Patterns of plant biodiversity in the woodland-steppe ecotone in southeastern Inner Mongolia

Abstract

Biodiversity patterns of the woodland-steppe ecotone in southeastern Inner Mongolia were investigated. Controlled by climatic factors, the plant species diversity of the woodland-steppe ecotone is moderate as compared with the adjacent woodland and steppe communities. From woodland through woodland-grassland and woodland-steppe to steppe, about 2/3 species were replaced at each boundary; only seven herb species were detected to be distributed in all four vegetation zones. Landscape classification based on landform, climate, and vegetation shows that landform condition is most critical to landscape diversity in the studied area. The most fragmented landform in the woodland zone does not necessarily lead to low plant species diversity. However, similar understory species in different woodland types lead to continuous woodland vegetation and, hence, high species richness. High fragmentation in the woodland-steppe zone and discontinuous distribution of woodlands might be a driving factor for lower species richness. Reconstruction of the Holocene climatic changes and vegetation development demonstrates that the highest plant species diversity occurred in the ecotone from 4500 to 2500 14C yr BP at different sites, while the woodland zone extended much farther northwestward. When woodlands retreated from the current ecotone with climatic drying, the fragmentation of woodlands in the current ecotone led to plant species loss.