Spatial distribution of species diversity indices in a monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest at Dinghushan Mountain

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1003.2008.08126

Abstract

Abstract:

Sampling scale is important in exploring the structure and dynamics of plant communities. Spatial patterns and formation mechanisms of species diversity are fundamental issues in community ecology. The effect of scale on species diversity patterns and their interpretation has attracted particular attention. In this paper, we studied spatial distribution patterns of Simpson, Shannon-Weiner, and Pielou’s evenness indices within a 20-ha plot as well as relationships of these indices with sampling size in a monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest at Dinghushan Mountain, Guangdong Province. The three indices all strongly depended on region of the study area, and such a regional pattern was scale dependent. Spatial distribution patterns also differed depending on which of two measures of diversity variation,viz. variance and coefficient of variation, we used. Variance of the three indices was unimodal with increasing scale, and was maximum at the 80 m×100 m scale, while the coefficient of variation decreased with increasing scale. For the Shannon-Weiner and Pielou’s evenness indices, coefficient of variation dramatically reduced when the scale size was less than 20 m × 25 m, and then followed by a more gentle change. Our results showed that sampling scale and region should be taken into account when studying species diversity in this 20 ha monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest.

Key words: sampling scale, species diversity index, spatial distribution, Dinghushan Mountain

Zhigao Wang, Wanhui Ye, Honglin Cao, Juyu Lian. Spatial distribution of species diversity indices in a monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest at Dinghushan Mountain[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2008, 16(5): 454-461.

Add to citation manager EndNote|Ris|BibTeX

URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.3724/SP.J.1003.2008.08126

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2008/V16/I5/454

Figures/Tables 4

Fig. 1 Spatial distribution of Simpson index at six sampling scales. The darker, the bigger value.

Fig. 2 Spatial distribution of Shannon-Weiner index at six scales. The darker, the bigger value.

Fig. 3 Spatial distribution of Pielou eveness index at six scales. The darker, the bigger value.

Fig. 4 Spatial variation of Simpson, Shannon-Weiner and Pielou evenness indices at seven scales. A1, B1 and C1 represent the variance of Simpson index, Shannon-Weiner index and Pielou’s evenness index respectively; A2, B2, C2 represent the coefficiency of variance of Simpson index, Shannon-Weiner index and Pielou’s evenness index respectively. The seven scales of Y-axis represent 4 m×5 m, 8 m×10 m, 20 m×25 m, 40 m×50 m, 80 m×100 m, 100 m×125 m and 200 m×250 m from left to right.

