scholarly journals The relationship between species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in the Pinus yunnanensis natural secondary forest

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1182-1191
Author(s):  
Xiaobo Huang ◽  
◽  
Shuaifeng Li ◽  
Jianrong Su ◽  
Wande Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Natural Secondary Forest ◽  
Pinus Yunnanensis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ecosystem Multifunctionality

scholarly journals Thinning enhances ecosystem multifunctionality via increase of functional diversity in a Pinus yunnanensis natural secondary forest

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaobo Huang ◽  
Shuaifeng Li ◽  
Jianrong Su
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Significant Positive Correlation ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Thinning Intensity ◽  
Natural Secondary Forest ◽  
Pinus Yunnanensis ◽  
Ecosystem Multifunctionality

Abstract Background: The impacts of thinning on ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) remain largely unexplored. In this study, we analyzed nine variables related to four ecosystem functions (nutrient cycling, soil carbon stocks, decomposition, and wood production) under five thinning intensities. We included a control group to evaluate the shift in EMF of a Pinus yunnanensis natural secondary forest. We also assessed the relationship between above- and belowground biodiversity and EMF under these different thinning intensities. Additionally, we evaluated the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on EMF with the structural equation model (SEM). Results: We found that EMF tended to increase with thinning intensity, and that thinning significantly improved EMF except the low intensity of thinning. Individual ecosystem functions (EFs) all had a significant positive correlation with thinning intensity. Different EFs showed different patterns with the increase of thinning intensity: the nutrient cycling and the soil carbon stock of thinning three times and five times were significantly greater than other thinning intensities and control group; decomposition correlated directly to the increase of thinning intensity; the wood production of the fourth thinning was greatest. Thinning intensity had a significant positive correlation with functional diversity and soil moisture. Both functional diversity and soil moisture had a significant positive correlation with EMF, but soil fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) had a significant negative correlation with EMF. Based on SEM, we found that thinning improved EMF mainly by increasing functional diversity. Conclusion: Our study both demonstrates that thinning is a good management technique from an EMF perspective, and provides an input to improve management of a P. yunnanensis natural secondary forest.

scholarly journals Effects of Small Gaps on the Relationship Among Soil Properties, Topography, and Plant Species in Subtropical Rhododendron Secondary Forest, Southwest China

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 1919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fenghua Tang ◽  
Wenxuan Quan ◽  
Chaochan Li ◽  
Xianfei Huang ◽  
Xianliang Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Soil Ph ◽  
Woody Plant ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Secondary Forests ◽  
Closed Canopy ◽  
The Relationship

Background: The secondary forests have become the major forest type worldwide, and forest gap was also a common small disturbance in secondary forests. We aimed to analyze the effects of small gap disturbance on the plant species richness of subtropical secondary forest with natural regeneration barriers and examine the relationship between soil topography and plant species in a subtropical Rhododendron secondary forest of the Baili Rhododendron National Nature Reserve. Methods: The major plant species and soil topography gradient factors of the small gaps and closed canopy (control group) were analyzed using two-way ANOVA, multivariate permutational analysis of variance, nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling, random forest, canonical correspondence analysis, redundancy analysis, and a generalized linear model. Results: Small gaps had significant impact on the distribution of soil available potassium (AK), organic carbon to total phosphorus (C/P) ratio rather than slope position for soil pH and calcium (Ca) under closed canopy. Soil pH and AK followed by total phosphorus (TP) were the most important variables explaining the spatial distributions of soil properties in both habitats. Determining the spatial distribution of individual woody plant species were soil pH in small gaps, instead of lower altitude, TP, total potassium (TK) and sodium (Na) concentrations for both habitats. Moreover, Ericaceae and Fagaceae were strongly associated with pH in the small gaps. However, there was soil Na for the herbaceous plant in the closed canopy. The species richness of woody plant species in small gaps was affected significantly by pH, soil water content (SWC), and TK, instead of soil organic carbon (SOC), SWC and C/P ratio in both habitats. Conclusions: Small gaps were not always significantly improved the composition of soil nutrients, but provided a good microenvironment for plant growth, species richness of major woody plant differed between habitats.

scholarly journals Diversity and distribution of food plants: Implications for conservation of the critically endangered Hainan gibbon

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Zhidong Zhang ◽  
Runguo Zang
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Secondary Forest ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Secondary Forests ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Stem Size ◽  
Natural Secondary Forest ◽  
Food Species ◽  
Hainan Gibbon

