Elevational patterns of plant richness in the Taibai Mountain, China.

Lili Tang,Dengwu Li,Tanbao Li,Xiaxia Meng

doi:10.1155/2014/309053

Lili Tang, Dengwu Li + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/309053

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Abstract

The elevational distribution of plant diversity is a popular issue in ecology and biogeography, and several studies have examined the determinants behind plant diversity patterns. In this study, using published data of the local flora of Taibai Mountain, we explored the effects of spatial and climatic factors on plant species richness. We also evaluated Rapoport's elevational rule by examining the relationship between elevational range size and midpoint. Species richness patterns were regressed against area, middle domain effect (MDE), mean annual temperature (MAT), and mean annual precipitation (MAP). The results showed that richness of overall plants, seed plants, bryophytes, and ferns all showed hump-shaped patterns along the elevational gradient, although the absolute elevation of richness peaks differed in different plant groups. Species richness of each plant group was all associated strongly with MAT and MAP. In addition to climatic factors, overall plants and seed plants were more related to area in linear regression models, while MDE was a powerful explanatory variable for bryophytes. Rapoport's elevational rule on species richness was not supported. Our study suggests that a combined interaction of spatial and climatic factors influences the elevational patterns of plant species richness on Taibai Mountain, China.

Highlights

The spatial patterns of species richness and its underlying mechanisms have been one of the hotspots in ecology [1,2,3]
The elevational patterns of other plant groups were similar with the distribution of overall plants, the elevation of richness peak varied somewhat; namely, richness of seed plants peaked at 1200– 1300 m a.s.l., lower than the peak elevation of bryophytes and ferns (Figure 4)
By using the middle domain effect (MDE) null model for simulation, the results showed that the patterns of predicted richness were symmetrically peaking at 2200∼2300 m a.s.l. along the elevational gradient, while the observed richness of plant groups had partial peak patterns and the maximum value appeared at the first third or quarter of the elevational transect (Figures 4(a), 4(b), and 4(d))

Summary

Introduction

The spatial patterns of species richness and its underlying mechanisms have been one of the hotspots in ecology [1,2,3]. As a surrogate of latitude, patterns of species richness and their ecological determinants in mountain regions were paid more attention by scholars in the recent ten years [11,12,13,14]. Lundholm [15] studied forty-one observational and eleven experimental reports that quantified plant species diversity and heterogeneity of spatial environment and found that positive heterogeneity-diversity relationships were very common, confirming the importance of niche differentiation in species diversity patterns. In the last few years, many researches demonstrated the elevational patterns of mammals [19,20,21,22,23,24], birds [25,26,27], insects [28,29,30], and plants [31,32,33,34,35] in different taxa and regions

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