Drivers of temporal beta diversity in woody seedlings in Donglingshan, Beijing

doi:10.17520/biods.2025309

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: This study aims to reveal the temporal dynamics and driving mechanisms of species composition in temperate forest seedling communities, which is crucial for understanding forest regeneration and guiding sustainable forest management.

Methods: Based on continuous monitoring data from 1 m × 1 m seedling plots within a 20-ha forest dynamics plot at Donglingshan, Beijing, between 2021 and 2024, we employed the temporal beta diversity index (TBI) and its decomposition into loss and gain components to analyze temporal changes in seedling community composition. Relationships between TBI and seedling growth indicators, stand structure, soil, and topographic factors were assessed to identify the primary drivers of temporal dynamics.

Results: The results showed a gradual increasing trend in TBI over the study period. Species losses exceeded gains from 2022 and 2023, whereas gains predominated from 2021 to 2022 and from 2023 to 2024. TBI was significantly negatively correlated with mean seedling height and positively correlated with total seedling cover and tree abundance. No significant correlations were found with soil or topographic factors.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the temporal dynamics of the seedling community showed distinct stage-specific patterns: changes from 2022 to 2023 were mainly driven by stand structure-mediated environmental constraints, resulting in community simplification characterized predominantly by species loss; whereas the period from 2023 to 2024 transitioned into a resource-release phase, promoting species gains. These dynamics were primarily regulated by seedling growth traits. Future long-term monitoring will help to better elucidate the dynamics of seedling regeneration processes. The findings provide a theoretical foundation for the management and sustainable restoration of temperate secondary forests.

Key words: temporal beta diversity, species composition change, seedling regeneration, stand structure, forest management

Panlong Tong, Hanwen Zhang, Yanmei Wang, Shunzhong Wang, Yan Zhu. Drivers of temporal beta diversity in woody seedlings in Donglingshan, Beijing[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2025, 33(11): 25309.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2025309

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2025/V33/I11/25309

Figures/Tables 3

Fig. 1 Changes in temporal beta diversity index (TBI) and its components, losses and gains, in the seedling community of 20-ha warm temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest dynamics plot in Donglingshan from 2021 to 2024. Losses represents species loss, and Gains represents species gain. A TBI value of 1 indicates that the species composition of the area has completely changed over the time span. A Losses value of 1 indicates that the area is dominated entirely by species loss over the time span. A Gains value of 1 indicates that the area is dominated entirely by species gain over the time span.

Fig. 2 Gains/losses of seedling communities in the 20-ha warm temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest dynamics plot in Donglingshan. Squares (Gains) and circles (Losses) represent 450 seedling quadrats (points). The red and yellow lines are parallel (with a slope of 1). The size of the symbols is proportional to the TBI statistic. If the yellow line is above the red line, it indicates that species losses dominate; conversely, species gains dominate.

Fig. 3 Effects of biotic (a, d), topographic (b, e), and soil (c, f) factors on temporal beta diversity index (TBI) in the 20 ha warm temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest dynamic plot in Donglingshan seedling communities from 2022-2024. Height, Average height of seedlings; Trunk.B, Average number of main leaves on the seedlings; Root.B, Average number of root-derived leaves per seedling; Total.C, Total seedling coverage; ABUN.S, Seedling abundance; ABUN.T, Tree abundance; Dbh.T, Tree DBH; Canopy.C, Canopy cover; Elev, Elevation; Convex, Convexity; Slope, Slope; TOC, Total organic carbon; TIC, Total inorganic carbon. The circles and short lines represent the estimated values of standardized regression coefficients and the 95% confidence interval, respectively. A solid circle means the effect is significant (P < 0.05), while a hollow circle is not significant (P ≥ 0.05).

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