The effects of environmental and dispersal processes on macrofungi community assembly remain unclear. Further, it is not well understood if community assembly differs for different functional guilds of macrofungi, e.g., soil and rotten-wood macrofungi. In this study, using 2433 macrofungi sporocarps belonging to 217 species located within a forest dynamics plot in temperate mountain forest (China), we examined the explanatory power of topography, spatial eigenvectors (representing unknown spatial processes, e.g., dispersal), plant community, and light availability for local spatial variation in the macrofungi community through variance partitioning and partial least squares path modeling. We found spatial eigenvectors and light as the most important factors for explaining species richness and composition of macrofungi. Light was negatively correlated with species richness of macrofungi. Furthermore, species richness and composition of soil macrofungi were best explained by light, and species richness and composition of rotten-wood macrofungi were best explained by spatial eigenvectors. Woody plant community structure was not an important factor for species richness and composition of macrofungi. Our findings suggest that spatial processes, perhaps dispersal limitation, and light availability were the most important factors affecting macrofungi community in temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest. Major differences in influencing factors between soil and rotten-wood macrofungi were observed, with light as the major driver for soil macrofungi and unknown spatial processes as the major driver for rotten-wood macrofungi. These findings shed new light to the processes shaping community assembly in macrofungi in temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest and point to the potential importance of both intrinsic dynamics, such as dispersal, and external forcing, such as forest dynamics, via its effect on light availability.

Species turnover is fundamental for understanding the mechanisms that influence large-scale species richness patterns. However, few studies have described and interpreted large-scale spatial variation in plant species turnover, and the causes of this variation remain elusive. In addition, the determinants of species turnover depend on the dispersal ability of growth forms. In this study, we explored the large-scale patterns of woody species turnover across the latitude gradient based on eight large stem-mapping plots (covering 184 ha forest) in East Asia. The patterns of woody species turnover increased significantly with increasing latitude differences in East Asia. For overall woody species, environment explained 36.30, 37.20, and 48.48% of the total variance in Jaccard’s (βj), Sorenson’s, (βs), and Simpson’s dissimilarity (βsim). Spatial factors explained 47.92, 48.39, and 41.38% of the total variance in βj, βs, and βsim, respectively. The effects of pure spatial and spatially structured environments were stronger than pure environmental effects for overall woody species. Our results support the hypothesis that the effect of neutral processes on woody species turnover is more important than the effect of the environment. Neutral processes explained more variation for turnover of tree species, and environmental factors explained more variation for the turnover of shrub species on a large scale. Therefore, trees and shrubs should be subjected to different protection strategies in future biodiversity conservation efforts.

Diversified community types provide different microhabitats for plant growth. However, whether the distribution of species is random distribution or ecological specialization within different plant community types remains to be elucidated. Here, five 1 ha (100 m × 100 m) plots with different communities were established in a temperate forest. We examined community structure differences by non-metric multidimensional scaling and betadisper test, analyzed the species-community relationships by correlation network approach, and then the examined distribution preferences of woody plant species by torus-translation test. Results showed that the abundance, richness, and species composition of woody plants exhibited significant differences among the five communities. The specialization index showed that 42.83% of the species had the characteristics of distribution specialization for different communities. The torustranslation test showed that 85 species (86.74%) were positively associated with specific community. Our findings suggested that the distribution of woody plants species among different plant community types is not random but specialization. Different woody plant species have distinct specific preferences among various plant community types in temperate mountain forest. These findings provide new insights into the biodiversity conservation of woody plant species in temperate deciduous broad-leaved forests and indicate the potential importance of community partitioning for the maintenance of woody plant diversity.

Elucidating the major drivers of bryophyte distribution is the first step to protecting bryophyte diversity. Topography, forest, substrates (ground, tree trunks, roots, rocks, and rotten wood), and spatial factor, which factors are the major drivers of bryophyte distribution? In this study, 53 plots were set in 400 m2 along the elevation gradient in Xiaoqinling, China. All bryophytes in the plots were collected and identified. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between bryophyte and substrate diversity. We compared the patterns of overall bryophyte diversity and diversity of bryophytes found on the ground, tree, and rock along elevational gradients. Canonical correspondence analysis was applied to relate species composition to selected environmental variables. The importance of topography, forest, substrates, and spatial factors was determined by variance partitioning. A total of 1378 bryophyte specimens were collected, and 240 species were identified. Bryophyte diversity was closely related to substrate diversity. The overall bryophyte diversity significantly increased with elevation; however, the response varied among ground, tree, and rock bryophytes. Tree diversity and herb layer were considered important environmental factors in determining bryophyte distribution. Species abundance was best explained by stand structure (17%), and species diversity was best explained by stand structure (35%) and substrate (40%). Results directly indicated that substrate diversity can improve bryophyte species diversity. The effects of micro-habitat formed by stand structure and substrate diversity were higher than those of spatial processes and topography factors on bryophyte distribution. This study proved that the determinant factors influencing bryophyte diversity reflect the trends in recent forest management, providing a real opportunity to improve forest biodiversity conservation.

