Effect of road corridors on plant diversity in the Qionglai mountain range, China

Li, Honglin; Luo, Peng; Li, Ting; Luo, Chuan; Wu, Shumin; Jia, Honghong; Cheng, Yue

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108504

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Thus, our results suggest that roadside plant communities may be more homogenization in the three facets of plant diversity than interior communities. This is consistent with previous findings regarding species richness in mountainous areas ( Haider et al., 2018 ; Li et al., 2022 ). We detected those changes in taxonomic diversity would exceed changes in functional and phylogenetic diversity, signaling functional and phylogenetic resilience ( Jarzyna and Jetz, 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

“…In relation to our second question, we hypothesize that the pattern of the effects of roads on the functional and phylogenetic diversity indices would be consistent with the effect on taxonomic diversity, i.e., the effects would vary with the elevation gradient. Based on our previous results ( Li et al., 2022 ), the expected negative impacts of roads on diversity may be greater at moderate and high elevations than at low elevations. Answering the abovementioned questions and filling this knowledge gap are important, as changes in the three facets of plant diversity may have different implications for the functioning of ecosystems and their responses to human activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…A total of 32 nonnative species were found in this survey, including 4 invasive species ( Li et al., 2022 ). Nonnative species that disperse via roads often have more similar functional traits ( McDougall et al., 2018 ), so their introduction would lead to a certain decline in the functional diversity of roadside communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The plot type (a factor with two levels: roadside vs. interior plot), elevation and its quadratic term, and interaction between the covariate and factor were used as fixed terms in the models. Due to the nested structure of the data, linear mixed models with the site (38 levels corresponding to 38 roadside and interior plot pairs) set as a random effect (random intercept) nested within roads (three levels corresponding to three roads) were used (thus, 76 plots were nested in 38 sites nested in three roads) ( Li et al., 2022 ). We built all possible fixed factor models and performed model selection based on the Akaike information criterion corrected for small sample sizes (AICc).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The landscape along the elevation gradient is dominated by arid shrubs, subtropical evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forests, coniferous forests, subalpine coniferous forests, scrub meadows, alpine talus vegetation, and permanent snow belts (Sichuan Flora Editorial Committee, 1981). Of these, arid shrubs and permanent snow belts were not included in this study (Li et al, 2022). G350, G318, G213 and G351 are four major roads in the Qionglai mountain range (Xu et al, 2006;Li et al, 2022).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the effect of roads on mountain plant diversity beyond species richness

Luo

et al. 2022

Front. Plant Sci.

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A comprehensive understanding of the effects of mountain roads on plant diversity is critical to finding the most effective solutions for managing this particular driver. Little is known, however, about the simultaneous effects that road have on the multiple facets of biodiversity, although roads are considered to be one of the major disturbances in the Qionglai mountain range. In this study, we analyzed the impact of roads on the multiple facets of plant diversity (taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity) in the study area using Hill numbers by comparing plant diversity between roadside and interior plots at the landscape scale, then, we used linear mixed models to analyze the effect of mountain roads on the multiple facets of plant diversity along an elevational gradient. The results showed that the roadside plots lacked 29.45% of the total number of species with particular functional traits (such as a relatively high specific leaf area (SLA), a relatively low leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and relatively old clades) and exclusively contained 14.62% of the total number of species. Compared with the interior community, the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of roadside community decreased by no more than 26.78%, 24.90% and 16.62%, respectively. Taxonomic and functional diversity of dominant and common species showed greater changes to road disturbances, while rare species showed the greatest change in phylogenetic diversity. Taxonomic homogenization of roadside communities was accompanied by functional and phylogenetic homogenization. Additionally, the impact of roads on these three facets of plant diversity showed the characteristics of peak clipping along the elevation gradient. Our findings highlight the negative impact of roads on the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of the Qionglai mountain range, as roads promote communities that are more similar in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic composition, and to a greater extent contributed to compositional evenness. These effects tend to be functionally and phylogenetically non-random, and species in some clades or with some functional traits are at higher risk of loss. Our results are important for the conservation and management of nature reserves, especially for local governments aiming to create new infrastructure to connect natural mountainous areas.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%