Plant body size patterns of mountainous trees and grassland herbs in Xinjiang region, China

doi:10.17520/biods.2016336

Abstract

Abstract:

Species body size is an important trait, however, currently the correlations of body size with range size and species richness are still not very clear, especially for plants. With plant distribution and plot investigation data in the Xinjiang region of China, we explored plant body size patterns and tested the relationship between plant body size and range size, both at the species and regional scale. Further, the relationship of plant body size and plant richness was also tested at the regional scale. In this study, tree body size of forests was indicated using the average diameter at breast height (DBH), and the herbaceous plant body size of grasslands was indicated using the average height based on our plot investigation. Regional plant body size was the average value of all measured plants distributed in each grid cell (0.1° × 0.1°). We found that: (1) At the species scale, tree body size was positively correlated with range size characteristics, i.e., trees that spread wider were normally larger in size than those in narrower ranges; herb body size displayed a similar pattern with lower correlation coefficients; (2) At the regional scale, a region with larger average tree body size tended to have lower regional average plant range size and vice versa; the regional herb body size of grasslands did not significantly correlate with the regional average plant range size; (3) At the regional scale, tree body size and herb body size both positively correlated with regional plant richness. We concluded that at the species and regional scale, for different vegetation, the plant body size may have different patterns and correlate differently with range size characteristics.

http://jtp.cnki.net/bilingual/detail/html/SWDY201711009

Key words: plant body size, plant range size, species scale, regional scale, plant richness, Xinjiang

Liping Li, Anwar Mohammat, Nurbay Abdusalih, Nurjamal Sarbay, Huawei Wan. Plant body size patterns of mountainous trees and grassland herbs in Xinjiang region, China[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2017, 25(11): 1202-1212.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2016336

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2017/V25/I11/1202

Figures/Tables 5

Fig. 1 Relationship of tree DBH (diameter at breast height, cm) of forests and the plant spatial distributions (latitude and longitude) both in species and regional scale. In the species scale, the plant spatial distribution value is the midpoint of a species geographic range; and in the regional scale, the plant spatial distribution value of a grid cell is the median value of the geographic midpoints of all the plants that appear in it.

Fig. 2 Relationship of herbaceous plant height (cm) of grasslands and the plant spatial distributions (latitude and longitude) both in species and regional scale. In the species scale, the plant spatial distribution value is the midpoint of a species geographic range; and in the regional scale, the plant spatial distribution value of a grid cell is the median value of the geographic midpoints of all the plants that appear in it.

Fig. 3 Relationship of DBH (diameter at breast height, cm) of trees in forests and species range size (range area, extent North-South (extent NS) and extent East-West (extent EW)). Logarithmic scale with a, b, c of species and d, e, f of regional scale.

Fig. 4 Relationship of height of herbaceous plants (cm) in grasslands and species range size (range area, extent North-South (extent NS) and extent East-West (extent EW)). Logarithmic scale with a, b, c of species scale and d, e, f of regional scale.

Fig. 5 Relationship of regional plant body size and species richness (with logarithmic scale)

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