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Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows
Researchers frequently discuss spatial distribution patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients. Typical subalpine meadows occur widely on the east of the Loess Plateau, China; here, we selected nine mountains belonging to four mountain sys...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6392230/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30811410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211560 |
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author | Xu, Manhou Zhang, Shixiong Wen, Jing Yang, Xiaoyan |
author_facet | Xu, Manhou Zhang, Shixiong Wen, Jing Yang, Xiaoyan |
author_sort | Xu, Manhou |
collection | PubMed |
description | Researchers frequently discuss spatial distribution patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients. Typical subalpine meadows occur widely on the east of the Loess Plateau, China; here, we selected nine mountains belonging to four mountain systems from north to south on the east of the plateau. We analyzed five latitudinal and longitudinal gradients together with six elevational gradients to study the spatial distribution patterns of species diversity (including α, β, and γ diversity) and biomass plus with their relationships at various scales. Results showed that (1) for diversity, α-Diversity manifested unimodal variation patterns in horizontal spaces, peaking at high latitude and low longitude. However, α-diversity was not sensitive to elevation in vertical spaces and tended to decrease with increasing elevation. With increased latitude, longitude, and elevation, β-Diversity diminished; meanwhile, the rate of species turnover decreased and the similarity of community composition enlarged. γ-Diversity demonstrated quadratic function changes that were initially incremental and then decreased with increasing longitude, elevation, and latitude from 37.5° to 40°. In general, β-diversity had positive correlation with γ-diversity and negative correlation with α-diversity, which conformed to the function of β = γ/α. (2) For biomass, changes of aboveground biomass (AB) were more obvious along latitudinal gradients, whereas variations of belowground biomass (BB) had smaller differences along longitudinal and latitudinal gradients. More biomass was allocated to BB toward the north and east, whereas root-to-shoot ratio (R/S) was more evident at greater latitude than greater longitude. With increased elevation, more biomass was also allocated to BB, and the relationship of biomass to elevation was closer in AB. In short, the relation of biomass allocation tended to belowground plant parts with different geographical scales. (3) Species diversity had the strongest positive influence on AB. The Patrick and Shannon indices had correlations of power functions with AB and R/S, respectively, indicating that an allometric model could be used to model relationships between species diversity and biomass. In conclusion, the unique geomorphological structures with a series of basins between mountain systems on the east of the Loess Plateau, meant that subalpine meadows were mostly distributed along latitudinal directions, so the spatial distribution of species diversity and biomass was more evident along latitudinal gradients, and thus the response of aboveground biomass was more sensitive to variations of spatial gradients and species diversity. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6392230 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-63922302019-03-08 Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows Xu, Manhou Zhang, Shixiong Wen, Jing Yang, Xiaoyan PLoS One Research Article Researchers frequently discuss spatial distribution patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients. Typical subalpine meadows occur widely on the east of the Loess Plateau, China; here, we selected nine mountains belonging to four mountain systems from north to south on the east of the plateau. We analyzed five latitudinal and longitudinal gradients together with six elevational gradients to study the spatial distribution patterns of species diversity (including α, β, and γ diversity) and biomass plus with their relationships at various scales. Results showed that (1) for diversity, α-Diversity manifested unimodal variation patterns in horizontal spaces, peaking at high latitude and low longitude. However, α-diversity was not sensitive to elevation in vertical spaces and tended to decrease with increasing elevation. With increased latitude, longitude, and elevation, β-Diversity diminished; meanwhile, the rate of species turnover decreased and the similarity of community composition enlarged. γ-Diversity demonstrated quadratic function changes that were initially incremental and then decreased with increasing longitude, elevation, and latitude from 37.5° to 40°. In general, β-diversity had positive correlation with γ-diversity and negative correlation with α-diversity, which conformed to the function of β = γ/α. (2) For biomass, changes of aboveground biomass (AB) were more obvious along latitudinal gradients, whereas variations of belowground biomass (BB) had smaller differences along longitudinal and latitudinal gradients. More biomass was allocated to BB toward the north and east, whereas root-to-shoot ratio (R/S) was more evident at greater latitude than greater longitude. With increased elevation, more biomass was also allocated to BB, and the relationship of biomass to elevation was closer in AB. In short, the relation of biomass allocation tended to belowground plant parts with different geographical scales. (3) Species diversity had the strongest positive influence on AB. The Patrick and Shannon indices had correlations of power functions with AB and R/S, respectively, indicating that an allometric model could be used to model relationships between species diversity and biomass. In conclusion, the unique geomorphological structures with a series of basins between mountain systems on the east of the Loess Plateau, meant that subalpine meadows were mostly distributed along latitudinal directions, so the spatial distribution of species diversity and biomass was more evident along latitudinal gradients, and thus the response of aboveground biomass was more sensitive to variations of spatial gradients and species diversity. Public Library of Science 2019-02-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6392230/ /pubmed/30811410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211560 Text en © 2019 Xu 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Xu, Manhou Zhang, Shixiong Wen, Jing Yang, Xiaoyan Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows |
title | Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows |
title_full | Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows |
title_fullStr | Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows |
title_full_unstemmed | Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows |
title_short | Multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows |
title_sort | multiscale spatial patterns of species diversity and biomass together with their correlations along geographical gradients in subalpine meadows |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6392230/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30811410 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211560 |
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