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de Tomás Marín S, Galán Díaz J, Rodríguez-Calcerrada J, Prieto I, de la Riva EG. Linking functional composition moments of the sub-Mediterranean ecotone with environmental drivers. Front Plant Sci 2023; 14:1303022. [PMID: 38143583 PMCID: PMC10748396 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1303022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023]
Abstract
Introduction Functional trait-based approaches are extensively applied to the study of mechanisms governing community assembly along environmental gradients. These approaches have been classically based on studying differences in mean values among species, but there is increasing recognition that alternative metrics of trait distributions should be considered to decipher the mechanisms determining community assembly and species coexistence. Under this framework, the main aim of this study is to unravel the effects of environmental conditions as drivers of plant community assembly in sub-Mediterranean ecotones. Methods We set 60 plots in six plant communities of a sub-Mediterranean forest in Central Spain, and measured key above- and belowground functional traits in 411 individuals belonging to 19 species, along with abiotic variables. We calculated community-weighted mean (CWM), skewness (CWS) and kurtosis (CWK) of three plant dimensions, and used maximum likelihood techniques to analyze how variation in these functional community traits was driven by abiotic factors. Additionally, we estimated the relative contribution of intraspecific trait variability and species turnover to variation in CWM. Results and discussion The first three axes of variation of the principal component analyses were related to three main plant ecological dimensions: Leaf Economics Spectrum, Root Economics Spectrum and plant hydraulic architecture, respectively. Type of community was the most important factor determining differences in the functional structure among communities, as compared to the role of abiotic variables. We found strong differences among communities in their CWMs in line with their biogeographic origin (Eurosiberian vs Mediterranean), while differences in CWS and CWK indicate different trends in the functional structure among communities and the coexistence of different functional strategies, respectively. Moreover, changes in functional composition were primarily due to intraspecific variability. Conclusion We observed a high number of strategies in the forest with the different communities spreading along the acquisitive-conservative axis of resource-use, partly matching their Eurosiberian-Mediterranean nature, respectively. Intraspecific trait variability, rather than species turnover, stood as the most relevant factor when analyzing functional changes and assembly patterns among communities. Altogether, our data support the notion that ecotones are ecosystems where relatively minor environmental shifts may result in changes in plant and functional composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio de Tomás Marín
- Department of Ecology, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany
| | - Javier Galán Díaz
- Department of Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Jesús Rodríguez-Calcerrada
- Functioning of Forest Systems in a Changing Environment Research Group, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Iván Prieto
- Ecology Department, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Universidad de León, León, Spain
| | - Enrique G. de la Riva
- Department of Ecology, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany
- Ecology Department, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Universidad de León, León, Spain
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Hu G, Zhang Z, Wu H, Li L. Factors influencing the distribution of woody plants in tropical karst hills, south China. PeerJ 2023; 11:e16331. [PMID: 37908415 PMCID: PMC10615033 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/30/2023] [Indexed: 11/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The seasonal rainforests distributed across the tropical karst hills of south China are of high biodiversity conservation value and serve many important ecosystem functions. However, knowledge surrounding distribution patterns of woody plants in tropical karst hills remains limited. In this study, we surveyed the distribution of families, genera and species of woody flora at four slope positions (depression, lower slope, middle slope, and upper slope), and analyzed the influence of topographic and soil variables on the distribution of woody plants in the tropical karst hills of south China. Forty forest plots (each 20 m × 20 m) contained 306 species of woody plants with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥1 cm, representing 187 genera and 66 families. As slope increased, the number of families increased slowly, and the number of genera and species followed a concave-shaped trend, with the lowest number of genera and species in the lower slope position. Differences in species composition were significantly stronger between slope positions than within slope positions. The topographic and soil variables explained 22.4% and 19.6%, respectively, of the distribution of woody plants, with slope position, slope degree, soil potassium and soil water content as the most significant variables. The results of generalized linear mixed model analysis showed that total R2 of fixed effects on variation of woody species richness was 0.498, and rock outcrop rate and soil total phosphorus were the best fitting effects. Our results help to explain the community assembly mechanism and to inform management and protection strategies for species-rich seasonal rainforests in the karst area.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gang Hu
