The ecological uniqueness of plant communities and their determinants across the temperate deserts of China

doi:10.17520/biods.2023144

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: Overall beta diversity can be partitioned into the relative contributions of its individual sampling units, which represent comparative indicators of the ecological uniqueness of each local community within the sampling units. Temperate desert ecosystems are widely distributed primarily in arid and extremely arid regions and are especially sensitive to influence by climate change and human activities. However, distribution patterns of unique desert plant ecologies and their determining factors have yet to be studied extensively, which has hindered our understanding of mechanism for maintaining desert biodiversity in these regions. Therefore, this study aims to explore the ecological uniqueness of plant communities and identify their determinants in temperate deserts of China.

Methods: In this study, we selected 948 plots (10 m × 10 m) at 316 sites in the temperate deserts of China. We computed beta diversity as the total variation within the community data and used a plotting-based approach to determine if ecological uniqueness is related to the local environmental conditions and/or community characteristics. Stepwise multiple regressions and variation partitioning analyses were performed to further infer the mechanisms driving the geographic patterns of desert plant ecological uniqueness.

Results: The ecological uniqueness of desert plants exhibited significant variations based on longitudinal, latitudinal, and elevational patterns. Plant ecological uniqueness significantly decreased with longitude but displayed a U-shaped relationship with latitude and elevation. In addition, we observed a U-shaped relationship between plant ecological uniqueness and plant species richness. The soil, climate, and community characteristics (i.e., plant species richness and community coverage) significantly influenced the ecological uniqueness of plant communities. Longitude, soil, climate, and community characteristics taken together explained 33.5% of the total variation in the ecological uniqueness of plant communities. In addition, climatic factors demonstrated a more significant influence on the ecological uniqueness of the plant communities when compared to the soil and community characteristics.

Conclusions: Taken together, we propose that the ecological uniqueness of desert plant communities is regulated by environment filtering, neutral processes, and other unknown processes, where the soil and climate are primary drivers of uniqueness.

Key words: Chinese temperate desert, beta diversity, ecological uniqueness, environment filtering, soil, climate, community characteristics

Jianming Wang, Xun Lei, Yiming Feng, Bo Wu, Qi Lu, Nianpeng He, Jingwen Li. The ecological uniqueness of plant communities and their determinants across the temperate deserts of China[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2023, 31(10): 23144.

Add to citation manager EndNote|Ris|BibTeX

URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2023144

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2023/V31/I10/23144

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1 Distribution of sampling sites across the temperate deserts of China

Fig. 2 Difference in the species contribution to beta diversity (SCBD) among different life forms (mean ± SE). Different letters indicate significant differences among different life forms (P < 0.05).

Fig. 3 Trends of the ecological uniqueness of plant communities across the temperate deserts of China along longitude (a), latitude (b) and altitude (c)

Table 1 Relationship between the ecological uniqueness of plant communities and single environmental variable

变量 Variable	R²	斜率 Slope	P
物种丰富度 Species richness (SR)	0.044	US	< 0.0001
植物群落盖度 Plant community coverage (PCC)	0.036	US	< 0.0001
土壤含水量 Soil moisture (SM)	0.018	0.00002	< 0.0001
土壤总氮含量 Soil total nitrogen content (TSN)	0.039	0.00003	< 0.0001
土壤pH值 Soil pH (pH)	0.080	US	< 0.0001
年均温 Mean annual temperature (MAT)	0.037	US	< 0.0001
年均降水量 Mean annual precipitation (MAP)	0.074	US	< 0.0001
降水季节性 Precipitation seasonality (PS)	0.166	-0.396	< 0.0001
太阳辐射强度 Solar radiation (SRAD)	0.123	US	< 0.0001

Fig. 4 Trends of the ecological uniqueness of plant communities across the temperate deserts of China along species richness (a), precipitation seasonality (b) and solar radiation (c)

Fig. 5 Relative influence of different variables on the ecological uniqueness of plant communities. (a) Parameter estimates and the associated 95% confidence interval of each variable that enters into final models; (b) The explanation of longitude, soil and climate, community characteristics (species richness and plant community coverage) to the ecological uniqueness of plant communities. SR, Species richness; PCC, Plant community coverage; SM, Soil moisture; TSN, Soil total nitrogen content; pH, Soil pH; MAT, Mean annual temperature; PS, Precipitation seasonality. ***, P < 0.001.

