Biodiv Sci ›› 2022, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (11): 22029.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2022029

• Original Papers: Plant Diversity • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Influence of geographic distance and environmental factors on beta diversity of plants in the Alxa gobi region in northern China

Mengjun Qu1, Nueryila·Ababaike 2, Xuge Zou1, Hang Zhao1, Weilin Zhu1, Jianming Wang1, Jingwen Li1,*()   

  1. 1. School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083
    2. Xinjiang Forestry Planning Institute, Urumqi 830000
  • Received:2022-01-15 Accepted:2022-04-22 Online:2022-11-20 Published:2022-06-23
  • Contact: Jingwen Li

Abstract:

Aims: The gobi desert covers over 200,000 km2 on the Alxa Plateau in northern China. Due to climate change, the ecosystem is subject to continuous warming and extreme weather events. Yet, the relative impacts of environmental filtering versus dispersal limitations on β diversity and its two components, species turnover and nestedness, in this unique ecosystem are still unclear.

Methods: We selected 276 plant plots in the gobi desert region of Alxa to examine how geographic distance and environmental factors influence β diversity and its two components.

Results: The results showed that: (1) β diversity and species turnover had a significantly linear relationship with geographic distance, and most of the variance in β diversity of the plant community was caused by species turnover and not nestedness. (2) A partial Mantel analysis showed that both environmental distance and geographic distance impacted β diversity and species turnover. Variance partitioning analysis indicated that while environmental distance and geographic distance together explained 10.84%-17.67% and 15.47%-24.81% of the variation in β diversity and species turnover on the Bray-Curtis and Sørensen indices, respectively, environmental distance alone explained 6.62%-9.97% and 8.98%-14.51%. Among all environmental factors, mean diurnal range, soil water content, and surface gravel coverage were the most important variables for explaining β diversity and species turnover.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that while β diversity in the gobi desert region of Alxa is determined by environmental filtering, dispersal limitation, and other unexamined processes together, environmental filtering may have the strongest impacts.

Key words: β diversity, species turnover, species nestedness, environmental filtering, dispersal limitation