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, Hainan, China
- Key Laboratory of Wildlife Evolution and Conservation in Mountain Ecosystem of Guangxi, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Nanning Normal University, Nanning, Guangxi, China
| | - Zhonghua Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Wildlife Evolution and Conservation in Mountain Ecosystem of Guangxi, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Nanning Normal University, Nanning, Guangxi, China
| | - Hongping Wu
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, Hainan, China
| | - Lei Li
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, Hainan, China
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Rahman IU, Hart RE, Afzal A, Iqbal Z, Bussmann RW, Ijaz F, Khan MA, Ali H, Rahman SU, Hashem A, Abd-Allah EF, Sher A, Calixto ES. Vegetation-environment interactions: plant species distribution and community assembly in mixed coniferous forests of Northwestern Himalayas. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17228. [PMID: 37821469 PMCID: PMC10567734 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42272-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023] Open
Abstract
One of the main goals of ecological studies is to disentangle the dynamics that underlie the spatiotemporal distribution of biodiversity and further functions of the ecosystem. However, due to many ecological and geopolitical reasons, many remote areas with high plant species diversity have not been assessed using newly based analytical approaches for vegetation characterization. Here, we classified and characterized different vegetation types (i.e., major plant communities) based on indicator species and on the influence of different environmental gradients in the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest, Pakistan. For that, we addressed the following questions: Does the vegetation composition of the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest correlate with climatic, topographic, geographic, and edaphic variables? Is it possible to identify plant communities through indicator species in relation to environmental gradients using multivariate approaches? Can this multivariate be helpful for conservation planning? During four consecutive years we assessed the vegetation composition and environmental variables (21 variables divided in geographic, climatic, topographic, and edaphic groups) of 156 50 m-trasects between an elevation of 2000-4000 m. Using newly based analytical approaches for community characterization, we found a total of 218 plant species clustered into four plant communities with the influence of environmental gradients. The highest index of similarity was recorded between Pinus-Cedrus-Viburnum (PCV) and Viburnum-Pinus-Abies (VPA) communities, and the highest index of dissimilarity was recorded between PCV and Abies-Juniperus-Picea (AJP) communities. Among these four communities, highest number of plant species (156 species) was recorded in PCV, maximum alpha diversity (H' = 3.68) was reported in VPA, highest Simpson index (0.961) and Pielou's evenness (0.862) were reported in VPA and AJP. The edaphic gradients (i.e., organic matter, phosphorous, pH and soil texture) and climatic factors (temperature, humidity) were the strongest environmental gradients that were responsible for structuring and hosting the diverse plant communities in mixed coniferous forest. Finally, the Himalayan mixed coniferous structure is more influenced by the spatial turnover beta-diversity process (βsim) than by the species loss (nestedness-resultant, βsne). Our analysis of the vegetation structure along the environmental gradient in the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest supported by sophisticated analytical approaches reveled indicator species groups, which are associated to specific microclimatic zones (i.e., vegetation communities). Within this focus, we side with the view that these results can support conservation planning and management for similar and different areas providing mitigating and preventive measures to reduce potential negative impacts, such as anthropic and climatic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inayat Ur Rahman
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63166-0299, USA.
- Department of Botany, Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, 27200, KP, Pakistan.
