Phylogenetic and Functional Structure of Wood Communities among Different Disturbance Regimes in a Temperate Mountain Forest

Abstract

The mechanisms responsible for biodiversity formation and maintenance are central themes in biodiversity conservation. However, the relationships between community assembly, phylogeny, and functional traits remain poorly understood, especially following disturbance. In this study, we examined forest community assembly mechanisms in different disturbance regimes across spatial scales and including tree life history classes, using phylogenetic and functional trait metrics. Across disturbance regimes, phylogenetic structure tended to be over-dispersed, while functional structure tended to be clustered. The over-dispersion of phylogenetic structure also increased from small to large diameter species. Moreover, the explanation of spatial distance for the turnover of phylogenetic and functional structure was increased, while environmental distance explained less structure as disturbance intensity decreased. Our findings suggest that niche theory largely explains forest community assembly in different disturbance regimes. Furthermore, environmental filtering plays a major role in moderate to high disturbance regimes, while competitive exclusion is more important in undisturbed and slightly disturbed ecosystems.

Temporal variations of the multifaceted biodiversity and assembly mechanisms in lake fish assemblages

“…There were some negative values of SES.PD_Dpw in the 2010s, indicating that the phylogenetic change between the lakes was slower than expected, but this trend was not dominant. Some studies have shown that fish and other groups that have not been disturbed by human activities (e.g., the blockage of rivers and lakes, and overfishing) are prone to form a phylogenetically overdispersion structure, as the evolutionary history of this area is old and the contemporary environment is more stable (Ashford et al, 2018; Li et al, 2022). The interaction between organisms makes the evolutionary relationship and kinship more distant, and species that use food resources in different niche spaces can coexist (Kooyman et al, 2011).…”