Geography, environment, and spatial turnover of species in China's grasslands

Tang, Zhiyao; Fang, Jingyun; Chi, Xiaofeng; Yang, Yuanhe; Ma, Wenqi; Mohhamot, Anwar; Guo, Zhaodi; Liu, Yining; Gaston, Kevin J.

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07713.x

Cited by 35 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This result was somewhat surprising as higher diver- v www.esajournals.org sity is usually associated with warmer climates at a global scale (Clarke and Gaston 2006), and at the regional scale (e.g., Stropp et al 2009, Tang et al 2012. However, in our system, warmer climates were also associated with taller A. breviligulata tillers that may do a better job of outcompeting native plants through greater resource use.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 48%

Biotic and abiotic predictors of ecosystem engineering traits of the dune building grass, Ammophila breviligulata

Emery

Rudgers

2014

Ecosphere

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Citation: Emery, S. M., and J. A. Rudgers. 2014. Biotic and abiotic predictors of ecosystem engineering traits of the dune building grass, Ammophila breviligulata. Ecosphere 5(7):87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES13-00331.1Abstract. Ecosystem engineers are species that fundamentally influence their community and ecosystem by creating or altering the physical structure of habitats. However, the function of ecosystem engineers is variable and can depend on abiotic and biotic factors. In this study, we characterized the ecosystem engineering traits of plant size and tiller density for the dune grass, Ammophila breviligulata, in 37 sites across a broad geographic gradient in the western Great Lakes region. We also measured 20 biotic and abiotic factors related to climate, soil chemistry, and fungal symbionts associated with these survey sites and assessed their relationships with A. breviligulata population traits and dune plant species richness. Climate factors, especially temperature and precipitation, were positively associated with A. breviligulata tiller size, while soil organic matter was the only factor associated with tiller density. Several factors, including temperature, soil nitrogen, and mycorrhizal colonization, were associated with plant richness across our sites. Our results suggest that climate can influence at least some ecosystem engineering traits (i.e., plant size) of an important dune building species, although general conclusions from our work indicate that the population trait tied most closely with dune building ability-population density-is not strongly influenced by climate at the regional scale. This offers insight for conservationists interested in preserving intact dune ecosystems in a changing climate, but further work is needed to reconcile conflicting lab and field studies.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 48%

Biotic and abiotic predictors of ecosystem engineering traits of the dune building grass, Ammophila breviligulata

Emery

Rudgers

2014

Ecosphere

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“…D e was calculated as the multidimensional Euclidean distance of the aforementioned standardized climatic variables (MAT, MTCM, PET, ART, AP, AET) between plot pairs (Tang et al. ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Tuomisto ,b; Tang et al. ,b). Previous studies have extensively explored mechanisms underlying the spatial turnover of species, among which niche theory and neutral theory have gained most attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of environmental filtering and dispersal limitation to species turnover of temperate deciduous broad‐leaved forests in China

Liu

Tang

Fang

2014

Applied Vegetation Science

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Questions How and to what extent do environmental filtering and dispersal limitation affect species turnover among sites in the temperate deciduous broad‐leaved forests of China? Do different life forms respond to environmental filtering and dispersal limitation in the same way? Location Seventeen mountains (31°8′–44°22′N, to 104°42′–128°8′E) in China. Methods We measured the plant species composition of 495 plots. We calculated the Jaccard's similarity (SJac) of species composition, geographic distance (Dg) and environmental divergence (De) for each plot pair for trees, shrubs and herbs. Three plot pair groups were distinguished: (1) plot pairs with both plots from the same mountain; (2) plot pairs with two plots from different mountains but with a similar environment; (3) plot pairs with two plots from different mountains and with a heterogeneous environment. We analysed the relationship between SJac, Dg and De for all three groups, and performed partial redundancy analysis. We also calculated beta‐diversity of mountains, and explored latitudinal and climatic patterns of beta‐diversity. Results SJac decreases significantly with both De and Dg for all three plot pair groups. Environmental and geographic variables together explain 13.8%, 11.6% and 11.1% of variance in species composition of trees, shrubs and herbs, respectively. For all life forms, environment explains more variance than geography, and environment and geography have strong co‐varying effects. The beta‐diversity for each mountain decreases with latitude, but increases with mean annual temperature (MAT). Conclusion Environmental filtering rather than dispersal limitation predominantly regulates patterns of species turnover in the temperate deciduous broad‐leaved forests of China. Furthermore, the increases of beta‐diversity along MAT also support the effects of environment on species turnover. These results indicate that environment might influence the distribution of most species in temperate forests of China. However, dispersal limitation still independently accounts for a small amount of variance in species turnover. We therefore conclude that environmental filtering and dispersal limitation have both combined and independent effects, but environmental filtering is more important in shaping the community assembly of temperate deciduous broad‐leaved forests of China.

