环境梯度下蒙古栎群落的物种多样性特征

通过样地法研究了东北地区处于不同经度、纬度和海拔的 13个地点蒙古栎群落的物种丰富度、Gini指数、PIE指数、Shannon指数和 Pielou指数 ,利用相关和回归的统计方法分析了不同地点物种的丰富度指数、Simpson多样性指数和 Shannon多样性指数与各地所处的经度、纬度和海拔的关系。结果发现 :不仅不同地点 (较大尺度 )的物种丰富度和多样性指数均有差异 ,即使在相同的地点 (较小尺度 ) ,物种丰富度及多样性指数也有差异 ,有时还具有很大的差异 ,呈现空间异质性分布的特征 ;因为影响这些多样性指数的环境因子更加复杂 ,不仅受经度、纬度和海拔的影响 ,也受地形、群落的年龄、干扰史等多种生态因子影响。不同地点的物种丰富度与海拔和纬度都具有明显的相关性 (p<0 .0 5 ) ,物种丰富度随海拔和纬度的升高而降低 ,依据显著度的大小可以推测物种丰富度与海拔的相关性比与纬度的相关性更密切 ;蒙古栎群落不同类群的植物种的丰富度具有不同的分布格局 ,木本植物的丰富度与当地纬度具有明显的相关性 (p<0 .0 5 ) ,而与所在地的海拔没有显著的关系 (p>0 .0 5 ) ,而草本植物受海拔的影响更显著 (p<0 .0 5 ) ,而与纬度之间没有显著的关系 (p>0 .0 5 )。群落的 Gini指数、PIE指数、Shannon指数和Pielou指数未发现与海     

The environmental determinants of the insular butterfly faunas of the British Isles

A multiple regression analysis was performed upon selected environmental variables for a series of islands in the British Isles, to establish their effects upon the size of the butterfly fauna, measured as he number of species regularly breeding, S_B .
So that the data be normally distributed, the regression analyses were performed upon log₁₀ transformed data only, with the data for outliers, mainland Britain and Ireland, the two largest islands, excluded.
Most highly correlated with the number of butterfly species breeding upon an island is the number breeding within a 25 km radius of the nearest point of the mainland, r ²=0.5941, followed by the correlations with the latitude of the mid-point of the island, r ²=0.5541, the number of plant species comprising the island Hora, r ²=0.5225, and the distance separating the island from the mainland, r ²=0.4514.
A partial correlation analysis confirms the importance of the parameters distance separating the island from the mainland, D ₁, and the size of the faunal source S _F , and rejects the importance of the size of the flora and the latitude of the island. This is further confirmed by the results of a step-wise regression analysis, the two variables D ₁ and S_F accounting for 66% of the variation of the butterfly fauna.
If an alternative measure of isolation, D ₂, which allows for the geographical clumping of islands, is combined with the variable S_F , then 69% of the variation of the butterfly fauna is accounted for.     

Global patterns of diversity among the specialist birds of riverine landscapes

1. Despite the growing view that biodiversity provides a unifying theme in river ecology, global perspectives on richness in riverine landscapes are limited. As a result, there is little theory or quantitative data on features that might have influenced global patterns in riverine richness, nor are there clear indications of which riverine landscapes are important to conservation at the global scale. As conspicuous elements of the vertebrate fauna of riverine landscapes, we mapped the global distributions of all of the world's specialist riverine birds and assessed their richness in relation to latitude, altitude, primary productivity and geomorphological complexity (surface configuration). 2. Specialist riverine birds, typical of high‐energy riverine landscapes and dependent wholly or partly on production from river ecosystems, occur in 16 families. They are represented by an estimated 60 species divided equally between the passerines and non‐passerines. Major radiation has occurred among different families on different continents, indicating that birds have evolved several times into the niches provided by riverine landscapes. 3. Continental richness varies from four species in Europe to 28 in Asia, with richness on the latter continent disproportionately larger than would be expected from a random distribution with respect to land area. Richness is greatest in mountainous regions at latitudes of 20–40°N in the riverine landscapes of the Himalayan mountains, where 13 species overlap in range. 4. Family, genus and species richness in specialist riverine birds all increase significantly with productivity and surface configuration (i.e. relief). However, family richness was the best single predictor of the numbers of species or genera. In keeping with the effect of surface configuration, river‐bird richness peaks globally at 1300–1400 m altitude, and most species occur typically on small, fast rivers where they feed predominantly on invertebrates. Increased lengths of such streams in areas of high relief and rainfall might have been responsible for species–area effects. 5. We propose the hypothesis that the diversity in channel forms and habitats in riverine landscapes, in addition to high temperature and primary productivity, have been prerequisites to the development of global patterns in the richness of specialist riverine organisms. We advocate tests of this hypothesis in other taxonomic groups. We draw attention, however, to the challenges of categorically defining riverine organisms in such tests because (i) rivers grade into many other habitat types across several different ecotones and (ii) `terrestrialisation' processes in riverine landscapes means that they offer habitat for organisms whose evolutionary origins are not exclusively riverine.     