References 47

[1]	Anderson MJ, Crist TO, Chase JM, Vellend M, Inouye BD, Freestone AL, Sanders NJ, Cornell HV, Comita LS, Davies KF, Harrison SP, Kraft NJB, Stegen JC, Swenson NG (2011) Navigating the multiple meanings of β diversity: A roadmap for the practicing ecologist. Ecology Letters, 14, 19-28. DOI PMID
[2]	Borcard D, Legendre P, Avois-Jacquet C, Tuomisto H (2004) Dissecting the spatial structure of ecological data at multiple scales. Ecology, 85, 1826-1832. DOI URL
[3]	Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2004) Multimodel inference: Understanding AIC and BIC in model selection. Sociological Methods & Research, 33, 261-304.
[4]	Chase JM, Myers JA (2011) Disentangling the importance of ecological niches from stochastic processes across scales. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366, 2351-2363. DOI URL
[5]	Chen SB, Ouyang ZY, Xu WH, Xiao Y (2010) A review of beta diversity studies. Biodiversity Science, 18, 323-335. (in Chinese with English abstract) DOI
	[陈圣宾, 欧阳志云, 徐卫华, 肖燚 (2010) Beta多样性研究进展. 生物多样性, 18, 323-335.] DOI
[6]	Cook JG, Irwin LL (1992) Climate-vegetation relationships between the Great Plains and Great Basin. American Midland Naturalist, 127, 316. DOI URL
[7]	da Silva PG, Hernández MIM, Heino J (2018) Disentangling the correlates of species and site contributions to beta diversity in dung beetle assemblages. Diversity and Distributions, 24, 1674-1686. DOI URL
[8]	Dai S, Wang XP, Liu C, Wu X, Li QY, Wang M (2013) Relationship between shrub species richness and climate across central Inner Mongolia, China. Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Pekinensis, 49, 689-698. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[代爽, 王襄平, 刘超, 武娴, 李巧燕, 王敏 (2013) 内蒙古灌木群落物种丰富度与气候的关系. 北京大学学报(自然科学版), 49, 689-698.]
[9]	Dansereau G, Legendre P, Poisot T (2022) Evaluating ecological uniqueness over broad spatial extents using species distribution modelling. Oikos, 2022, e09063.
[10]	Deng HX, Tang QH, Yun XB, Tang Y, Liu XC, Xu XM, Sun S, Zhao G, Zhang YY, Zhang YQ (2022) Wetting trend in Northwest China reversed by warmer temperature and drier air. Journal of Hydrology, 613, 128435. DOI URL
[11]	Dodd MB, Lauenroth WK, Welker JM (1998) Differential water resource use by herbaceous and woody plant life-forms in a shortgrass steppe community. Oecologia, 117, 504-512. DOI PMID
[12]	Dubois R, Proulx R, Pellerin S (2020) Ecological uniqueness of plant communities as a conservation criterion in lake-edge wetlands. Biological Conservation, 243, 108491. DOI URL
[13]	Fang JY, Wang XP, Shen ZH, Tang ZY, He JS, Yu D, Jiang Y, Wang ZH, Zheng CY, Zhu JL, Guo ZD (2009) Methods and protocols for plant community inventory. Biodiversity Science, 17, 533-548. (in Chinese with English abstract) DOI
	[方精云, 王襄平, 沈泽昊, 唐志尧, 贺金生, 于丹, 江源, 王志恒, 郑成洋, 朱江玲, 郭兆迪 (2009) 植物群落清查的主要内容、方法和技术规范. 生物多样性, 17, 533-548.] DOI
[14]	Gaston KJ (2000) Global patterns in biodiversity. Nature, 405, 220-227. DOI
[15]	Gilbert B, Lechowicz MJ (2004) Neutrality, niches, and dispersal in a temperate forest understory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 101, 7651-7656
[16]	Hawkins BA, Porter EE (2004) Water-energy balance and the geographic pattern of species richness of western Palearctic butterflies. Ecological Entomology, 28, 678-686. DOI URL
[17]	Heino J, Grönroos M (2017) Exploring species and site contributions to beta diversity in stream insect assemblages. Oecologia, 183, 151-160. DOI PMID
[18]	Heino J, Bini LM, Andersson J, Bergsten J, Bjelke U, Johansson F (2017) Unravelling the correlates of species richness and ecological uniqueness in a metacommunity of urban pond insects. Ecological Indicators, 73, 422-431. DOI URL
