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Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity
Karst made up of limestone is widely considered a “Noah’s ark” of biodiversity. Rock and soil substrates comprise two different site types in karst terrain, although both can support dense forests. However, it is unclear whether and how the presence of exposed rock affects forest diversity and tree...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9210165/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35747882 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.851781 |
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author | Li, Jie Zhang, Lianjin Li, Yuanfa |
author_facet | Li, Jie Zhang, Lianjin Li, Yuanfa |
author_sort | Li, Jie |
collection | PubMed |
description | Karst made up of limestone is widely considered a “Noah’s ark” of biodiversity. Rock and soil substrates comprise two different site types in karst terrain, although both can support dense forests. However, it is unclear whether and how the presence of exposed rock affects forest diversity and tree size. We established a 2.2 ha plot (200 × 110 m) in an old-growth oak forest (> 300 years) in karst terrain in southwestern China. We classified the plot into rock and soil components; we analyzed plant diversity and tree size in each component using species diversity indices (richness, number of individuals, Shannon–Wiener index, and Pielou evenness index), stand spatial structure parameters, diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height (TH), and tree basal area (BA). We also analyzed the distributional patterns of species at the sites using non-metric multidimensional scaling, then assessed the effects of abiotic environmental variables on diversity and tree size using redundancy analysis. Our results indicated that both site types (i.e., rock and soil) had similar overall species diversity; trees and shrubs were largely distributed at random within the study site. Tree size was evenly differentiated in the community, and trees were dominant, particularly on soil. Trees on rock were in a status of medium mixture, whereas shrubs on rock were highly mixed. The opposite trend was observed for trees and shrubs growing on soil. The DBH, TH, and BA were smaller in trees growing on rock than in trees growing on soil. Abiotic environmental variables had varying effects on the diversity and size of trees at the two site types; they only explained 21.76 and 14.30% of total variation, respectively. These results suggest that exposed rock has the effect of reducing tree size, but not diversity, thus highlighting the important role of rock in maintaining diversity; moreover, the results imply that karst microhabitats may mitigate the impacts of topography on tree diversity and growth. Greater attention should be focused on exposed rock in the conservation and management of karst forests and the restoration of degraded forest ecosystems. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9210165 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92101652022-06-22 Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity Li, Jie Zhang, Lianjin Li, Yuanfa Front Plant Sci Plant Science Karst made up of limestone is widely considered a “Noah’s ark” of biodiversity. Rock and soil substrates comprise two different site types in karst terrain, although both can support dense forests. However, it is unclear whether and how the presence of exposed rock affects forest diversity and tree size. We established a 2.2 ha plot (200 × 110 m) in an old-growth oak forest (> 300 years) in karst terrain in southwestern China. We classified the plot into rock and soil components; we analyzed plant diversity and tree size in each component using species diversity indices (richness, number of individuals, Shannon–Wiener index, and Pielou evenness index), stand spatial structure parameters, diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height (TH), and tree basal area (BA). We also analyzed the distributional patterns of species at the sites using non-metric multidimensional scaling, then assessed the effects of abiotic environmental variables on diversity and tree size using redundancy analysis. Our results indicated that both site types (i.e., rock and soil) had similar overall species diversity; trees and shrubs were largely distributed at random within the study site. Tree size was evenly differentiated in the community, and trees were dominant, particularly on soil. Trees on rock were in a status of medium mixture, whereas shrubs on rock were highly mixed. The opposite trend was observed for trees and shrubs growing on soil. The DBH, TH, and BA were smaller in trees growing on rock than in trees growing on soil. Abiotic environmental variables had varying effects on the diversity and size of trees at the two site types; they only explained 21.76 and 14.30% of total variation, respectively. These results suggest that exposed rock has the effect of reducing tree size, but not diversity, thus highlighting the important role of rock in maintaining diversity; moreover, the results imply that karst microhabitats may mitigate the impacts of topography on tree diversity and growth. Greater attention should be focused on exposed rock in the conservation and management of karst forests and the restoration of degraded forest ecosystems. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC9210165/ /pubmed/35747882 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.851781 Text en Copyright © 2022 Li, Zhang and Li. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Plant Science Li, Jie Zhang, Lianjin Li, Yuanfa Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity |
title | Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity |
title_full | Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity |
title_fullStr | Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity |
title_full_unstemmed | Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity |
title_short | Exposed Rock Reduces Tree Size, but Not Diversity |
title_sort | exposed rock reduces tree size, but not diversity |
topic | Plant Science |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9210165/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35747882 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.851781 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lijie exposedrockreducestreesizebutnotdiversity AT zhanglianjin exposedrockreducestreesizebutnotdiversity AT liyuanfa exposedrockreducestreesizebutnotdiversity |