scholarly journals Temperature and Precipitation Drive Elevational Patterns of Microbial Beta Diversity in Alpine Grasslands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqin Yang ◽  
Yue Li ◽  
Bin Niu ◽  
Qiuyu Chen ◽  
Yilun Hu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Mean Annual Precipitation ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation

Abstract Understanding the mechanisms underlying biodiversity patterns is a central issue in ecology, while how temperature and precipitation jointly control the elevational patterns of microbes is understudied. Here, we studied the effects of temperature, precipitation and their interactions on the alpha and beta diversity of soil archaea and bacteria in alpine grasslands along an elevational gradient of 4,300-5,200 m on the Tibetan Plateau. Alpha diversity was examined on the basis of species richness and evenness, and beta diversity was quantified with the recently developed metric of local contributions to beta diversity (LCBD). Typical alpine steppe and meadow ecosystems were distributed below and above 4,850 m, respectively, which was consistent with the two main constraints of mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP). Species richness and evenness showed decreasing elevational patterns in archaea and nonsignificant or U-shaped patterns in bacteria. The LCBD of both groups exhibited significant U-shaped elevational patterns, with the lowest values occurring at 4,800 m. For the three diversity metrics, soil pH was the primary explanatory variable in archaea, explaining over 20.1% of the observed variation, whereas vegetation richness, total nitrogen and the K/Al ratio presented the strongest effects on bacteria, with relative importance values of 16.1%, 12.5% and 11.6%, respectively. For the microbial community composition of both archaea and bacteria, the moisture index showed the dominant effect, explaining 17.6% of the observed variation, followed by MAT and MAP. Taken together, temperature and precipitation exerted considerable indirect effects on microbial richness and evenness through local environmental and energy supply-related variables, such as vegetation richness, whereas temperature exerted a larger direct influence on LCBD and the community composition. Our findings highlighted the profound influence of temperature and precipitation interactions on microbial beta diversity in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.

scholarly journals Plant species richness of alpine grasslands in relation to environmental factors and biomass on the Tibetan Plateau

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 200-205
Author(s):  
ZHU Biao ◽  
ZUO Wen-Yun ◽  
SHEN Hai-Hua ◽  
WANG Zhi-Heng ◽  
YANG Yuan-He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands

scholarly journals Asymmetrical Warming Between Elevations May Result in Similar Plant Community Composition Between Elevations in Alpine Grasslands

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiangwei Wang ◽  
Chengqun Yu ◽  
Gang Fu
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Environmental Temperature ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Plant Community Composition ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Phylogenetic Composition ◽  
Moisture Conditions

Asymmetrical warming between elevations is a common phenomenon and warming magnitude increases with increasing elevations on the Tibetan Plateau, which in turn may reduce temperature differences between elevations. However, it is still unclear how such phenomenon will affect plant community composition in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, in this study, we performed an experiment at three elevations (i.e., 4,300 m, 4,500 m, and 4,700 m) in alpine grasslands, the Northern Tibetan Plateau since May, 2010. Open top chambers were established at the elevations 4,500 m and 4,700 m. Plant species and phylogenetic composition were investigated in August, 2011–2019. There were no significant differences in plant species and phylogenetic composition, environmental temperature and moisture conditions between the elevation 4,300 m under non-warming conditions and the elevation 4,500 m under warming conditions in 2019. There were also no significant differences in plant species composition, environmental temperature and moisture conditions between the elevation 4,500 m under non-warming conditions and the elevation 4,700 m under warming conditions in 2019. Therefore, the narrowing temperature differences between elevations may result in plant community composition between elevations tending to be similar in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau under future elevational asymmetrical warming.

Declining human activity intensity on alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau

2021 ◽  
Vol 296 ◽  
pp. 113198
Author(s):  
Meng Li ◽  
Xianzhou Zhang ◽  
Jianshuang Wu ◽  
Qiannan Ding ◽  
Ben Niu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Activity Intensity

scholarly journals The Diversity and Community Assembly Process of Wetland Plants from Lakeshores on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 685
Author(s):  
Shasha Cui ◽  
Jian Ouyang ◽  
Yu Lu ◽  
Wenzhi Liu ◽  
Wenyang Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Wetland Plants ◽  
Mean Annual Precipitation ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Weak Selection ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities ◽  
Α Diversity ◽  
Edaphic Properties ◽  
Ecological Drift