| | - Robbie E Hart
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63166-0299, USA
| | - Aftab Afzal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
| | - Zafar Iqbal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Rainer W Bussmann
- Department of Ethnobotany, Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, 1 Botanical Street, 0105, Tbilisi, Georgia
- Department of Botany, State Museum of Natural History, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Farhana Ijaz
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Muazzam Ali Khan
- Department of Botany, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, 24460, KP, Pakistan
| | - Hamid Ali
- Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, KP, Pakistan
| | - Siddiq Ur Rahman
- Department of Computer Science and Bioinformatics, Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, 27200, KP, Pakistan
| | - Abeer Hashem
- Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460, 11451, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Elsayed Fathi Abd-Allah
- Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, 11451, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ali Sher
- Department of Agriculture, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, KP, Pakistan
| | - Eduardo Soares Calixto
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL), Saint Louis, MO, USA
- Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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Rahman IU, Hart RE, Ijaz F, Afzal A, Iqbal Z, Calixto ES, Abd_Allah EF, Alqarawi AA, Hashem A, Al-Arjani ABF, Kausar R, Haq SM. Environmental variables drive plant species composition and distribution in the moist temperate forests of Northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0260687. [PMID: 35202409 PMCID: PMC8870539 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
By assessing plant species composition and distribution in biodiversity hotspots influenced by environmental gradients, we greatly advance our understanding of the local plant community and how environmental factors are affecting these communities. This is a proxy for determining how climate change influences plant communities in mountainous regions ("space-for-time" substitution). We evaluated plant species composition and distribution, and how and which environmental variables drive the plant communities in moist temperate zone of Manoor valley of Northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan. During four consecutive years (2015-2018), we sampled 30 sampling sites, measuring 21 environmental variables, and recording all plant species present in an altitudinal variable range of 1932-3168 m.a.s.l. We used different multivariate analyses to identify potential plant communities, and to evaluate the relative importance of each environmental variable in the species composition and distribution. Finally, we also evaluated diversity patterns, by comparing diversity indices and beta diversity processes. We found that (i) the moist temperate zone in this region can be divided in four different major plant communities; (ii) each plant community has a specific set of environmental drivers; (iii) there is a significant variation in plant species composition between communities, in which six species contributed most to the plant composition dissimilarity; (iv) there is a significant difference of the four diversity indices between communities; and (v) community structure is twice more influenced by the spatial turnover of species than by the species loss. Overall, we showed that altitudinal gradients offer an important range of different environmental variables, highlighting the existence of micro-climates that drive the structure and composition of plant species in each micro-region. Each plant community along the altitudinal gradient is influenced by a set of environmental variables, which lead to the presence of indicator species in each micro-region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inayat Ur Rahman
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, United States of America
- * E-mail: (IUR); (REH)
| | - Robbie E. Hart
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, United States of America
- * E-mail: (IUR); (REH)
| | - Farhana Ijaz
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Aftab Afzal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Zafar Iqbal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Eduardo S. Calixto
- Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of America
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL), Saint Louis, MO, United States of America
| | - Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah
- Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Abdulaziz A. Alqarawi
- Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Abeer Hashem
- Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | | | - Rukhsana Kausar
- Department of Environmental Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
| | - Shiekh Marifatul Haq
- Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India
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Rahman IU, Afzal A, Iqbal Z, Calixto ES, Alkahtani J, Alwahibi MS, Ali N, Kausar R, Khan U, Bussmann RW. Typology of Pure Deodar Forests Driven by Vegetation–Environment Relations in Manoor Valley, Northwestern Himalaya. Applied Sciences 2022; 12:2753. [DOI: 10.3390/app12052753] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The current research was carried out to characterize the phytosociology of the forests of one of Pakistan’s most valuable tree species (Deodar) across its native range. In this context, our main hypothesis was that, along the altitudinal gradient, we would find different plant communities that would be driven by different environmental variables (climatic, edaphic, and physiographic). Therefore, to assess the vegetation structure of the pure Deodar forests of the unexplored Manoor Valley (Northwestern Himalaya), Pakistan, frequent field visits were carried out during different seasons of 2015–2018. Ecological methods: Line transects sampling (23 stands) and phytosociological attributes were evaluated in relation to geographical and environmental variables. Various statistical software applications (i.e., PCORD, RStudio 4.0, and R 3.6.1) were used to examine all of the gathered data of plant species and environmental variables. A total of three different plant communities (Cedrus–Isodon–Cynodon, Cedrus–Cynodon–Dryopteris, and Sambucus–Cedrus–Desmodium) were identified by grouping 162 species and 23 stands in pure Deodar forests under the influence of geographic, slope, edaphic, and climatic variables, ranging from 1580.8 to 2373.8 m. The altitude (1936–2373 m), slope angle (25–85°), sandy (29–48%) and loamy soil texture, wind speed (1.45 ms−1), and temperature (25.8 °C) all had a strong influence on the Sambucus–Cedrus–Desmodium community. In contrast with this, the Cedrus–Cynodon–Dryopteris community showed a positively significant relationship with the northeastern slope, silty (32–58%) and sandy (15.8–55%) loamy soil texture, and barometric pressure (814.3 pa). Nonetheless, the Cedrus–Isodon–Cynodon community revealed a significant positive association with the northeastern to southwestern slope, pH (6.3), wet bulb (19.7), and dew point (17.7). We found significant differences (p < 0.001) among the three communities found in the pure Deodar forests in the four diversity indexes. The Sambucus–Cedrus–Desmodium community has the maximum number of plants (129 species), Shannon’s diversity (H’ = 3.7), and Simpson’s dominance (0.98) values among the recorded communities. The Pielou’s evenness index value was led by the Cedrus–Isodon–Cynodon community (0.97). Beta diversity showed a dissimilarity lower than 50% among the three communities. Simple term effects in the canonical correspondence analysis model revealed significant (p < 0.05) differences in altitude, slope angle, slope (southeastern), and wind speed variables. The present investigation sheds light on vegetation pattern and species contribution as a function of environmental gradients and provides a baseline for future studies.
