local ecosystem is relatively sensitive and vulnerable to environmental changes ( Yang et al, 2019 ; Token et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different contributions of plant diversity and soil properties to the community stability in the arid desert ecosystem

et al. 2022

Self Cite

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As a one of the focuses of ecological research, understanding the regulation of plant diversity on community stability is helpful to reveal the adaption of plant to environmental changes. However, the relationship between plant diversity and community stability is still controversial due to the scale effect of its influencing factors. In this study, we compared the changes in community stability and different plant diversity (i.e., species, functional, and phylogenetic diversities) between three communities (i.e., riparian forest, ecotone community, and desert shrubs), and across three spatial scales (i.e., 100, 400, and 2500 m2), and then quantified the contribution of soil properties and plant diversity to community stability by using structural equation model (SEM) in the Ebinur Lake Basin Nature Reserve of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the NW China. The results showed that: (1) community stability differed among three communities (ecotone community > desert shrubs > riparian forest). The stability of three communities all decreased with the increase of spatial scale (2) species diversity, phylogenetic richness and the mean pairwise phylogenetic distance were higher in ecotone community than that in desert shrubs and riparian forest, while the mean nearest taxa distance showed as riparian forest > ecotone community > desert shrubs. (3) Soil ammonium nitrogen and total phosphorus had the significant direct negative and positive effects on the community stability, respectively. Soil ammonium nitrogen and total phosphorus also indirectly affected community stability by adjusting plant diversity. The interaction among species, functional and phylogenetic diversities also regulated the variation of community stability across the spatial scales. Our results suggested that the effect of plant diversities on community stability were greater than that of soil factors. The asynchronous effect caused by the changes in species composition and functional traits among communities had a positive impact on the stability. Our study provided a theoretical support for the conservation and management of biodiversity and community functions in desert areas.

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Drivers of desert plant beta diversity on the Qinghai–Tibet plateau

Wen,

Zhao,

Sun

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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The desert ecosystem of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) is an important component of China's desert ecosystem. Studying the mechanisms shaping the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional beta diversity of plant communities in the QTP desert will help us to promote scientific conservation and management of the region's biodiversity. This study investigated the effects of environmental (including altitude, climate factors, and soil factors) and geographic distances on three facets of beta diversity as well as their turnover and nestedness components based on field survey data. The results showed that turnover components dominate the three facets of beta diversity. However, the turnover contributions to phylogenetic and functional beta diversity were lower than for taxonomic beta diversity. Environmental distance had a greater influence than geographic distance, with the former uniquely explaining 15.2%–22.8% of beta diversity and the latter explaining only 1.7%–2.4%. Additionally, the explanatory power of different factors for beta diversity differed between herbs and shrubs, with environmental distance being more important for the latter. Distance‐based redundancy analysis suggested that soil total potassium content had a substantial impact on the beta diversity of three dimensions, with mean temperature of the coldest month and soil total phosphorus content having a substantial impact on taxonomic and functional beta diversity as well. Our results support that environmental sorting plays a predominant role in shaping plant community composition across QTP desert ecosystems. To maintain the plant diversity of this region, it is crucial to prioritize the conservation of its diverse environmental conditions and actively mitigate its degradation by anthropogenic pressures.

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Discriminating ecological processes affecting different dimensions of α‐ and β‐diversity in desert plant communities

Cited by 16 publications

References 93 publications

Ecological drivers of dissimilarity in multidimensional plant composition of early‐stage plantations in a loess hilly‐gully region

Ecological drivers of dissimilarity in multidimensional plant composition of early‐stage plantations in a loess hilly‐gully region

Different contributions of plant diversity and soil properties to the community stability in the arid desert ecosystem

Drivers of desert plant beta diversity on the Qinghai–Tibet plateau

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