Cities are prone to ecological problems, yet the impacts of rapid global urbanization on the feedback between above- and belowground subsystems remain largely unknown. We sampled the roots of 8 common herbaceous plants within the Fifth Ring (urban areas) and in Jiufeng National Forest Park (rural areas) in Beijing (China) to assess the impacts of urbanization on the network of plant-arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal associations. Using Illumina MiSeq sequencing, 81 AM fungal OTUs were identified in 78 herb root samples. The Shannon, Simpson, and Pielou indices of root AM fungi in urban areas were significantly higher than those in rural areas. In this study, a significantly nested mycorrhizal association network was observed in rural areas (NODF = 64.68), whereas a non-nested pattern was observed in urban areas (NODF = 55.50). The competition index C-score (0.0769) of AM fungi in urban areas was slightly lower than that in rural areas (0.1431), and the species specialization (d’) of 8 host plants and fungal dissimilarity among 8 host plants in urban areas were significantly lower than those in rural areas. Convergent associations among hosts may be an important factor influencing this non-nested pattern of the plant-AM fungi network in urban areas. Generalists, rather than specialists, were enhanced during the establishment of mycorrhizal associations in urban areas. Our results suggest that reduced selectivity of host plants, and generalist promotion and specialist reduction of AM fungi during urbanization may contribute to the non-nested network of plant-AM fungal associations.

Whether the platform ecosystem operates well influences the survival and development of all actors. Drawing on the literature of business ecosystem health, we propose the topic of platform ecosystem health, which refers to a stable and sustainable operating status obtained through cooperation among actors that can effectively respond to turbulent changes, meet market demand, and make profit. Platform ecosystem health is complexly influenced by internal and external factors, and exploring these is the first step towards its improvement. To address this question, this study uses grounded theory to identify the main determinants and theoretically explain the ways in which these determinants influence platform ecosystem health. Specifically, we select 15 representative platform ecosystems in the mobile communication services, e-commerce, and high-tech manufacturing industries using theoretical sampling. Three encoding processes and theoretical saturation tests are then employed to analyze interview and secondary data on the health of these platform ecosystems. Based on the identified 132 concepts and nine categories, we obtain four types of determinants: dominant capabilities of the platform enterprise, cooperation potential of the complementary enterprise, products and services, and industry environment. We finally propose four propositions to illustrate the relationships between the determinants and platform ecosystem health.

With the development of molecular techniques, several new species were discovered. In addition, some species were reassessed and new genera were established to accommodate certain taxa in

Background Herb genomics is a rapidly developing field of medicinal plant research and development. Plant genomic studies demonstrate the unique advantage of employing plants in medicinal therapy. The genus Lepidium falls under the Brassicaceae family and it includes crucial medicinal plants. Herein, we sequenced the complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of Lepidium apetalum (LA) and Lepidium perfoliatum (LP) and assessed their genetic profiles against the reported profiles of Lepidium sativum (LS), Lepidium meyenii (LM), and Lepidium virginicum (LV). Results In particular, we examined genomic arrangement, gene number, type, and repeat sequences. Based on our annotation data, both LA and LP possessed 130 distinct genes that included 85 protein-coding, 37 transfer RNA (tRNA), and 8 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. Our repeat analyses revealed that LA harbored 20 forward repeats, 16 palindrome repeats, 30 tandem repeats, and 87 simple sequence repeats, whereas LP had 15 forward repeats, 20 palindrome repeats,4 reverse repeats, 21 tandem repeats, and 98 simple sequence repeats. Using syntenic analysis, we also revealed a high degree of sequence similarity within the coding regions of Lepidium cp genomes and a remarkably high degree of divergence among the intergenic spacers. Pairwise alignment and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) examinations further revealed certain Lepidium-specific gene fragments, particularly in the intergenic regions of the trnK-atpA, trnC-psbC, trnT-rbcL, ndhF-ndhH, ycf1-trnR, accD, ccsA, matK, ndhF, rpoB, rpoC2, and ycf1 genes. Moreover, following codon usage analysis, we observed that codon 14 was the most frequently used codon in the Lepidium CDS. In addition, correlation investigations revealed that the ENC (the effective number of codon) content was strongly associated with GC3, GC3s, and N. Conclusion Based on these data, LA and LP originate from very similar genetic backgrounds. Furthermore, neutrality, ENC, and PR2-plots analyses demonstrated that the CUB (the codon usage bias) of Lepidium cp genome was strongly influenced by mutation and natural selection. Our analysis of the cp genomic sequences of LA and LP will likely enhance breeding, species recognition, phylogenetic evolution, and cp genetic engineering of the Lepidium medicinal plants.