Understanding biogeographic variation in species diversity patterns is important for conservation of biological diversity (Socolar et al., 2016;Vetaas & Grytnes, 2002). Elevational patterns of species richness, in recent decades, have received much attention in ecological and biogeographic studies (Brown,
Understanding the species richness pattern along elevational gradients
and its driving mechanisms is critical for biodiversity conservation. We
examined the elevational patterns of species richness and evaluated the
effects of spatial and environmental factors for all mosses, acrocarpous
mosses, and pleurocarpous mosses, respectively, predicted a priori by
alternative hypotheses, including mid-domain effect (MDE), habitat
complexity, energy, and environment. We assessed the contribution of
elevation toward explaining the heterogeneity among sampling sites for
each group. Last, we compared the occurrence probability and
proportional use of community type along the elevational gradient
between acrocarpous mosses and pleurocarpous mosses. We observed
negatively skewed (hump-shaped) distribution pattern of species richness
along the elevational gradient for each group. The habitat complexity
and the MDE hypothesis were supported for the patterns of all mosses and
acrocarpous mosses; whereas the habitat complexity and the environment
hypothesis were supported for the pattern of pleurocarpous mosses. For
many low-lying sampling sites with sunny and dry conditions, extinction
and dispersal limitation are the primary processes producing low species
richness pattern, which decreases the overall average diversity for each
group. The variations of the occurrence probability and proportional use
of community type along the elevational gradient between acrocarpous
mosses and pleurocarpous mosses explain the contributions of elevation
toward the heterogeneity among sampling sites for all mosses. Higher
sensitiveness to environmental changes could contribute to a larger
increase of species diversity from unfavorable to optimal environment
conditions, enlarging elevation effect on explaining the heterogeneity
among sampling sites for pleurocarpous mosses.
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