[19]	Jiang ZG (2018) Exploring the distribution patterns and conservation approaches of biodiversity on the Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau. Biodiversity Science, 26, 107-110. (in Chinese) DOI URL
	[蒋志刚 (2018) 探索青藏高原生物多样性分布格局与保育途径. 生物多样性, 26, 107-110.] DOI
[20]	Lauenroth WK, Schlaepfer DR, Bradford JB (2014) Ecohydrology of dry regions: Storage versus pulse soil water dynamics. Ecosystems, 17, 1469-1479. DOI URL
[21]	Le Bagousse-Pinguet Y, Gross N, Maestre FT, Maire V, de Bello F, Fonseca CR, Kattge J, Valencia E, Leps J, Liancourt P (2017) Testing the environmental filtering concept in global drylands. Journal of Ecology, 105, 1058-1069. DOI PMID
[22]	Legendre P, De Cáceres M (2013) Beta diversity as the variance of community data: Dissimilarity coefficients and partitioning. Ecology Letters, 16, 951-963. DOI PMID
[23]	Legendre P, Gauthier O (2014) Statistical methods for temporal and space-time analysis of community composition data. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 281, 20132728.
[24]	Legendre P, Mi XC, Ren HB, Ma KP, Yu MJ, Sun IF, He FL (2009) Partitioning beta diversity in a subtropical broad-leaved forest of China. Ecology, 90, 663-674. DOI PMID
[25]	Li BF, Chen YN, Shi X (2012) Why does the temperature rise faster in the arid region of Northwest China? Journal of Geophysical Research D: Atmospheres, 117, D16115.
[26]	Li LP, Abdusalih N, Wang SP, Wang ZH, Tang ZY (2011) Distribution patterns and climatic explanations of species richness of vascular plants in Xinjiang, China. Arid Zone Research, 28, 25-30. (in Chinese with English abstract) DOI URL
	[李利平, 努尔巴依·阿布都沙力克, 王少鹏, 王志恒, 唐志尧 (2011) 新疆野生维管束植物物种丰富度分布格局的水热解释. 干旱区研究, 28, 25-30.]
[27]	Li XR, Tan HJ, He MZ, Wang XP, Li XJ (2009) The response of shrub species richness and abundance patterns to environmental change in Alxa Plateau: The premise of shrubs diversity conservation in extremely arid gobi regions. Science China: Earth Sciences, 39, 504-515. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[李新荣, 谭会娟, 何明珠, 王新平, 李小军 (2009) 阿拉善高原灌木种的丰富度和多度格局对环境因子变化的响应: 极端干旱戈壁地区灌木多样性保育的前提. 中国科学: 地球科学, 39, 504-515.]
[28]	Myers JA, Chase JM, Jiménez I, Jørgensen PM, Araujo- Murakami A, Paniagua-Zambrana N, Seidel R (2013) Beta-diversity in temperate and tropical forests reflects dissimilar mechanisms of community assembly. Ecology Letters, 16, 151-157. DOI PMID
[29]	O’Brien EM (1998) Water-energy dynamics, climate, and prediction of woody plant species richness: An interim general model. Journal of Biogeography, 25, 379-398. DOI URL
[30]	Qiao XJ, Li QX, Jiang QH, Lu JM, Franklin S, Tang ZY, Wang QG, Zhang JX, Lu ZJ, Bao DC, Guo YL, Liu HB, Xu YZ, Jiang MX (2015) Beta diversity determinants in Badagongshan, a subtropical forest in Central China. Scientific Reports, 5, 17043. DOI PMID
[31]	Scientific Investigation Team of Black Gobi Desert of China (2014) Research on Black Gobi Desert of China. Science Press, Beijing. (in Chinese)
	[中国黑戈壁地区生态本底科学考察队 (2014) 中国黑戈壁研究. 科学出版社, 北京.]
[32]	Smith TW, Lundholm JT (2010) Variation partitioning as a tool to distinguish between niche and neutral processes. Ecography, 33, 648-655. DOI URL
[33]	Sor R, Legendre P, Lek S (2018) Uniqueness of sampling site contributions to the total variance of macroinvertebrate communities in the Lower Mekong basin. Ecological Indicators, 84, 425-432. DOI URL
[34]	Svenning JC, Skov F (2005) The relative roles of environment and history as controls of tree species composition and richness in Europe. Journal of Biogeography, 32, 1019-1033. DOI URL
