Geometric constraints and area effects shape geographical patterns of aquatic plant diversity in a highly arid region

Li, Zhongqiang; Tian, Yun; Zhou, Yue; Gong, Xusheng; Peng, Qiutong; Xu, Zhiyan; Cai, Yongjiu

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106502

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…According to the criteria for dry and wet climatic regionalization of China, areas with annual precipitation less than 400 mm are defined as arid and semiarid zone, which cover the temperate desert and steppe regions in northwestern China and alpine desert and grassland regions in the Tibetan Plateau (Figure 1). Both the Tibetan Plateau and the Arid Regions are rich in various wetland habitats (Z. Q. Li et al., 2020; Wang, 2001), and are facing the same threats of soil salinization which resulted from climate change, including warming and changing precipitation patterns (Gao et al., 2015; Luo et al., 2016). The habitats we investigated across the whole arid and semiarid regions included shallow areas (no deeper than 1.5 m) of lakes, rivers, and marshes, as well as streams, ponds, and channels, while ephemeral water bodies were excluded.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the Tibetan Plateau and the Arid Regions are rich in various wetland habitats (Z. Q. Li et al, 2020;Wang, 2001), and are facing the same threats of soil salinization which resulted from climate change, including warming and changing precipitation patterns (Gao et al, 2015;Luo et al, 2016). The habitats we investigated across the whole arid and semiarid regions included shallow areas (no deeper than 1.5 m) of lakes, rivers, and marshes, as well as streams, ponds, and channels, while ephemeral water bodies were excluded.…”

Section: Study Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Salinity Induces Allometric Accumulation of Sulfur in Plants and Decouples Plant Nitrogen‐Sulfur Correlation in Alpine and Arid Wetlands

Zuo

Zhao

Yang

et al. 2022

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Salinization alters the elemental balance of wetlands and induces variations in plant survival strategies. Sulfur (S) plays vital roles in serving regulatory and catalytic functions in stress resistance of plants. Yet, how plant S and its relationships with nitrogen (N) vary across natural environmental gradients are not well documented. We collected 1,366 plant samples and 230 water and sediment samples from 230 wetlands in Tibetan Plateau and adjacent arid regions of western China, to analyze the effects of environmental variables on plant S accumulation and N‐S correlations. We found that plant S correlated with N in unimodal patterns. Salinity, rather than temperature or nutrient supply, promoted disproportionate accumulation of S but limited N uptake, inducing decoupling of N‐S correlation in plants. Toward high salinity, the faster increasing rates of total S than that of glutathione, the most abundant organic‐S compound in plant resistance, provided potential evidences explaining the decoupled plant N‐S correlation. A salinity of 3.9‰ was calculated to be a threshold at which substantial changes in plant N‐S correlation occurred. We designed a conceptual model to illustrate the mechanisms driving variations of N‐S correlation in plants and environments along salinity gradient. Furthermore, high salinity filtered out the salt‐sensitive species and reassembled the communities. In conclusion, increased salinity affected wetland plants by inducing S accumulation in plants and selecting salt‐tolerant species with high S concentrations at community level, providing evidences for plant adaptive mechanisms to salinity in arid regions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salinity Induces Allometric Accumulation of Sulfur in Plants and Decouples Plant Nitrogen‐Sulfur Correlation in Alpine and Arid Wetlands

Zuo

Zhao

Yang

et al. 2022

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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“…As one of the most biodiverse countries worldwide, China has more than 800 aquatic plants (Chen et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2021). Previous studies on aquatic plants in China have focused only on taxonomic diversity and/or on the local geographic areas (Li et al, 2006(Li et al, , 2020Zhang et al, 2021;Zhou et al, 2022a). However, so far, there has been no comprehensive study on the geographic pattern of taxonomic and PD of aquatic plants on the national scale in China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographic patterns and environmental correlates of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of aquatic plants in China

