Abstract
AbstractEvergreen and deciduous broad‐leaved tree species can coexist across the globe and constitute different broad‐leaved forests along large‐scale geographical and climatic gradients. A better understanding of climatic influence on the distribution of mixed evergreen and deciduous broad‐leaved forest is of fundamental importance when assessing this mixed forest's resilience and predicting potential dynamics of broad‐leaved forests under future climate change. Here, we quantified the horizontal distribution of this mixed forest in mountains in relation to climate seasonality by compiling vegetation information from the earlier records and our own field sampling on major subtropical mountains of China. We found that the probability of occurrence of this forest in subtropical mountains was positively associated with the latitude but not the longitude. The occurrence probability of this forest was observed at high‐temperature but not precipitation seasonality mountains. Temperature seasonality was five times more important than precipitation seasonality in explaining the total variation of occurrence of this mixed forest. For its distribution, our results shed light on that temperature seasonality was generally a more powerful predictor than precipitation seasonality for montane mixed forest distribution. Collectively, this study clearly underscores the important role of temperature seasonality, a previously not quantified climatic variable, in the occurrence of this mixed forest along geographical gradients and hence yields useful insight into our understanding of climate–vegetation relationships and climate change vulnerability assessment in a changing climate.
Highlights
Leaf habit, for example, the property of being deciduous or evergreen, is a key functional attribute of tree species, which is regarded to be an adaptation to drought or low temperatures around the world (Kikuzawa and Lechowicz 2011, Ouedraogo et al 2016)
We quantified the relationships between the probability of occurrence of mixed forest and temperature and precipitation seasonality by Probability of mixed evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forest (MEDBF)
We found the occurrence probability of the mixed forest was positively related to temperature seasonality (P < 0.05) but not precipitation seasonality (P > 0.05; Fig. 2)
Summary
For example, the property of being deciduous or evergreen, is a key functional attribute of tree species, which is regarded to be an adaptation to drought or low temperatures around the world (Kikuzawa and Lechowicz 2011, Ouedraogo et al 2016). Patterns in the relative dominance of evergreen and deciduous tree species and climate correlates such as temperature and precipitation variables have attracted much interest in the past decades (Givnish 2002, Buitenwerf and Higgins 2016, Wu et al 2017, Zanne et al 2018). Ouedraogo et al (2016) have investigated the deciduousness of tropical forests in central Africa and identified the crucial role of dry season length Combined, these previous studies have significantly extended our understanding of the patterns and climatic correlates of evergreenness or deciduousness of forests over a broad geographical scale
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