[35]	Ulrich W, Soliveres S, Maestre FT, Gotelli NJ, Quero JL, Delgado-Baquerizo M, Bowker MA, Eldridge DJ, Ochoa V, Gozalo B, Valencia E, Berdugo M, Escolar C, García-Gómez M, Escudero A, Prina A, Alfonso G, Arredondo T, Bran D, Cabrera O, Cea AP, Chaieb M, Contreras J, Derak M, Espinosa CI, Florentino A, Gaitán J, Muro VG, Ghilouﬁ W, Gómez-González S, Gutiérrez JR, Hernández RM, Huber-Sannwald E, Jankju M, Mau RL, Hughes FM, Miriti M, Monerris J, Muchane M, Naseri K, Pucheta E, Ramírez-Collantes DA, Raveh E, Romão RL, Torres-Díaz C, Val J, Veiga JP, Wang DL, Yuan X, Zaady E (2014) Climate and soil attributes determine plant species turnover in global drylands. Journal of Biogeography, 41, 2307-2319. DOI PMID
[36]	Vilmi A, Karjalainen SM, Heino J (2017) Ecological uniqueness of stream and lake diatom communities shows different macroecological patterns. Diversity and Distributions, 23, 1042-1053. DOI URL
[37]	Wang H, Zhang R, Cai Y, Yang Q, Lv G (2022) Ecological uniqueness and the determinants in arid desert ecosystems of Northwest China. Global Ecology and Conservation, 34, e02005. DOI URL
[38]	Wang JM, Dong FY, Nasina BH, Li JW, Li JQ, Feng YM, Lu Q (2016) Plant distribution patterns and the factors influencing plant diversity in the Black Gobi Desert of China. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 36, 3488-3498. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[王健铭, 董芳宇, 巴海·那斯拉, 李景文, 李俊清, 冯益明, 卢琦 (2016) 中国黑戈壁植物多样性分布格局及其影响因素. 生态学报, 36, 3488-3498.]
[39]	Wang JM, Chen C, Li JW, Feng YM, Lu Q (2019) Different ecological processes determined the alpha and beta components of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity for plant communities in dryland regions of Northwest China. PeerJ, 6, e6220.
[40]	Wang ZH, Fang JY, Tang ZY, Lin X (2012) Relative role of contemporary environment versus history in shaping diversity patterns of China’s woody plants. Ecography, 35, 1124-1133. DOI URL
[41]	Whittaker RH (1960) Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California. Ecological Monographs, 30, 279-338. DOI URL
[42]	Wu ZY (1980) Vegetation of China. Science Press, Beijing. (in Chinese)
	[吴征镒 (1980) 中国植被. 科学出版社, 北京.]
[43]	Xia YG, Ning Y, Li JW, Li JQ, Feng YM, Wu B, Lu Q (2013) Plant species diversity and floral characters in the Black Gobi Desert of China. Acta Botanica Boreali-Occidentalia Sinica, 33, 1906-1915. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[夏延国, 宁宇, 李景文, 李俊清, 冯益民, 吴波, 卢琦 (2013) 中国黑戈壁地区植物区系及其物种多样性研究. 西北植物学报, 33, 1906-1915.]
[44]	Xiao YM, Yang LC, Nie XQ, Li CB, Xiong F, Zhao XH, Zhou GY (2018) Phylogenetic structure of desert shrub community in Qaidam Basin. Acta Botanica Boreali- Occidentalia Sinica, 38, 750-760. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[肖元明, 杨路存, 聂秀青, 李长斌, 熊丰, 赵晓辉, 周国英 (2018) 柴达木盆地荒漠灌丛群落谱系结构研究. 西北植物学报, 38, 750-760.]
[45]	Yao J, Huang JH, Ding Y, Xu Y, Xu H, Zang RG (2021) Ecological uniqueness of species assemblages and their determinants in forest communities. Diversity and Distributions, 27, 454-462. DOI URL
[46]	Zhang PP, Shao MA, Zhang XC (2017) Spatial pattern of plant species diversity and the influencing factors in a gobi desert within the Heihe River Basin, Northwest China. Journal of Arid Land, 9, 379-393. DOI
[47]	Zhong YM, Wang JM, Zhang TH, Li JW, Feng YM, Lu Q (2017) Composition of seed plant species and floristic features in the gobi area of the northern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China. Plant Science Journal, 35, 525-533. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[钟悦鸣, 王健铭, 张天汉, 李景文, 冯益明, 卢琦 (2017) 中国青藏高原北部戈壁区种子植物物种组成及其区系特征. 植物科学学报, 35, 525-533.]