The inselberg flora of Atlantic Central Africa. I. Determinants of species assemblages

Aims To identify the relative contributions of environmental determinism, dispersal limitation and historical factors in the spatial structure of the floristic data of inselbergs at the local and regional scales, and to test if the extent of species spatial aggregation is related to dispersal abilities. Location Rain forest inselbergs of Equatorial Guinea, northern Gabon and southern Cameroon (western central Africa). Methods We use phytosociological relevés and herbarium collections obtained from 27 inselbergs using a stratified sampling scheme considering six plant formations. Data analysis focused on Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, Melastomataceae, Poaceae, Commelinaceae, Acanthaceae, Begoniaceae and Pteridophytes. Data were investigated using ordination methods (detrended correspondence analysis, DCA; canonical correspondence analysis, CCA), Sørensen's coefficient of similarity and spatial autocorrelation statistics. Comparisons were made at the local and regional scales using ordinations of life‐form spectra and ordinations of species data. Results At the local scale, the forest‐inselberg ecotone is the main gradient structuring the floristic data. At the regional scale, this is still the main gradient in the ordination of life‐form spectra, but other factors become predominant in analyses of species assemblages. CCA identified three environmental variables explaining a significant part of the variation in floristic data. Spatial autocorrelation analyses showed that both the flora and the environmental factors are spatially autocorrelated: the similarity of species compositions within plant formations decreasing approximately linearly with the logarithm of the spatial distance. The extent of species distribution was correlated with their a priori dispersal abilities as assessed by their diaspore types. Main conclusions At a local scale, species composition is best explained by a continuous cline of edaphic conditions along the forest‐inselberg ecotone, generating a wide array of ecological niches. At a regional scale, these ecological niches are occupied by different species depending on the available local species pool. These subregional species pools probably result from varying environmental conditions, dispersal limitation and the history of past vegetation changes due to climatic fluctuations.     

浙江金华不同城市绿地大型土壤动物群落结构与多样性

2004年10-11月对金华市市区8种城市绿地生境中的大型土壤动物群落进行了调查,共获得大型土壤动物1231只,隶属3门8纲20目。其中优势类群为近孔寡毛目、膜翅目、双尾目和蜘蛛目,常见类群为正蚓目、等足目、柄眼目、鞘翅目、鳞翅目、双翅目和同翅目,其余类群为稀有类群。不同城市绿地生境中的土壤动物的类群组成以及个体数不同。在土壤动物研究中,群落复杂性指数(C)比Shannon-Wiener指数(H′)更能体现群落的复杂性与多样性,且能修正不同类群个体数对多样性的影响。大型土壤动物显示了明显的表聚现象,垂直分布有明显差异,类群数和个体数随深度增加而减少。群落聚类以及排序的结果显示,8种城市绿地生境中的大型土壤动物群落可以分为6大类:草坪类、草地类、新植草坪类、无草本层的人工林类、有草本层的人工林类和灌木林类。     

Naturally Saline Boreal Communities as Models for Reclamation of Saline Oil Sand Tailings

Reclaimed landscapes after oil sands mining have saline soils; yet, they are required to have similar biodiversity and productivity as the predisturbance nonsaline landscape. Given that many species in the boreal forest are not tolerant of salinity, we studied the effects of soil salinity on plant communities in natural saline landscapes to understand potential plant responses during the reclamation process. Vegetation–soil relationships were measured along transects from flooded wetlands to upland forest vegetation in strongly saline, slightly saline, nonsaline, and reclaimed boreal landscapes. In strongly saline landscapes, surface soil salinity was high (>10 dS/m) in flooded, wet‐meadow, and dry‐meadow vegetation zones as compared to slightly saline (<5 dS/m) and nonsaline (<2 dS/m) landscapes. Plant communities in these vegetation zones were quite different from nonsaline boreal landscapes and were dominated by halophytes common to saline habitats of the Great Plains. In the shrub and forest vegetation zones, surface soil salinity was similar between saline and nonsaline landscapes, resulting in similar plant communities. In strongly saline landscapes, soils remained saline at depth through the shrub and forest vegetation zones (>10 dS/m), suggesting that forest vegetation can establish over saline soils as long as the salts are below the rooting zone. The reclaimed landscape was intermediate between slightly saline and nonsaline landscapes in terms of soil salinity but more similar to nonsaline habitats with respect to species composition. Results from this study suggest it may be unrealistic to expect that plant communities similar to those found on the predisturbance landscape can be established on all reclaimed landscapes after oil sands mining.     