Does biodiversity increase spatial stability in plant community biomass?

We tested the hypothesis that biodiversity decreases the spatial variability of biomass production between subplots taken within experimental grassland plots. Our findings supported this hypothesis if functional diversity (weighted Rao's Q ) was considered. Further analyses revealed that diversity in rooting depth and clonal growth form were the most important components of functional diversity stabilizing productivity. Using species or functional group richness as diversity measures there was no significant effect on spatial variability of biomass production, demonstrating the importance of the biodiversity component considered. Moreover, we found a significant increase in spatial variability of productivity with decreasing size of harvested area, suggesting small-scale heterogeneity as an important driver. The ability of diverse communities to stabilize biomass production across spatial heterogeneity may be due to complementary use of spatial niches. Nevertheless, the positive effect of functional diversity on spatial stability appears to be less pronounced than previously reported effects on temporal stability.     

SHORT NOTES

Hockey, P.A.R., Plagényi, É.E., Turpie, J.K. &; Phillips, T.E. 1996. Foraging behaviour of Crab Plovers Dromas ardeola at Mida Creek, Kenya. Ostrich 67:33-44.

The foraging behaviour of Crab Plovers is directly analogous to the ‘walk-stop-search-walk’ hunting behaviour of true plovers, and changes slightly depending whether the birds are foraging on sand or in water: they are nonterritorial when foraging. Crabs dominate the diet, but other invertebrates and fish are also eaten. Foraging efficiency increases with age and adults and subadults are able to satisfy their daily energy requirements in a single tidal cycle. The population of Crab Plovers at Mida Creek was much larger in 1994 than in 1992, but in 1994 adults achieved much higher intake rates than in 1992, suggesting considerable year-to-year variation in the carrying capacity of Mida Creek for Crab Plovers. The world population of 43–50 000 birds breeds at very few colonies and the species is thus a potential conservation concern. Because of the relative accessibility of large concentrations of Crab Plovers away from the breeding grounds, we suggest that a programme to monitor numbers and population demography should be targeted at nonbreeding aggregations.     

Erosion of community diversity and stability by herbivore removal under warming

Climate change has the potential to influence the persistence of ecological communities by altering their stability properties. One of the major drivers of community stability is species diversity, which is itself expected to be altered by climate change in many systems. The extent to which climatic effects on community stability may be buffered by the influence of species interactions on diversity is, however, poorly understood because of a paucity of studies incorporating interactions between abiotic and biotic factors. Here, I report results of a 10-year field experiment, the past 7 years of which have focused on effects of ongoing warming and herbivore removal on diversity and stability within the plant community, where competitive species interactions are mediated by exploitation through herbivory. Across the entire plant community, stability increased with diversity, but both stability and diversity were reduced by herbivore removal, warming and their interaction. Within the most species-rich functional group in the community, forbs, warming reduced species diversity, and both warming and herbivore removal reduced the strength of the relationship between diversity and stability. Species interactions, such as exploitation, may thus buffer communities against destabilizing influences of climate change, and intact populations of large herbivores, in particular, may prove important in maintaining and promoting plant community diversity and stability in a changing climate.     

