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Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico

Biological diversity can be defined as variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial organisms, marine and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes which they are part of. This includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems. Numerous...

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Autores principales: Silva-Flores, Ramón, Pérez-Verdín, Gustavo, Wehenkel, Christian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4134238/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25127455
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105034
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author Silva-Flores, Ramón
Pérez-Verdín, Gustavo
Wehenkel, Christian
author_facet Silva-Flores, Ramón
Pérez-Verdín, Gustavo
Wehenkel, Christian
author_sort Silva-Flores, Ramón
collection PubMed
description Biological diversity can be defined as variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial organisms, marine and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes which they are part of. This includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems. Numerous diversity indices combine richness and evenness in a single expression, and several climate-based explanations have been proposed to explain broad-scale diversity patterns. However, climate-based water-energy dynamics appears to be an essential factor that determines patterns of diversity. The Mexican Sierra Madre Occidental occupies an area of about 29 million hectares and is located between the Neotropical and Holarctic ecozones. It shelters a high diversity of flora, including 24 different species of Pinus (ca. 22% on the whole), 54 species of Quercus (ca. 9–14%), 7 species of Arbutus (ca. 50%) and many other trees species. The objectives of this study were to model how tree species diversity is related to climatic and geographic factors and stand density and to test the Metabolic Theory, Productivity-Diversity Hypothesis, Physiological Tolerance Hypothesis, Mid-Domain Effect, and the Water-Energy Dynamic Theory on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Durango. The results supported the Productivity-Diversity Hypothesis, Physiological Tolerance Hypothesis and Water-Energy Dynamic Theory, but not the Mid-Domain Effect or Metabolic Theory. The annual aridity index was the variable most closely related to the diversity indices analyzed. Contemporary climate was found to have moderate to strong effects on the minimum, median and maximum tree species diversity. Because water-energy dynamics provided a satisfactory explanation for the patterns of minimum, median and maximum diversity, an understanding of this factor is critical to future biodiversity research. Quantile regression of the data showed that the three diversity parameters of tree species are generally higher in cold, humid temperate climates than in dry, hot climates.
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spelling pubmed-41342382014-08-19 Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico Silva-Flores, Ramón Pérez-Verdín, Gustavo Wehenkel, Christian PLoS One Research Article Biological diversity can be defined as variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial organisms, marine and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes which they are part of. This includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems. Numerous diversity indices combine richness and evenness in a single expression, and several climate-based explanations have been proposed to explain broad-scale diversity patterns. However, climate-based water-energy dynamics appears to be an essential factor that determines patterns of diversity. The Mexican Sierra Madre Occidental occupies an area of about 29 million hectares and is located between the Neotropical and Holarctic ecozones. It shelters a high diversity of flora, including 24 different species of Pinus (ca. 22% on the whole), 54 species of Quercus (ca. 9–14%), 7 species of Arbutus (ca. 50%) and many other trees species. The objectives of this study were to model how tree species diversity is related to climatic and geographic factors and stand density and to test the Metabolic Theory, Productivity-Diversity Hypothesis, Physiological Tolerance Hypothesis, Mid-Domain Effect, and the Water-Energy Dynamic Theory on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Durango. The results supported the Productivity-Diversity Hypothesis, Physiological Tolerance Hypothesis and Water-Energy Dynamic Theory, but not the Mid-Domain Effect or Metabolic Theory. The annual aridity index was the variable most closely related to the diversity indices analyzed. Contemporary climate was found to have moderate to strong effects on the minimum, median and maximum tree species diversity. Because water-energy dynamics provided a satisfactory explanation for the patterns of minimum, median and maximum diversity, an understanding of this factor is critical to future biodiversity research. Quantile regression of the data showed that the three diversity parameters of tree species are generally higher in cold, humid temperate climates than in dry, hot climates. Public Library of Science 2014-08-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4134238/ /pubmed/25127455 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105034 Text en © 2014 Silva-Flores et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Silva-Flores, Ramón
Pérez-Verdín, Gustavo
Wehenkel, Christian
Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico
title Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico
title_full Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico
title_fullStr Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico
title_full_unstemmed Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico
title_short Patterns of Tree Species Diversity in Relation to Climatic Factors on the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico
title_sort patterns of tree species diversity in relation to climatic factors on the sierra madre occidental, mexico
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4134238/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25127455
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105034
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