Environmental filtering rather than dispersal limitation dominated plant community assembly in the Zoige Plateau

Yang, Jianping; Su, Pengcheng; Zhou, Zijuan; Shi, Rui; Ding, Xiong

doi:10.1002/ece3.9117

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Generally, the joint effect of space and environment (explained variance ranged from 34% to 58%) contributed mostly to root neighborhood β diversity. Similar results were found in subtropical (Shi et al, 2021) and tropical forests (Yang et al, 2015) and alpine meadow (Yang et al, 2022). Such a joint effect is typically interpreted as the influence of spatially structured environments on species turnover.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Root‐centric β diversity reveals functional homogeneity while phylogenetic heterogeneity in a subtropical forest

Luo,

Wang,

Cahill

et al. 2023

Ecology

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Root‐centric studies have revealed fast taxonomic turnover across root neighborhoods, but how such turnover is accompanied by changes in species functions and phylogeny (i.e. β diversity) remains largely unknown. As β diversity can reflect the degree of community‐wide biotic homogenization, such information is crucial for better inference of below‐ground assembly rules, community structuring, and ecosystem processes. We collected 2480 root segments from 625 0–30 cm soil profiles in a subtropical forest in China. Root segments were identified into 138 species with DNA‐barcoding with six root morphological and architectural traits measured per species. By using the mean pairwise (Dpw) and mean nearest neighbor distance (Dnn) to quantify species ecological differences, we first tested the non‐random functional and phylogenetic turnover of root neighborhoods that would lend more support to deterministic over stochastic community assembly processes. Additionally, we examined the distance‐decay pattern of β diversity, and finally partitioned β diversity into geographical and environmental components to infer their potential drivers of environmental filtering, dispersal limitation, and biotic interactions. We found that functional turnover was often lower than expected given the taxonomic turnover, whereas phylogenetic turnover was often higher than expected. Both functional and phylogenetic Dpw (e.g. interfamily species) turnover exhibited a distance‐decay pattern, likely reflecting limited dispersal or abiotic filtering that leads to the spatial aggregation of specific plant lineages. Conversely, phylogenetic Dnn (e.g. intrageneric species) exhibited an inverted distance‐decay pattern, likely reflecting strong biotic interactions among spatially and phylogenetically close species leading to phylogenetic divergence. While the spatial distance was generally a better predictor of β diversity than environmental distance, the joint effect of environmental and spatial distance usually overrode their respective pure effects. These findings suggest that root neighborhood functional homogeneity may somewhat increase forest resilience after disturbance by exhibiting an insurance effect. Likewise, root neighborhood phylogenetic heterogeneity may enhance plant fitness by hindering the transmission of host‐specific pathogens through root networks or by promoting interspecific niche complementarity not captured by species functions. Our study highlights the potential role of root‐centric β diversity in mediating community structures and functions largely ignored in previous studies.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Root‐centric β diversity reveals functional homogeneity while phylogenetic heterogeneity in a subtropical forest

Luo,

Wang,

Cahill

et al. 2023

Ecology

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“…Indeed, we found no correlation between genetic distance and geographic or ecological distance, so the nonrandom pattern of co‐variation between disturbance level and genetic variation in life history cannot be explained by local seed dispersal. We identify two other potential explanations: (i) specialized genotypes have adapted via the selection of new mutations affecting life history in an otherwise nonadapted lineage (Orr, 2005), or (ii) local environments filtered mis‐adapted genotypes out, in the same way that they exclude mis‐adapted species (Guo et al., 2018; Kraft et al., 2015; Laliberté et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2022). Since many alleles altering the genetics of flowering time have already been characterized in the western European region from which the populations originate (Le Corre, 2005; Lopez‐Arboleda et al., 2021), it is highly likely that genotypes with diverse regulatory alleles were among the pool of migrants that populated habitat patches in the city of Cologne.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental filtering of life‐history trait diversity in urban populations of Arabidopsis thaliana