Does predator abundance influence species diversity of equilibrium macroinvertebrate assemblages in spring fens?

1. Predation may significantly control number and density of coexisting species. The effects of predation on species diversity have traditionally been tested in experiments and theoretical models of simple trophic systems. In complex natural ecosystems, however, disentangling multiple sources of variation is difficult. In groundwater-fed environments, a significant effect of predation can be expected due to the relatively stable environmental conditions; however, it has never been properly examined.
2. We analysed species diversity and total abundance of macroinvertebrate assemblages in 48 Western Carpathian spring fens, separately for whole sites and mesohabitat/season, and partitioned the effects of predation intensity from those of environmental variables in robust models using a bootstrapping technique. We verified our results by accounting for taxa resistant to predation.
3. The assumption that predation-mediated coexistence of species is the main mechanism responsible for the relatively species-rich assemblages in the Western Carpathian spring fens was not supported. However, predation may significantly influence abundance of non-predatory species and, under some conditions, it may contribute to explaining patterns in species diversity.
4. The effect of predation did not differ between the mesohabitats with different stability. However, we found higher environmental control in spring and a stronger effect of predators in autumn, which suggests that different mechanisms influence fen assemblages in different seasons.
5. Our study provides a new robust approach how to test the effect of predation on natural macroinvertebrate assemblages. The importance of predation was lower than expected in equilibrium assemblages but it may vary in time.

     

Pattern and process of biotic homogenization in the New Pangaea

Human activities have reorganized the earth''s biota resulting in spatially disparate locales becoming more or less similar in species composition over time through the processes of biotic homogenization and biotic differentiation, respectively. Despite mounting evidence suggesting that this process may be widespread in both aquatic and terrestrial systems, past studies have predominantly focused on single taxonomic groups at a single spatial scale. Furthermore, change in pairwise similarity is itself dependent on two distinct processes, spatial turnover in species composition and changes in gradients of species richness. Most past research has failed to disentangle the effect of these two mechanisms on homogenization patterns. Here, we use recent statistical advances and collate a global database of homogenization studies (20 studies, 50 datasets) to provide the first global investigation of the homogenization process across major faunal and floral groups and elucidate the relative role of changes in species richness and turnover. We found evidence of homogenization (change in similarity ranging from −0.02 to 0.09) across nearly all taxonomic groups, spatial extent and grain sizes. Partitioning of change in pairwise similarity shows that overall change in community similarity is driven by changes in species richness. Our results show that biotic homogenization is truly a global phenomenon and put into question many of the ecological mechanisms invoked in previous studies to explain patterns of homogenization.     

Responses of an old-field plant community to interacting factors of elevated [CO2], warming, and soil moisture

Aims: The direct effects of atmospheric and climatic change factors—atmospheric[CO₂], air temperature and changes in precipitation—canshape plant community composition and alter ecosystem function.It is essential to understand how these factors interact tomake better predictions about how ecosystems may respond tochange. We investigated the direct and interactive effects of[CO₂], warming and altered soil moisture in open-top chambers(OTCs) enclosing a constructed old-field community to test howthese factors shape plant communities. Materials and methods: The experimental facility in Oak Ridge, TN, USA, made use of4-m diameter OTCs and rain shelters to manipulate [CO₂] (ambient,ambient + 300 ppm), air temperature (ambient, ambient + 3.5°C)and soil moisture (wet, dry). The plant communities within thechambers comprised seven common old-field species, includinggrasses, forbs and legumes. We tracked foliar cover for eachspecies and calculated community richness, evenness and diversityfrom 2003 to 2005. Important findings: This work resulted in three main findings: (1) warming had species-specificeffects on foliar cover that varied through time and were alteredby soil moisture treatments; (2) [CO₂] had little effect onindividual species or the community; (3) diversity, evennessand richness were influenced most by soil moisture, primarilyreflecting the response of one dominant species. We concludethat individualistic species responses to atmospheric and climaticchange can alter community composition and that plant populationsand communities should be considered as part of analyses ofterrestrial ecosystem response to climate change. However, predictionof plant community responses may be difficult given interactionsbetween factors and changes in response through time.