Functional dominance rather than taxonomic diversity and functional diversity mainly affects community aboveground biomass in the Inner Mongolia grassland

Abstract

The relationship between biodiversity and productivity has been a hot topic in ecology. However, the relative importance of taxonomic diversity and functional characteristics (including functional dominance and functional diversity) in maintaining community productivity and the underlying mechanisms (including selection and complementarity effects) of the relationship between diversity and community productivity have been widely controversial. In this study, 194 sites were surveyed in five grassland types along a precipitation gradient in the Inner Mongolia grassland of China. The relationships between taxonomic diversity (species richness and the Shannon–Weaver index), functional dominance (the community‐weighted mean of four plant traits), functional diversity (Rao's quadratic entropy), and community aboveground biomass were analyzed. The results showed that (1) taxonomic diversity, functional dominance, functional diversity, and community aboveground biomass all increased from low to high precipitation grassland types; (2) there were significant positive linear relationships between taxonomic diversity, functional dominance, functional diversity, and community aboveground biomass; (3) the effect of functional characteristics on community aboveground biomass is greater than that of taxonomic diversity; and (4) community aboveground biomass depends on the community‐weighted mean plant height, which explained 57.1% of the variation in the community aboveground biomass. Our results suggested that functional dominance rather than taxonomic diversity and functional diversity mainly determines community productivity and that the selection effect plays a dominant role in maintaining the relationship between biodiversity and community productivity in the Inner Mongolia grassland.

Functional identity enhances aboveground productivity of a coastal saline meadow mediated by Tamarix chinensis in Laizhou Bay, China

“…The linear regression showed that the CWM of H max explained the greatest variation in AGB, with this significant correlation also being obtained in the SEM that included the selected environmental predictor, T. chinensis. This result was consistent with many previous studies in diverse ecosystems 8,15,41 , indicating that selection effects drive ecosystem productivity. Our results suggest that productivity was primarily determined by the maximum height of the dominant plant species in the coastal saline meadow.…”

Different Household Livelihood Strategies and Influencing Factors in the Inner Mongolian Grassland

“…Natural capital is the foundation based on which households obtain ecosystem goods and services [33]. Owing more grasslands means having more environmental resources, and precipitation is the most important environmental factor in the semiarid region of Inner Mongolia [58,59]. Higher MAP means higher productivity.…”

Estimation of the degree of industrial landscapes restoration based on biomass vegetation characteristics and three-dimensional soil cover modeling

“…Багато досліджень допомогли виявити, що функціональні характеристики (функціональне домінування та функціональне різноманіття) є ключовим компонентом, який пояснює продуктивність краще, ніж таксономічне різноманіття. Останні експерименти виявили, що функціональне домінування є більш важливим у продуктивності рослинних угруповань, ніж біорізноманіття [ZHANG et al, 2017].…”