Spatial patterns and interspecific relationships of two dominant cushion plants at three elevations on the Kunlun Mountain, China

Zhao, Rongcai; Zhang, Hua; An, Lu

doi:10.1007/s11356-020-08324-z

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…However, theoretical and empirical evidence indicates that they have a more direct 44 and stronger impact conditions (e.g. soil nutrient content), supporting the growth of other plants, affecting species recruitment, and enhancing alpine plant diversity [29][30][31][32] .…”

Section: It Can Thus Lead To Dissimilarities Among Nearby Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial autocorrelation signatures of ecological determinants on plant community characteristics in high Andean wetlands

Lozada

Bertin

2022

Sci Rep

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Understanding how biological communities are shaped is a central tenet of community ecology. Recent evidence highlights the potential of decoupling diversity spatial autocorrelation into its positive and negative components to reveal community assembly processes that would otherwise remain undetected, as well as to improve understanding of their impacts on different facets of diversity. Yet, such approaches have only been implemented to investigate the effects of a few assembly drivers on a small number of diversity components. Here, we used high Andean wetland plant communities over a strong latitudinal gradient to investigate the effects of various ecological factors on spatial autocorrelation patterns of nine community metrics with different informative values, including measures of richness, dominance, evenness and beta-diversity. By combining Moran’s Eigenvector Maps, partial least squares structural equation modeling, and regression analyses, we revealed two groups of community parameters presenting contrasting spatial patterns due to specific sensitivities to ecological factors. While environmental variation and wetland connectivity increased positive spatial autocorrelation in richness and dominance-related parameters, species co-occurrence promoted negative spatial autocorrelation in evenness-related parameters. These results offer new insights regarding both how ecological processes affect species assembly, as well as the information captured by classical taxonomic parameters.

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Section: It Can Thus Lead To Dissimilarities Among Nearby Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial autocorrelation signatures of ecological determinants on plant community characteristics in high Andean wetlands

Lozada

Bertin

2022

Sci Rep

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“…Cushion plants, for example, Androsace L. and Arenaria L ., inhabit regions with altitudes higher than 4,000 m in the Tibetan Plateau and play a vital role in the development of modern flora and vegetation (Luo et al., 2018 ). The "microspace" formed by their convex structure (height: ~3–5 cm; diameter: ~20–30 cm) and the developed root system can function in heat, nutrient, and water preservation (Figure 2a–c ) (Cavieres et al., 2006 ; Zhao et al., 2020 ). Cushion plants, which can persist for hundreds of years due to their tenacious vitality, function as ecological engineers by accelerating the enrichment of substrate nutrients (Figure 2d ) (Yang et al., 2010 ).…”

Section: The Cushion Plant As a Key Builder Of Abiotic Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cushion plants as critical pioneers and engineers in alpine ecosystems across the Tibetan Plateau

Wang

Sun

Liu

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Cushion plants are widely representative species in the alpine ecosystem due to their vital roles in influencing abiotic and biotic environments, ecological succession processes, and ecosystem engineering. Importantly, cushion plants, such as Androsace L. and Arenaria L., are considered to be critical pioneers of ecosystem health, restoration, and sustainability across the Tibetan Plateau. This is because cushion plants (a) show tenacious vitality and can modify regional climates, substrates, and soil nutrients in extreme environments; (b) facilitate relationships with the surroundings and maintain the diversity of aboveground and belowground communities; and (c) are highly sensitive to environmental changes and thus can indicate grassland ecosystem health and resilience in the context of global change.

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“…Firstly, the "microspace" formed by convex structure and developed root system of cushion plants could function in heat, nutrient and water preservation (Fig. 1a-c) (Cavieres et al, 2006;Zhao et al, 2020). Actually, these plants act as an ecological engineer to accelerate the enrichment of nutrients for the substrate, which can last for hundreds of years for tenacious vitality (Fig.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cushion plants as critical pioneers and engineers in alpine ecosystems across the Tibetan Plateau

Wang¹,

Sun

Liu³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Cushion plants are widely representative species of the alpine ecosystem due to their vital roles in the abiotic and biotic environments, ecological succession processes, and ecosystem engineering. Importantly, Cushion plants, such as Androsace L. and Arenaria L., can be regarded as critical pioneers of ecosystem health, restoration and sustainability across the Tibetan Plateau because these plants (i) exhibit tenacious vitality, regulate regional climates, substrates and soil nutrients and keep warmth in extreme regions; (ii) facilitate relationships with surrounding and maintain the diversity of above- and below-ground communities; and (iii) have high sensitivity to environmental changes, which can indicate grassland ecosystem health and resilience in the context of global change.

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Spatial patterns and interspecific relationships of two dominant cushion plants at three elevations on the Kunlun Mountain, China

Cited by 9 publications

References 73 publications

Spatial autocorrelation signatures of ecological determinants on plant community characteristics in high Andean wetlands

Spatial autocorrelation signatures of ecological determinants on plant community characteristics in high Andean wetlands

Cushion plants as critical pioneers and engineers in alpine ecosystems across the Tibetan Plateau

Cushion plants as critical pioneers and engineers in alpine ecosystems across the Tibetan Plateau

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