Abstract
Montane habitats are characterized by high variation of environmental factors within small geographic ranges, which offers opportunities to explore how forest assemblages respond to changes in environmental conditions. Understanding the distributional transition of adult trees and seedlings will provide insight into the fate of forest biodiversity in response to future climate change. We investigated the elevational distribution of 156 species of adult trees and 152 species of seedlings in a tropical montane forest in Xishuangbanna, southwest China. Adult trees and seedlings were surveyed within 5 replicate plots established at each of 4 elevational bands (800, 1000, 1200, and 1400 m above sea level). We found that species richness of both adult trees and seedlings changed with elevation, showing a notable decline in diversity values from 1000 to 1200 m. Tree species composition also demonstrated distinct differences between 1000 and 1200 m, marking the division between tropical seasonal rain forest (800 ...
Highlights
Understanding species distribution along spatial and environmental gradients is one of the core aims of ecological and biogeographical research (Whittaker 1960; Itow 1991; Wolf 1993; Vazquez and Givnish 1998; Buckley and Jetz 2008)
The vegetation changes observed in our study were likely influenced by strong seasonal dryness, with tropical rain forest occurring in wet valleys and tropical montane evergreen broad-leaved forest occurring in dry montane habitats (Zhu et al 2005)
Our study suggested that moisture availability and temperature regime, which are caused by the change of elevation, may determine the elevational distribution pattern of adult tree species
Summary
Understanding species distribution along spatial and environmental gradients is one of the core aims of ecological and biogeographical research (Whittaker 1960; Itow 1991; Wolf 1993; Vazquez and Givnish 1998; Buckley and Jetz 2008). The patterns of species elevational distribution vary depending on the study locations, because they are likely to be influenced by multiple factors, including human and natural disturbances Tree species on montane gradients are predicted to shift their distributions upslope due to increased temperature (eg Feeley et al 2011). Crimmins et al (2011) suggested that tree species in California forests are likely to move downhill as increased precipitation may render drier, lower elevations more suitable for high-elevation
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