Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:12:59.544Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Separation of environmental effects on community variation of a larch forest in north China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2018

Qindi ZHANG ,
Zongshan LI ,
Lei YANG ,
Xing WU  and
Jintun ZHANG
Qindi ZHANG
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen 041004, China. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
Zongshan LI
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
Lei YANG
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
Xing WU
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
Jintun ZHANG*
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Email: [email protected]
*
*Corresponding author
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pangquangou National Nature Reserve is well known as ‘the distribution centre of Prince Rupprecht's larch (Larix principis-rupprechtii)' in China. Community variation in Prince Rupprecht's larch forest provides habitat heterogeneity for animals, especially for the endemic and endangered brown-eared pheasant (Crossoptlon mantchuricum). In this study a total of 120 quadrats (each 10×10m) were established to measure and record species composition and six environmental variables to examine the underlying variables that control community variation. We applied a multivariate regression tree analysis to detect community variation, and used redundancy analysis-based variation partitioning to separate the effects of environmental variables on community variation. The results show that Prince Rupprecht's larch forest in the Pangquangou National Nature Reserve can be represented by eight community types. The amount of total species variability captured by all environmental variables was 20.6%, and the cumulative percentage variance of species–environment relationships was 95.8%. However, analyses with a conditional effect approach revealed that elevation, aspect and litter thickness contribute the most to community variation. The pure and joint effects of these three explanatory variables were separated with variation partitioning analyses. The results highlight that the effect of elevation accounts for the largest fraction of community variation in Prince Rupprecht's larch forest.

Keywords

nature reservePrince Rupprecht's larch forestvariation partitionvegetation–environment relationships
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 109 , Issue 3-4: Earth surface processes and environmental sustainability in China , September 2018 , pp. 407 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