Schmitz,

Linstädter,

Frank

et al. 2023

Journal of Ecology

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The challenges to which plants are exposed in urban environments represent, in miniature, the challenges plants face as a result of global environmental change. Hence, urban habitats provide a unique opportunity to assess whether processes of local adaptation are taking place despite the short temporal and geographical scales that characterize the Anthropocene. We quantified the ecological diversity of urban habitats hosting Arabidopsis thaliana populations. Using plant community indicators, we show that these patches differ in their levels of soil nutrient content and disturbance. Accordingly, plants in each patch displayed a range of flowering time, size and fitness. Using a deep sampling approach coupled with reduced genome sequencing, we demonstrate that most individuals can be assigned to a limited set of clonal lineages; the genetic diversity of these lineages is a sample of the diversity observed in western European populations of the species, indicating that established urban populations originate from a broad regional pool of lineages. We assessed the genetic and phenotypic diversity of these lineages in a set of common garden experiments. We report marked genetic differences in life‐history traits, including time of primary and secondary dormancy as well as of flowering. These genetic differences in life‐history traits are not randomly distributed but sorted out by ecological differences among sites of origin. Synthesis. Our study shows that the genetically diverse phenology of a regional Arabidopsis thaliana gene pool is not randomly distributed but filtered by heterogeneity in the urban environment. To our knowledge, this report is the first to show a pattern indicative of environmental filtering enhancing local genetic adaptation within urban environments. We conclude that environmental filtering helps maintain functional diversity within species.

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“…Here, these characteristics reveal that A. thaliana habitats form a continuum of varying levels of humidity and nutrients, as well as varying frequencies of disturbance. Environmental variation is thought to help shape the diversity of plant communities by filtering out ill-suited species (Guo et al, 2018; Kraft et al, 2015; Laliberté et al, 2014; Yang et al, 2022). The ecological differences we quantified were clearly associated with the phenotypic differences displayed by plants in situ , as plants growing under better edaphic conditions (more nutrients, more water) were larger, and plants growing in disturbed habitats bolted later and bore more fruits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental filtering of life-history trait diversity in urban populations ofArabidopsis thaliana

Schmitz¹,

Linstädter

Frank

et al. 2022

Preprint

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1. The challenges to which plants are exposed in urban environments represent, in miniature, the challenges plants face as a result of global environmental change. Hence, urban habitats provide a unique opportunity to assess whether processes of local adaptation are taking place despite the short temporal and geographical scales that characterize the anthropocene . 2. We quantified the ecological diversity of spontaneously occurring urban habitat patches of A. thaliana. Using plant community indicators, we show that these patches differ in their levels of soil nutrient content and disturbance. Accordingly, plants in each patch displayed significantly different flowering time, size, and fitness. 3. Using a deep sampling approach coupled with reduced genome-sequencing, we demonstrate that most individuals can be assigned to a limited set of clonal lineages; the genetic diversity of these lineages represents the diversity observed in western European populations of the species, indicating that established urban populations originate from a broad regional pool of lineages. 4. We assessed the genetic and phenotypic diversity of these lineages in a set of common garden experiments. We report marked genetic differences in life-history traits, including time of primary and secondary dormancy as well as of flowering. These genetic differences in life-history traits are not randomly distributed but sorted out by ecological differences among sites of origin. 5. Synthesis: Our study shows that the genetically diverse phenology of a regional A. thaliana gene pool is not randomly distributed but filtered by urban environmental heterogeneity. This report is the first to show a pattern of local genetic adaptation within urban environments. We conclude that environmental filtering helps maintain functional diversity within species.

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Environmental filtering rather than dispersal limitation dominated plant community assembly in the Zoige Plateau

Cited by 9 publications

References 66 publications

Root‐centric β diversity reveals functional homogeneity while phylogenetic heterogeneity in a subtropical forest

Root‐centric β diversity reveals functional homogeneity while phylogenetic heterogeneity in a subtropical forest

Environmental filtering of life‐history trait diversity in urban populations of Arabidopsis thaliana

Environmental filtering of life-history trait diversity in urban populations ofArabidopsis thaliana

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