Abstract
Quantifying the drivers underlying the distribution of biodiversity during succession is a critical issue in ecology and conservation, and also can provide insights into the mechanisms of community assembly. Ninety plots were established in the Loess Plateau region of northern Shaanxi in China. The taxonomic and phylogenetic (alpha and beta) diversity were quantified within six succession stages. Null models were used to test whether phylogenetic distance observed differed from random expectations. Taxonomic beta diversity did not show a regular pattern, while phylogenetic beta diversity decreased throughout succession. The shrub stage occurred as a transition from phylogenetic overdispersion to clustering either for NRI (Net Relatedness Index) or betaNRI. The betaNTI (Nearest Taxon Index) values for early stages were on average phylogenetically random, but for the betaNRI analyses, these stages were phylogenetically overdispersed. Assembly of woody plants differed from that of herbaceous plants during late community succession. We suggest that deterministic and stochastic processes respectively play a role in different aspects of community phylogenetic structure for early succession stage, and that community composition of late succession stage is governed by a deterministic process. In conclusion, the long-lasting evolutionary imprints on the present-day composition of communities arrayed along the succession gradient.
Highlights
Relative importance of abiotic and biotic filtering processes is likely to change[20]
We used this data set to address the following questions: (1) whether there are contrasting changes in taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity within communities, together with the taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover between communities, at six succession stages during a long-term succession. (2) we examined, for each successional stage, whether species co-occurring within stage is phylogenetically more similar than expected
Phylogenetic alpha diversity of herbaceous plants tended to decrease from stage 4 to 6, while it did not change for woody plants (Fig. S1)
Summary
Relative importance of abiotic and biotic filtering processes is likely to change[20]. A study of phylogenetic and functional beta diversity of tropical tree communities showed that phylogenetic turnover between successional stages was random[51] All these studies only focus on herbaceous or woody plant communities separately and have rarely involve a long-term succession of forest (from herbaceous community to forest climax community) and never involve Loess plateau forest landscapes characterized by the alternation of summer drought stress and winter cold stress. The different-staged patches of vegetation are assumed to represent a temporal sequence of change in community composition[55] This succession series are most suited for the analysis of community characteristics, such as biological diversity, that change over time, and can contribute to an understanding of processes of community assembly. The fulfillment of this study may provide new evidence of transitional assembly process in warm temperate forest zone and has a bearing on community assembly theory, and will simultaneously provide application basis to guide vegetation restoration and reconstruction in region of the Loess Plateau
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