Zhou

Qian

Xiao

et al. 2023

J of Sytematics Evolution

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Studies on large‐scale geographic patterns of aquatic plant diversity can promote research on the generality of macroecological patterns in different ecosystems. Here, we compiled a checklist of 889 aquatic angiosperms in China, including 738 helophytes (emergent and marshy plants) and 151 hydrophytes (submerged, free‐floating, and floating‐leaved plants). We explore the geographic patterns and environmental correlates of aquatic plant diversity based on six metrics including species richness (SR), weighted endemism (WE), phylogenetic diversity (PD), phylogenetic endemism (PE), the standardized effect size of phylogenetic diversity (PDses), and the standardized effect size of mean phylogenetic distance (MPDses). Our results show that the diversity of aquatic plants in China is extremely uneven, with high diversity in southeastern China and low diversity in northwestern China, and the geographic patterns of taxonomic and PD are generally consistent. The pattern of helophytes differs from that of hydrophytes. Notably, the wavy‐shaped pattern of aquatic plant diversity (especially SR and PD for hydrophytes) across the latitude observed in this study is not consistent with those previously observed for aquatic plants in other continents. Climatic variables and water environmental variables are the main drivers of aquatic plant diversity in China; however, the effects of individual variables differ between helophytes and hydrophytes. Water environmental variables have a greater impact on PDses and MPDses of hydrophytes than those of helophytes. Overall, our work provides insight into understanding the large‐scale patterns of aquatic plant diversity and is a critical addition to previous studies on the macroecological pattern of terrestrial organisms.

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“…Most of our understanding of how biodiversity affects productivity comes from terrestrial ecosystems such as grasslands and forests (Duffy et al., 2017). However, little research has been carried out on aquatic ecosystems, especially for aquatic macrophytes (Gustafsson & Boström, 2011; Li et al., 2020). Aquatic macrophytes provide numerous ecological and economic services, such as offering habitat and food to aquatic animals and birds and supplying raw materials for social production (Costanza et al., 1997; Jeppesen et al., 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of trait‐based diversity on productivity results mainly from intraspecific trait variability in the macrophyte community

Zuo

Yang

et al. 2022

Freshwater Biology

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Trait‐based methods are key to understanding the biodiversity–productivity relationship (BPR) of macrophyte communities. Community‐weighted mean traits (i.e., community trait structure) have been proven to have more influence on macrophyte community productivity than species richness. However, the underlying mechanism by which community trait structure variation affects macrophyte community productivity along an environmental gradient is still not well understood. A mesocosm experiment was used to investigate how community trait structure shapes macrophyte community productivity along the water depth gradient. Three submerged macrophyte species (Myriophyllum spicatum, Vallisneria natans and Potamogeton malaianus) were assembled into all possible combinations (one, two and three species per community) at three different water depths (1, 2.5 and 4 m). We fitted the relationships between community‐weighted mean traits and community productivity, and between species richness and community productivity as a comparison. We compared functional traits under different water depths and species composition at the species and community levels and disentangled the community trait structure into species turnover and intraspecific trait variability effects. The results showed that community trait structure had various influences on macrophyte community productivity, which was based on traits per se. However, species richness had a non‐significant impact on macrophyte community productivity. Water depth had a significant impact on most traits of the three species at the species level, whereas both water depth and species composition had significant impacts on community trait structure which was mainly affected by intraspecific trait variability along the water depth gradient. Our findings highlight the importance of considering intraspecific trait variability and species turnover under water depth gradients to understand the relationship between trait‐based biodiversity and productivity.

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Geometric constraints and area effects shape geographical patterns of aquatic plant diversity in a highly arid region

Cited by 7 publications

References 54 publications

Salinity Induces Allometric Accumulation of Sulfur in Plants and Decouples Plant Nitrogen‐Sulfur Correlation in Alpine and Arid Wetlands

Salinity Induces Allometric Accumulation of Sulfur in Plants and Decouples Plant Nitrogen‐Sulfur Correlation in Alpine and Arid Wetlands

Geographic patterns and environmental correlates of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of aquatic plants in China

The effect of trait‐based diversity on productivity results mainly from intraspecific trait variability in the macrophyte community

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