References 40

[1]	Bellehumeur C, Legendre P, Marcotte D (1997) Variance and spatial scales in a tropical rain forest: changing the size of sampling units. Vegetatio, 130,89-98.
[2]	Borda-de-Água L, Hubbell SP, McAllister M (2002) Species area curves, diversity indices, and species abundance distributions: a multifractal analysis. The American Naturalist, 159,138-155.
[3]	Buckland ST, Elston DA (1993) Empirical models for the spatial distribution of wildlife. Journal of Applied Ecology, 30,478-495.
[4]	Condit R, Ashton PS, Baker P, Bunyavejchewin S, Gunatilleke S, Gunatilleke N, Hubbell SP, Foster RB, Itoh A, LaFrankie JV, Lee HS, Losos E, Manokaran N, Sukumar R, Yamakura T (2000) Spatial patterns in the distribution of tropical tree species. Science, 288,1414-1418.
[5]	Condit R, Hubbell SP, LaFrankie JV, Sukumar R, Manokaran N, Foster RB, Ashton PS (1996) Species-area and species-individual relationships for tropical trees: a comparison of three 50-ha plots. Journal of Ecology, 84,549-562.
[6]	Connell JH (1971) On the role of natural enemies in preventing competitive exclusion in some marine animals and in rain forest trees. In:Dynamics of Populations (eds den Bore PJ, Gradwell GR), pp. 298-310. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
[7]	Crawley MJ, Harral JE (2001) Scale dependence in plant biodiversity. Science, 291,864-868. URL PMID
[8]	Cushman SA, McGarigal K (2004) Patterns in the species-environment relationship depend on both scale and choice of response variables. Oikos, 105,117-124.
[9]	Du YJ (杜彦军), Peng SJ (彭闪江), Xu GL (徐国良), Huang ZL (黄忠良), Huang YJ (黄玉佳) (2007) Study of distance-dependence on Castanopsis chinensis seed in coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest of Dinghushan, China. Journal of Plant Ecology (Chinese version)(植物生态学报), 31,998-1006. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[10]	Dungan JL, Perry JN, Dale MRT, Legendre P, Citron-Pousty S, Fortin MJ, Jakomulska A, Miriti M, Rosenberg MS (2002) A balanced view of scale in spatial statistical analysis. Ecography, 25,626-640.
[11]	Fortin MJ, Payette S, Marineau K (1999) Spatial vegetation diversity index along a postfire successional gradient in the northern boreal forest. Ecoscience, 6,204-213.
[12]	Harms KE, Condit R, Hubbell SP, Foster RB (2001) Habitat associations of trees and shrubs in a 50-ha neotropical forest plot. Journal of Ecology, 89,947-959.
[13]	He F, LaFrankie JV, Song B (2002) Scale dependence of tree abundance and richness in a tropical rain forest, Malaysia. Landscape Ecology, 17,559-568.
[14]	He F, Legendre P (1996) On species-area relations. The American Naturalist, 148,719-737.
[15]	He F, Legendre P, Bellehumeur C, LaFrankie JV (1994) Diversity pattern and spatial scale: a study of a tropical rain forest of Malaysia. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 1,265-286.
[16]	Huang ZL (黄忠良), Kong GH (孔国辉), He DQ (何道全) (2000) Plant community diversity in Dinghushan Nature Reserve. Acta Ecologica Sinica (生态学报), 20,193-198. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[17]	Hubbell SP (1979) Tree dispersion, abundance, and diversity in a tropical dry forest. Science, 203,1299. URL PMID
[18]	Hyatt LA, Rosenberg MS, Howard TG, Bole G, Fang W, Anastasia J, Brown K, Grella R, Hinman K, Kurdziel JP (2003) The distance dependence prediction of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis: a meta-analysis. Oikos, 103,590-602.
[19]	Janzen DH (1970) Herbivores and the number of tree species in tropical forests. The American Naturalist, 104,501-528.
[20]	Kenkel NC (1988) Spectral analysis of hummock-hollow pattern in a weakly minerotrophic mire. Vegetatio, 78,45-52.
[21]	Li L (李林), Zhou XY (周小勇), Huang ZL (黄忠良), Wei SG (魏识广), Shi JH (史军辉) (2006) Study on the relationship between diversity of plant community and environment on Dinghushan. Acta Ecologica Sinica (生态学报), 19,2301-2307. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[22]	Li L, He FL, Huang ZL, Ye WH, Cao HL (2008) Spatial patterns of tree species in a subtropical forest of China. Oikos,117. (in press).
[23]	MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press,>Princeton.
[24]	Palmer MW (1988) Fractal geometry: a tool for describing spatial patterns of plant communities. Vegetatio, 75,91-102.
[25]	Peng SJ (彭闪江), Huang ZL (黄忠良), Xu GL (徐国良), Ouyang XJ (欧阳学军), Zhang C (张驰) (2003) Effects of habitat heterogeneity on forest community diversity in Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve. Guihaia (广西植物), 23,391-398. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[26]	Pielou EC (1975) Ecological Diversity. Wiley,New York.
[27]	Rossi RE, Mulla DJ, Journel AG, Franz EH (1992) Geostatistical tools for modeling and interpreting ecological spatial dependence. Ecological Monographs, 62,277-314.
[28]	Simpson EH (1949) Measure of diversity. Nature, 163,668.
[29]	Taylor LR, Perry JN, Woiwod IP, Taylor RA (1988) Specificity of the spatial power-law exponent in ecology and agriculture. Nature, 332,721-722.
[30]	Taylor PJ (1977) Quantitative Methods in Geography: An Introduction to Spatial Analysis. Houghton Mifflin Company,Boston.
[31]	Tóthmérész B (1995) Comparison of different methods for diversity ordering. Journal of Vegetation Science, 6,282-290.
[32]	Wang XG, Hao ZQ, Ye J, Zhang J, Li BH, Yao XL (2008) Spatial variation of species diversity across scales in an old-growth temperate forest of China. Ecological Research, 23,709-717.
[33]	Whittaker RH (1972) Evolution and measurement of species diversity. Taxon, 21,213-251.
[34]	Wiens JA (1989) Spatial scaling in ecology. Functional Ecology, 3,385-397.
[35]	Willis KJ, Whittaker RJ (2002) Species diversity—scale matters. Science, 295,1245-1248. URL PMID
[36]	Ye WH (叶万辉), Cao HL (曹洪麟), Huang ZL (黄忠良), Lian JY (练琚愉), Wang ZG (王志高), Li L (李林), Wei SG (魏识广), Wang ZM (王章明) (2008) Community structure of a 20 hm ² lower subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest plot in Dinghushan, China. Journal of Plant Ecology (植物生态学报)(Chinese version), 32,274-286. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[37]	Ye WH (叶万辉), Huang ZL (黄忠良), Kong GH (孔国辉), Wen DZ (温达志), Zhang QM (张倩媚) (1998b) Long-term monitoring of the lower subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve. IV. The small-scale difference of community structure in Castanopsis chinensis, Cryptocarya concinna community. Tropical and Subtropical Forest Ecosystem(热带亚热带生态系统研究).China Meteorological Press, Beijing, 8,24-31. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[38]	Ye WH (叶万辉), Ma KP (马克平), Ma KM (马克明) (1998a) Studies on plant community diversity in Donglingshan Mountain, Beijing, China. Ⅸ. The influence of scale on α diversity. Acta Ecologica Sinica (生态学报), 18,10-14. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[39]	Zhou HZ (周红章) (2000) Species and species diversity. Chinese Biodiversity (生物多样性), 8,215-226. (in Chinese with English abstract)
[40]	Zhu JM (朱锦懋), Jiang ZL (姜志林) (1999) The modifiable area unit problem of species diversity in the forest community of northern Fujian Province. Acta Ecologica Sinica (生态学报), 19,304-311. (in Chinese with English abstract)