An understanding of the diversity and distribution patterns of Hainan gibbon (Nomascushainanus) foods is essential to its conservation. We used data from plots in various successional stages and Pinusmerkusii plantations (PF) of Bawangling National Nature Reserve (BNNR) to compare variations in food species diversity and composition amongst forest types. A total of 85 food species and 16,882 food plants individuals were found across forest types. Habitat-exclusive food species were most abundant in old growth natural forest (OGF), followed by mid-aged natural secondary forest (MSF). We did not find exclusive species in PF. For all food species, as well as each stem size class, PF displayed a lower species richness and abundance and, in addition, less similar species composition in each age class compared to secondary forests. The highest stem density and species richness were found in MSF. The abundance of food trees was higher in MSF and OGF than in young natural secondary forest. Results suggested that MSF could serve as an alternative habitat for Hainan gibbons after short-term recovery. Hainan gibbons might be limited to secondary forests older than 25 years old. PF was found to be unsuitable for Hainan gibbons.

scholarly journals Relationships between resource availability and elevation vary between metrics creating gradients of nutritional complexity

Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 195 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-223
Author(s):  
Mark A. Lee ◽  
Grace Burger ◽  
Emma R. Green ◽  
Pepijn W. Kooij
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Mineral Contents ◽  
Nutritive Values ◽  
Animal Community ◽  
Nutritional Chemistry ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPlant and animal community composition changes at higher elevations on mountains. Plant and animal species richness generally declines with elevation, but the shape of the relationship differs between taxa. There are several proposed mechanisms, including the productivity hypotheses; that declines in available plant biomass confers fewer resources to consumers, thus supporting fewer species. We investigated resource availability as we ascended three aspects of Helvellyn mountain, UK, measuring several plant nutritive metrics, plant species richness and biomass. We observed a linear decline in plant species richness as we ascended the mountain but there was a unimodal relationship between plant biomass and elevation. Generally, the highest biomass values at mid-elevations were associated with the lowest nutritive values, except mineral contents which declined with elevation. Intra-specific and inter-specific increases in nutritive values nearer the top and bottom of the mountain indicated that physiological, phenological and compositional mechanisms may have played a role. The shape of the relationship between resource availability and elevation was different depending on the metric. Many consumers actively select or avoid plants based on their nutritive values and the abundances of consumer taxa vary in their relationships with elevation. Consideration of multiple nutritive metrics and of the nutritional requirements of the consumer may provide a greater understanding of changes to plant and animal communities at higher elevations. We propose a novel hypothesis for explaining elevational diversity gradients, which warrants further study; the ‘nutritional complexity hypothesis’, where consumer species coexist due to greater variation in the nutritional chemistry of plants.

scholarly journals Roles of Spatial Scale and Rarity on the Relationship between Butterfly Species Richness and Human Density in South Africa

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. e0124327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Mecenero ◽  
Res Altwegg ◽  
Jonathan F. Colville ◽  
Colin M. Beale
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Butterfly Species ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Human Density

scholarly journals Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1694) ◽  
pp. 20150269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Soliveres ◽  
Peter Manning ◽  
Daniel Prati ◽  
Martin M. Gossner ◽  
Fabian Alt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Rare Species ◽  
Common Species ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ecosystem Multifunctionality

Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity–multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a land-use intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above- and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, common species were only related to average, not high, levels of multifunctionality, and their functional effects declined with LUI. Apart from the community-level effects of diversity, we found significant positive associations between the abundance of individual species and multifunctionality in 6% of the species tested. Species-specific functional effects were best predicted by their response to LUI: species that declined in abundance with land use intensification were those associated with higher levels of multifunctionality. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and help guiding future conservation priorities.

scholarly journals The influence of forest-forming tree species on diversity and spatial distribution of algae in forest litter

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yevhen Maltsev ◽  
Irina Maltseva
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Green Algae ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Forest Litter ◽  
Equal Distribution ◽  
Blue Green Algae ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The forest litter plays a significant role in forest ecosystems. The composition of the litter biota comprises micro- and mesofauna, and a great diversity of microorganisms, including unrecognized algae (eukaryotic representatives and Cyanoprokaryota). The aim of this work was to study the diversity of algae in the different types of forest litters and to clarify the relationship between the algae composition and the forest-forming tree species. Our results show that the pine forest litter is the most appropriate habitat for the development of green and yellow-green algae and that this litter type limits the variety of blue-green ones. The admixture of deciduous leaf litter to pine litter caused an increase in the species richness of blue-green algae and diatoms. The algae were unevenly distributed across the sub-horizons of pine litter. The highest species richness of algae was identified in the enzymatic sub-horizon of litter. The peculiarity of the composition of leaf litter algae was a significant variety of green, yellow-green and blue-green algae. The spatial organization of algae communities in the leaf litter was characterized by equal distribution of algae species in the litter-subhorizons.

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