6. References

Adler, P. B., Ellner, S. P. & Levine, J. M. 2010. Coexistence of perennial plants: an embarrassment of niches. Ecology Letters 13, 1019–1029.Google Scholar
Blagoveshchenskii, Y. N., Bogatyrev, L. G., Solomatova, E. A. & Samsonova, V. P. 2006. Spatial variation of the litter thickness in the forests of Karelia. Eurasian Soil Science 39, 925–930.10.1134/S1064229306090018Google Scholar
Borcard, D., Legendre, P. & Drapeau, P. 1992. Partialling out the spatial component of ecological variation. Ecology 73, 1045–1055.Google Scholar
Braak, C. J. F. T. & Šmilauer, P. 2015. Topics in constrained and unconstrained ordination. Plant Ecology 216, 683–696.Google Scholar
Brinkmann, K., Patzelt, A., Dickhoefer, U., Schlecht, E. & Buerkert, A. 2009. Vegetation patterns and diversity along an altitudinal and a grazing gradient in the Jabal al Akhdar mountain range of northern Oman. Journal of Arid Environments 73, 1035–1045.Google Scholar
Chave, J. 2004. Neutral theory and community ecology. Ecology Letters 7, 241–253.10.1111/j.1461-0248.2003.00566.xGoogle Scholar
Chytrý, M., Lososová, Z., Horsák, M., Uher, B. T. Č., Danihelka, J., Fajmon, K., Hájek, O., Juřičková, L. & Kintrová, K. 2012. Dispersal limitation is stronger in communities of microorganisms than macroorganisms across Central European cities. Journal of Biogeography 39, 1101–1111.Google Scholar
De'ath, G. 2002. Multivariate regression trees: a new technique for modeling species–environment relationships. Ecology 83, 1105–1117.Google Scholar
Doležal, J. & Šrůtek, M. 2002. Altitudinal changes in composition and structure of mountain–temperate vegetation: a case study from the Western Carpathians. Plant Ecology 158, 201–221.Google Scholar
Gorini, L., Linnell, J. D. C., May, R., Panzacchi, M., Boitani, L., Odden, M. & Nilsen, E. B. 2012. Habitat heterogeneity and mammalian predator-prey interactions. Mammal Review 42, 55–77.Google Scholar
Guo, J. P., Xue, J. J., Li, S. G. & Wang, J. T. 1998. Study on soil seed bank of Prince Rupprecht's larch under canopy in Pangquangou National Nature Reserve, Shanxi, China. Plant Science Journal 16, 131–136.Google Scholar
Hill, M. O. & Gauch, H. G. Jr 1980. Detrended correspondence analysis: an improved ordination technique. Vegetatio 42, 47–58.Google Scholar
Hubbell, S. P. 2001. The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Keddy, P. A. 1992. Assembly and response rules: two goals for predictive community ecology. Journal of Vegetation Science 3, 157–164.Google Scholar
Klimek, S., Richter gen. Kemmermann, A., Hofmann, M. & Isselstein, J. 2007. Plant species richness and composition in managed grasslands: the relative importance of field management and environmental factors. Biological Conservation 134, 559–570.Google Scholar
Krüger, O., Chakarov, N., Nielsen, J. T., Looft, V., Grünkorn, T., Struwe–Juhl, B. & Møller, A. P. 2012. Population regulation by habitat heterogeneity or individual adjustment? Journal of Animal Ecology 81, 330–340.Google Scholar
Li, H. Q., Yue, B. S., Lian, Z. M., Zhao, H. F., Zhao, D. L. & Xiao, X. M. 2012. Modeling spring habitat requirements of the endangered brown eared pheasant Crossoptilon mantchuricum in the Huanglong Mountains, Shaanxi Province, China. Zoological Science 29, 593–598.Google Scholar
Liu, H. J., Su, H. L., Sheng, S. Y. & Wang, J. P. 1991. The population of the brown eared pheasant at Pangquangou National Nature Reserve, Shanxi Province, China. Acta Zoologica Sinica 37, 30–35.Google Scholar
Liu, H. W., Han, H. R., Cheng, X. Q. & Li, X. M. 2007. Pattern of spatial population of Prince Rupprecht's larch in Pangquangou Region, Shanxi Province, northern China. Journal of Beijing Forestry University 29, 198–202.Google Scholar
Liu, J. G., Linderman, M., Ouyang, Z. Y., An, L., Yang, J. & Zhang, H. M. 2001. Ecological degradation in protected areas: the case of Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas. Science 292, 98–101.10.1126/science.1058104Google Scholar
Liu, Q. H. 1997. Variation partitioning by partial redundancy analysis (RDA). Environmetrics 8, 75–85.Google Scholar
Maire, V., Gross, N., Börger, L., Proulx, R., Wirth, C., Pontes, L. D. S., Soussana, J. F. & Louault, F. 2012. Habitat filtering and niche differentiation jointly explain species relative abundance within grassland communities along fertility and disturbance gradients. New Phytologist 196, 497–509.Google Scholar
McVicar, T. & Körner, C. 2013. On the use of elevation, altitude, and height in the ecological and climatological literature. Oecologia 171, 335–337.Google Scholar
Muhumuza, M. & Byarugaba, D. 2009. Impact of land use on the ecology of uncultivated plant species in the Rwenzori mountain range, mid western Uganda. African Journal of Ecology 47, 614–621.Google Scholar
Navarro, G., Molina, J. A. & Vega, S. 2011. Soil factors determining the change in forests between dry and wet Chacos. Flora 206, 136–143.Google Scholar
R Core Development Team, 2012. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Sabo, S. R. & Whittaker, R. H. 1979. Bird niches in a subalpine forest: An indirect ordination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 76, 1338–1342.10.1073/pnas.76.3.1338Google Scholar
Šmilauer, P. & Lepš, J. 2014. Multivariate analysis of ecological data using CANOCO 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Suriguga Zhang, J. T., Zhang, B., Cheng, J. J., Zhang, Q. D., Tian, S. G. & Liu, S. J. 2011. Forest community analysis in the Songshan national nature reserve of China using self-organizing map. Russian Journal of Ecology 42, 216–222.Google Scholar
Tews, J., Brose, U., Grimm, V., Tielbörger, K., Wichmann, M., Schwager, M. & Jeltsch, F. 2004. Animal species diversity driven by habitat heterogeneity/diversity: the importance of keystone structures. Journal of Biogeography 31, 79–92.10.1046/j.0305-0270.2003.00994.xGoogle Scholar
Virtanen, R., Luoto, M., Rämä, T., Mikkola, K., Hjort, J., Grytnes, J. A. & Birks, H. J. B. 2010. Recent vegetation changes at the high-latitude tree line ecotone are controlled by geomorphological disturbance, productivity and diversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 19, 810–821.Google Scholar
Willis, C. G., Halina, M., Lehman, C., Reich, P. B., Keen, A., Mccarthy, S. & Cavender-Bares, J. 2010. Phylogenetic community structure in Minnesota oak savanna is influenced by spatial extent and environmental variation. Ecography 33, 565–577.Google Scholar
Wilson, B., Thompson, P. M. & Hammond, P. S. 1997. Habitat use by bottlenose dolphins: seasonal distribution and stratified movement patterns in the Moray Firth, Scotland. Journal of Applied Ecology 34, 1365–1374.Google Scholar
Yang, X. M. & Li, X. P. 1995. The change of animal resources in Pangquangou National Nature Reserve and it's management countermeasures. Biosphere reserves of China 4, 38–41.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. T. 2005. Succession analysis of plant communities in abandoned croplands in the eastern Loess Plateau of China. Journal of Arid Environments 63, 458–474.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. T., Ru, W. M. & Li, B. 2006a. Relationships between vegetation and climate on the Loess Plateau in China. Folia Geobotanica 41, 151–163.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. T., Xi, Y. & Li, J. 2006b. The relationships between environment and plant communities in the middle part of Taihang Mountain Range, North China. Community Ecology 7, 155–163.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. T., Xu, B. & Li, M. 2013. Vegetation patterns and species diversity along elevational and disturbance gradients in the Baihua Mountain Reserve, Beijing, China. Mountain Research and Development 33, 170–178.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. T. & Yang, H. X. 2008. Application of self-organizing neural networks to classification of plant communities in Pangquangou Nature Reserve, North China. Frontiers of Biology in China 3, 512–517.Google Scholar
Zhang, Q. D., Zhang, J. T., Suriguga Zhang, B. & Cheng, J. J. 2010. Life table and spectral analysis of Prince Rupprecht's larch populations in the Pangquangou Nature Reserve. Chinese Journal of Applied & Environmental Biology 16, 1–6.Google Scholar
Zhang, X. P., Wang, M. B., She, B. & Xiao, Y. 2006c. Quantitative classification and ordination of forest communities in Pangquangou National Nature Reserve. Acta Ecologica Sinica 26, 754–761.Google Scholar