Unravelling the patterns, potential processes and mechanisms underlying biodiversity has always been a crucial issue in community ecology. It is also a necessary first step for any conservation and restoration to better adapt fragile ecosystems to a changing climate. However, little is known regarding the structure and maintenance of plant communities in typical high-altitude wetlands. Here, we made a comprehensive analysis of the diversity and composition of wetland plant communities based on the distribution of plants near the shorelines of 19 lakes across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The latitude, mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP), along with the edaphic properties, were the dominant predictors affecting the taxonomic and phylogenetic α-diversity. Besides diversification, ecological drift, mixing with weak dispersal and weak selection shaped the community composition of wetland plants in our study. The latitude and MAP predictors, although modest, showed an impact on the community structure.

scholarly journals Species Richness of the Family Ericaceae along an Elevational Gradient in Yunnan, China

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-Hua Wang ◽  
Yan-Fei Cai ◽  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Chuan-Kun Xu ◽  
Shi-Bao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Variation Partitioning ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Geometric Constraints ◽  
Mean Annual Precipitation ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
The Family ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Upper Third

Knowledge about how species richness varies along spatial and environmental gradients is important for the conservation and use of biodiversity. The Ericaceae is a major component of alpine and subalpine vegetation globally. However, little is known about the spatial pattern of species richness and the factors that drive that richness in Ericaceae. We investigated variation in species richness of Ericaceae along an elevational gradient in Yunnan, China, and used a variation partitioning analysis based on redundancy analysis ordination to examine how those changes might be influenced by the mid-domain effect, the species-area relationship, and climatic variables. Species richness varied significantly with elevation, peaking in the upper third of the elevational gradient. Of the factors examined, climate explained a larger proportion of the variance in species richness along the elevational gradient than either land area or geometric constraints. Species richness showed a unimodal relationship with mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation. The elevational pattern of species richness for Ericaceae was shaped by the combined effects of climate and competition. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the potential effects of climate change on species richness for Ericaceae.

scholarly journals Microbial Community Composition Analysis in Spring Aerosols at Urban and Remote Sites over the Tibetan Plateau

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 527
Author(s):  
Prakriti Sharma Ghimire ◽  
Shichang Kang ◽  
Wasim Sajjad ◽  
Barkat Ali ◽  
Lekhendra Tripathee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Bacterial Load ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
16S Rrna Genes ◽  
Rrna Genes ◽  
Composition Analysis ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Culturable Bacteria ◽  
Remote Sites ◽  
Bacteria And Fungi

This study presents features of airborne culturable bacteria and fungi from three different sites (Lanzhou; LZ; 1520 m ASL, Lhasa; LS; 3640 m ASL and Qomolangma; ZF; 4276 m ASL) representing urban (LZ and LS) and remote sites (ZF) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Total suspended particle (TSP) samples were collected with an air sampler (Laoying 2030, China) on a quartz filter. Community structures of bacteria and fungi were studied and compared among three different locations. The average levels of bacterial load in the outdoor air ranged from approximately 8.03 × 101 to 3.25 × 102 CFU m–3 (Colony forming unit per m3). However, the average levels of fungal loads ranged from approximately 3.88 × 100 to 1.55 × 101 CFU m−3. Bacterial load was one magnitude higher at urban sites LZ (2.06 × 102–3.25 × 102 CFU m−3) and LS (1.96 × 102–3.23 × 102 CFU m−3) compared to remote sites ZF (8.03 × 101–9.54 × 101 CFU m−3). Similarly, the maximum fungal load was observed in LZ (1.02 × 101–1.55 × 101 CFU m−3) followed by LS (1.03 × 101–1.49 × 101 CFU m−3) and ZF (3.88 × 100–6.26 × 100 CFU m−3). However, the maximum microbial concentration was observed on the same day of the month, corresponding to a high dust storm in Lanzhou during the sampling period. The reported isolates were identified by phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA genes for bacteria and ITS sequences for fungi amplified from directly extracted DNA. Bacterial isolates were mostly associated with Proteobacteria, Eurotiomycetes and Bacillus, whereas fungal isolates were mostly Aspergillus and Alternaria. Overall, this is a pioneer study that provides information about the airborne microbial concentration and composition of three sites over the TP region depending on environmental parameters. This study provided preliminary insight to carry out more advanced and targeted analyses of bioaerosol in the sites presented in the study.

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