北京山区栎林的群落结构与物种组成

在北京东灵山、喇叭沟门和大海陀山地区的辽东栎(Quercus liaotungensis)林以及白龙潭地区的槲树(Q.dentata)-麻栎(Q.acutissima)混交林中共调查了43个样方,利用这些样方资料,对群落进行TWINSPAN聚类和CCA排序,以研究北京地区栎林的群落结构、物种组成以及各群落之间的关系。结果表明：本地区栎林群落结构简单,不同栎林群落的结构差异很大。利用TWINSPAN对乔木层物种进行了分类,按不同指示种划分为7类。CCA排序结果显示第一轴与海拔关系显著,主要反映了温度因子的作用;第二轴与坡向关系显著,反映了水分因子的作用。排序结果与分类结果吻合,显示了不同生境条件对群落结构和物种分布的影响。结果还显示,本地区物种丰富度低,这可能与本地区植被受人为干扰强烈有一定关系。     

新疆南准噶尔荒漠优势植物的化学成分含量特点

南准噶尔荒漠 62种植物 8种元素的含量测定结果显示 ,含量算术平均值的大小顺序为 Na>K>Ca>S>P>Al>Fe>Mn,与阿拉善荒漠植物元素含量的顺序一致。其中 ,Mn、Fe、Al、Na、S的含量变异系数比 P、K和 Ca的大。植物元素含量之间相关分析结果表明 ,Fe与 Al、S与 P、Na与 S呈极显著正相关 ,表明荒漠植物对它们的吸收是协同的 ,而 Fe与 K显著负相关 ,表明植物对它们的吸收具有拮抗作用。聚类分析和排序结果说明不同生态功能群植物都有自身的元素含量特点 ,盐生植物 Na、S含量高 ,沙生植物为高 K低 Na含量功能群植物     

Monitoring change in aquatic invertebrate biodiversity: sample size, faunal elements and analytical methods

Replication is usually regarded as an integral part of biological sampling, yet the cost of extensive within-wetland replication prohibits its use in broad-scale monitoring of trends in aquatic invertebrate biodiversity. In this paper, we report results of testing an alternative protocol, whereby only two samples are collected from a wetland per monitoring event and then analysed using ordination to detect any changes in invertebrate biodiversity over time. Simulated data suggested ordination of combined data from the two samples would detect 20% species turnover and be a cost-effective method of monitoring changes in biodiversity, whereas power analyses showed about 10 samples were required to detect 20% change in species richness using ANOVA. Errors will be higher if years with extreme climatic events (e.g. drought), which often have dramatic short-term effects on invertebrate communities, are included in analyses. We also suggest that protocols for monitoring aquatic invertebrate biodiversity should include microinvertebrates. Almost half the species collected from the wetlands in this study were microinvertebrates and their biodiversity was poorly predicted by macroinvertebrate data.     

分离生态变化中的物种相互作用组分

本文用描述群落的最小剩余码的平均码长L（S）测度群落总复杂性,用Renyi熵测度非组织复杂性,并将它们之差△（S）作为组织复杂性或群落结构复杂性的测度,提出了一个测度群落内种间相互作用的指标,以有关生物群落结构组建的理论及约束典型排序技术;典型对应分析CCA和测余分析RA为基础,发展一种包括环境,空间格局和物种相互作用三方面因素的植物群落数量分析方法,并在种多度数据的变化中分离出这几个方面的变化。     

Interpreting biogeographical boundaries among Afrotropical birds: spatial patterns in richness gradients and species replacement

Aim We analyse the geographical distribution of 1911 Afrotropical bird species using indices of three simple biogeographic patterns. The first index, the frequency of species with range edges (T_e), is formulated to map directly the density of species distribution limits, for comparison with the results of traditional biogeographical classification and ordination procedures, in order to show variations in the strength and breadth of transition zones. The other two indices are formulated to seek to distinguish as directly as possible between two components within these transition-zone patterns: contributions from gradients in species richness (T_g); and contributions from replacements among species (T_r). We test the ability of these indices to discover the same boundaries among Afrotropical bird faunas as one popular procedure for classifying areas (TWINSPAN) and then use them to look for geographical trends in the different kinds of transition zones. Location The analysis is restricted to the sub-Saharan or Afrotropical region, excluding the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar and all offshore islands. Methods We record the presence of each species in 1961 1°×1° grid cells of the map. To apply the three indices, each (core) grid cell in turn is compared with its neighbouring eight cells in the grid. The range edges index (T_e) counts the number of species with range edges between the core cell and the surrounding cells. The richness gradients index (T_g) counts the largest difference in species richness measured diametrically across the core cell in any direction when there is a consistent trend in richness along this line of three cells. The species replacements index (T_r) counts the number of species pairs recorded within a nine-cell neighbourhood that are not corecorded within any of the cells. Values for each of the 1961 grid cells are calculated and used to produce colour-scale maps of transition zones. Results Large-scale spatial patterns of variation in density of range edges (T_e) are consistent with classifications of the same data and with most previous biogeographical classifications proposed for the region. Variation in richness gradients (T_g) and species replacements (T_r) explain different parts of this pattern, with transition zones around humid forests in the equatorial region being dominated by species replacement, and transition zones around deserts (most extensive in the north and south) being dominated by richness gradients. Main conclusions The three indices distinguish the spatial arrangement and intensity of different kinds of transition zones, thereby providing a first step towards a more rigorous mechanistic understanding of the different processes by which they may have arisen and are maintained. As an example of one such pattern shown by our analyses of Afrotropical birds, there is evidence for a broad latitudinal trend in the nature of transition zones in faunal composition (following the latitudinal distribution of the different kinds of habitat transitions), from being dominated by species replacements near the equator to being dominated by richness gradients further from the equator.