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Rahman IU, Afzal A, Iqbal Z, Alzain MN, Al-Arjani ABF, Alqarawi AA, Abd_Allah EF, Ali N, Sakhi S, Khan MA, Khan U, Ijaz F, Mumtaz S, Calixto ES. Classification and Characterization of the Manoor Valley's (Lesser Himalaya) Vegetation from the Subtropical-Temperate Ecotonal Forests to the Alpine Pastures along Ecological Variables. Plants (Basel) 2021; 11:plants11010087. [PMID: 35009089 PMCID: PMC8747448 DOI: 10.3390/plants11010087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Revised: 11/28/2021] [Accepted: 11/29/2021] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Plant species are distributed in different types of habitats, forming different communities driven by different sets of environmental variables. Here, we assessed potential plant communities along an altitudinal gradient and their associations with different environmental drivers in the unexplored Manoor Valley (Lesser Himalaya), Pakistan. We have implemented various ecological techniques and evaluated phytosociological attributes in three randomly selected 50 m-transects within each stand (a total of 133) during different seasons for four years (2015-2018). This phytosociological exploration reported 354 plant species representing 93 different families. The results revealed that the Therophytic life form class dominated the flora, whereas Nanophyll dominated the leaf size spectra. There were a total of twelve plant communities identified, ranging from the lowest elevations to the alpine meadows and cold deserts. The maximum number of species were found in Cedrus-Pinus-Parrotiopsis community (197 species), in the middle altitudinal ranges (2292-3168 m). Our results showed that at high altitudes, species richness was reduced, whereas an increase in soil nutrients was linked to progression in vegetation indicators. We also found different clusters of species with similar habitats. Our study clearly shows how altitudinal variables can cluster different plant communities according to different microclimates. Studies such as ours are paramount to better understanding how environmental factors influence ecological and evolutionary aspects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inayat Ur Rahman
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21300, Pakistan; (Z.I.); (N.A.); (M.A.K.); (U.K.)
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
- Correspondence: (I.U.R.); (A.A.); (F.I.)
| | - Aftab Afzal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21300, Pakistan; (Z.I.); (N.A.); (M.A.K.); (U.K.)
- Correspondence: (I.U.R.); (A.A.); (F.I.)
| | - Zafar Iqbal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21300, Pakistan; (Z.I.); (N.A.); (M.A.K.); (U.K.)
| | - Mashail Nasser Alzain
- Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;
| | - Al-Bandari Fahad Al-Arjani
- Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;
| | - Abdulaziz A. Alqarawi
- Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia; (A.A.A.); (E.F.A.)
| | - Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah
- Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia; (A.A.A.); (E.F.A.)
| | - Niaz Ali
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21300, Pakistan; (Z.I.); (N.A.); (M.A.K.); (U.K.)
| | - Shazia Sakhi
- Center of Plant Sciences and Biodiversity, University of Swat, Swat 19200, Pakistan;
| | - Muhammad Azhar Khan
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21300, Pakistan; (Z.I.); (N.A.); (M.A.K.); (U.K.)
| | - Uzma Khan
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21300, Pakistan; (Z.I.); (N.A.); (M.A.K.); (U.K.)
| | - Farhana Ijaz
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra 21300, Pakistan; (Z.I.); (N.A.); (M.A.K.); (U.K.)
- Correspondence: (I.U.R.); (A.A.); (F.I.)
| | - Samina Mumtaz
- Department of Animal Sciences, Karakoram International University, Gilgit-Baltistan 15100, Pakistan;
| | - Eduardo Soares Calixto
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO 63166, USA;
- Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
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