Cargando…

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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Xu, Manhou, Zhang, Shixiong, Wen, Jing, Yang, Xiaoyan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
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
_version_ 1783398434618736640
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
work_keys_str_mv AT xumanhou multiscalespatialpatternsofspeciesdiversityandbiomasstogetherwiththeircorrelationsalonggeographicalgradientsinsubalpinemeadows
AT zhangshixiong multiscalespatialpatternsofspeciesdiversityandbiomasstogetherwiththeircorrelationsalonggeographicalgradientsinsubalpinemeadows
AT wenjing multiscalespatialpatternsofspeciesdiversityandbiomasstogetherwiththeircorrelationsalonggeographicalgradientsinsubalpinemeadows
AT yangxiaoyan multiscalespatialpatternsofspeciesdiversityandbiomasstogetherwiththeircorrelationsalonggeographicalgradientsinsubalpinemeadows