Abstract
We describe the elevational patterns of species richness and endemism of some important taxa in the Hengduan Mountains, southwest China. Species richness data came from publications, an online database, herbaria and field work. Species richness was estimated by rarefaction and interpolation. The Hengduan Mountains region was divided into a southern and northern subregion, and all species were assigned to four groups based on their distributional range within this region. The conditional autoregressive model (CAR) was used to relate species richness and explanatory variables. The elevational patterns of total, endemic and non-endemic species richness, at subregion and entire region scales, presented to be unimodal and peaked at similar elevations. Area size was strongly related with species richness, and was more powerful in explaining variation in species richness in the northern subregion than in the southern subregion. A single climatic variable (mean annual rainfall, potential evapotranspiration or moisture index) showed a weak relationship with the elevational pattern of species richness. Area and climatic variables together explained more than 67% of the variation in non-endemic richness, 53% in total richness, and 50% in endemic richness. There were three patterns of endemism at the generic level with increasing elevation: namely endemism increased, decreased, or peaked at middle elevations. All selected taxa have experienced rapid speciation and evolution within this region, which plays an important role in the uniform elevational patterns of total, endemic and non-endemic richness, and in the multiform elevational patterns of endemism.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.