%A Ye Liu,Yue Xu,Songlin Shi,Peihao Peng,Zehao Shen %T Quantitative classification and environmental interpretations for the structural differentiation of the plant communities in the dry valley of Jinshajiang River %0 Journal Article %D 2016 %J Biodiv Sci %R 10.17520/biods.2015353 %P 407-420 %V 24 %N 4 %U {https://www.biodiversity-science.net/CN/abstract/article_8651.shtml} %8 2016-04-20 %X

The structural differentiation of plant communities are associated with species traits, and interspecific interactions in heterogeneous environment. The comprehensive analysis of spatial variation in species assemblages may help infer processes shaping ecological communities. Based on field investigation of 116 sites and 562 sampling points in the dry valley of Jinshajiang River, combined with vegetation classification by adaptive-affinity propagation, we used Moran’s Eigenvector Maps and variation partitioning to quantify the effects of spatial and environmental factors on the community structure. The results showed that: (1) the plant communities were divided into 30 groups by Adaptive-AP, and classified into 7 vegetation types, 23 formations. Savanna (30.0%) and warm deciduous broadleaved thicket (55.7%) were the main vegetation types. (2) Mean annual temperature (MAT) and aridity index (k) are two dominant climate factors limiting the distribution of plant community types in the dry valley of Jinshajiang River. Savanna, succulent thicket and evergreen broadleaved thicket are dominant vegetation types in typical dry-hot valley. Warm deciduous broadleaved thicket and evergreen sclerophyllous forest are dominant in dry-warm valley. Warm needle-leaved forest and deciduous broadleaved forest are more adaptive to lower temperature. (3) The pure environmental fraction can explain 5.5% of the species composition variation, the pure broad-scale spatial fraction can explain 22.5% of the species composition variation, 6.6% can be explained by the fraction corresponding to broad-scale structured environment and the unexplainable part was 65.4%. Among all the factors, MAT and k indicated the critical difference among the community habitats, which has prominent impact on the change of community composition. The broad-scale spatial factors played an important role in shaping the community structure by geographic isolation.