Niche and interspecific association of dominant tree populations of Zelkova schneideriana communities in eastern China

et al. 2022

Forests

Coexistence between species within plant communities is a key issue in the practice of revegetation, forest management, and biodiversity conservation. Vegetation restoration is critical to control soil erosion and improve the ecological environment on the Loess Plateau. Here, we investigate the interspecific relationships of dominant plants during natural vegetation succession on the Loess Plateau. The results suggest that, under the ecological process of environmental filtering, species within communities can reduce interspecific competition and promote species coexistence via spatial heterogeneity and temporal asynchronous differences. The ecological niche overlap index (Oik) significantly and positively correlated with the strength of interspecific associations. Most species pairs had weak competition and more stable interspecific relationships. The results of the χ2 test showed that 317 species pairs were positively associated and 118 were negatively associated. The community is in a positive succession process, and the interaction relationship between species tends to be neutral. We should enhance the protection of positively associated species and pay attention to negatively associated species during forest management. Results revealed that Carex lanceolata Boott and Lespedeza bicolor Turcz coexisted easily with other species for mutual benefit, which could help build artificial forestland of native species to improve the ecological function.

Section: Interspecific Association Strength and Niche Overlap Relatio...supporting

confidence: 74%

Knowledge about Plant Coexistence during Vegetation Succession for Forest Management on the Loess Plateau, China

Tian

et al. 2022

Forests

“…A keystone species is referred to be "a strongly interacting species whose top-down effect on species diversity and competition is large relative to its biomass dominance within a functional group" (Davic, 2003). In general, dominant tree species play a significant role in the structure and function of subtropical forest communities which usually comprise a great number of plant species (Shao and Zhang, 2021). However, dominant species are different from keystone species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have shown that Z. schneideriana can be found in a variety of community types, including evergreen broad-leaf forest, deciduous broad-leaf forest, bamboo and broad-leaf mixed forest, and coniferous broad-leaf mixed forest (Ma and Zhang, 2009;Shao and Zhang, 2021). Based on our field survey over the past decade, we have noted that Z. schneideriana mainly occurs in two types of forest communities in subtropics of China, which are deciduous broad-leaf forest, bamboo and broad-leaf mixed forest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potentially differential impacts on niche overlap between Chinese endangered Zelkova schneideriana and its associated tree species under climate change

Yan-rong

2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Climate change has a significant impact on the potential distribution for endangered trees. However, to date, little is known about how the endangered trees and main associated ones in different types of subtropical forests respond to climate change. Here, we first selected the endangered Zelkova schneideriana endemic to China and its associated trees as focus species from two subtropical forest communities (i.e. deciduous broad-leaf forest, bamboo and broad-leaf mixed forest) in China, and divided them into two species pairs: Z. schneideriana vs. Celtis sinensis, and Z. schneideriana vs. Phyllostachys edulis. Then, we simulated the three species’ suitable areas under current and future climate scenarios using Maxent based on the occurrence records and environmental variables, and further measured niche overlap between each species pair over time. Our Maxent showed: (1) Temperature-related factors have greater influence on Z. schneideriana than the other factors. The most important factor influencing its population distribution was Min temperature of coldest month (Bio6), followed by Mean diurnal range (Bio2), with the total contribution of 78.9%. (2) Currently, the suitable area of Z. schneideriana was predicted to be 106.50 × 104 km2, mostly located in the subtropical region of China, especially in Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces. (3) Its suitable area would decrease and its average migration distance was 19.72 km under 16 future climate scenarios, with the core distribution migrating northeast. (4) There is an asynchrony of potential niche overlap between species pairs. One species pair with C. sinensis will rise in terms of Schoener’s D and I values whereas the other one with P. edulis will decline in the future. This asynchrony can be ascribed to the different future suitable ranges of these focus species as well as their ecological characteristics. Our study provides a new perspective on the conservation for endangered trees and surrounding neighbors in Chinese subtropical forests.

“…The variance ratio (VR) test was used to gain insight into the overall association among the different species, and significance was further tested using the W statistic value. The formulas are listed below [31,32]:…”

Section: Interspecific Association Quantificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interspecific Association and Community Stability of Tree Species in Natural Secondary Forests at Different Altitude Gradients in the Southern Taihang Mountains

Jin

Zhou

et al. 2022

Forests

An interspecific association represents an inter-relatedness of different species in spatial distribution and combined with the altitude factor, is key for revealing the formation and evolution of an ecological community. Therefore, we analyzed the changes in interspecific association and community stability at different altitudes in the southern Taihang Mountains using the variance ratio (VR), χ2 test, association coefficient (AC), percentage of co-occurrence (PC) and Godron stability method. In total, 27 sample plots measuring 20 × 20 m were set up and were divided into lower altitude (700~1100 m), medium altitude (1100~1500 m) and higher altitude areas (1500~1900 m) into. The results showed that the overall interspecies association of communities exhibited an insignificant negative association in both the lower (VR = 0.79, W = 7.15) and higher (VR = 0.81, W = 7.36) altitude areas, while an insignificant positive association was observed in the medium (VR = 1.48, W = 13.34) altitude area. Besides, the χ2 test showed the ratio of positively and negatively correlated species pairs decreased as altitude increased with values of 1.39, 1.22 and 0.95 in the lower, medium and higher altitude areas, respectively. Moreover, the AC and PC indices stated that most species pairs had a weaker association in the three altitude areas, but the AC indices also suggested the number of positive association species pairs was more than that of negative association only in medium altitude area. Meanwhile, the Godron stability method showed the distances from the intersection point to the stable point (20 and 80) were still far away, with values of 22.53, 11.92 and 21.34 in the lower, medium and higher altitude areas, respectively, which indicated an unstable succession stage, though the community appeared steadier in the medium altitude area. This study can provide some guidance for effective afforestation and vegetation restoration.