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“…First, the great majority of such studies are based on spacefilling species range maps (Gaston et al 2007a, McKnight et al 2007, Buckley and Jetz 2008, Wang et al 2012, but see Kraft et al 2011, Myers et al 2012, Stegen et al 2012, Tang et al 2012, and have thus almost invariably been conducted at coarse spatial resolutions and document patterns in which much of any underlying spatial heterogeneity in species composition has been smoothed out and the spatial autocorrelation increased (Hillebrand 2004, Hurlbert andWhite 2005). First, the great majority of such studies are based on spacefilling species range maps (Gaston et al 2007a, McKnight et al 2007, Buckley and Jetz 2008, Wang et al 2012, but see Kraft et al 2011, Myers et al 2012, Stegen et al 2012, Tang et al 2012, and have thus almost invariably been conducted at coarse spatial resolutions and document patterns in which much of any underlying spatial heterogeneity in species composition has been smoothed out and the spatial autocorrelation increased (Hillebrand 2004, Hurlbert andWhite 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

Patterns of plant beta‐diversity along elevational and latitudinal gradients in mountain forests of China

Tang¹,

Fang²,

Chi³

et al. 2012

Ecography

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Biodiversity patterns and their underlying mechanisms have long been focal topics of study for ecologists and biogeographers. However, compared with spatial variation in species richness (a-and g-diversity), b-diversity, or the dissimilarity of species composition between two or more sites has until recently received limited attention. In this study, we explored the large-scale patterns of altitudinal turnover (b-diversity) of plants in montane forests of China, based on systematic inventories of 1153 plots from 46 mountains distributed over ~ 30 degrees of latitude (21.9-51.7°N) and ~ 4100 m of altitude (160-4250 m). The b-diversity of trees and shrubs declined significantly with increasing latitude. Along the altitudinal gradient, b-diversity of both trees and shrubs showed non-significant trends in most mountains. Differences in climate explained ~ 30.0% of the variation in tree b-diversity (27.7, 36.5, and 26.2% for the Jaccard's, b j , Sorenson's, b s , and Simpson's dissimilarity, b sim , respectively), with mean annual temperature being most important, and  10.0% of that in shrub b-diversity (10.0, 8.2, and 7.0% for b j , b s , and b sim , respectively), with annual actual evapotranspiration and annual precipitation as the main predictors. However, climatic controls of b-diversity varied dramatically in different biogeograpical regions. The b-diversity of trees exhibited stronger, whereas that of shrubs showed weaker, climatic patterns in temperate and arid than subtropical regions. These results suggest that mechanisms causing patterns of b-diversity may differ between latitudinal and altitudinal gradients, and among biogeographical regions; as a result, caution should be exercised in drawing close parallels between patterns and causes of b-diversity along latitudinal and altitudinal gradients and among regions.

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Geography, environment, and spatial turnover of species in China's grasslands

Cited by 35 publications

References 47 publications

Biotic and abiotic predictors of ecosystem engineering traits of the dune building grass, Ammophila breviligulata

Biotic and abiotic predictors of ecosystem engineering traits of the dune building grass, Ammophila breviligulata

Contribution of environmental filtering and dispersal limitation to species turnover of temperate deciduous broad‐leaved forests in China

Patterns of plant beta‐diversity along elevational and latitudinal gradients in mountain forests of China

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