Cover distributions of vascular plants in relation to soil chemistry and soil depth in a granite rock ecosystem

The variability in the cover distribution of vascular plants, accounted for by soil chemical properties and soil depth, on a granite slope with shallow autochtonous soil in southeast Sweden was evaluated using multivariate statistical regression and graphical methods. Soil acidity and soil depth were, to an often high degree, able to account for the variability in the distributions of the ca. 30 most frequent species, including Rumex acetosella, Vincetoxicum hirundinaria, Filipendula vulgaris, Satureja acinos, Geranium columbinum, Silene rupestris, and Arenaria serpyllifolia. The best expression of soil acidity was pH-KCl, though exchangeable Ca and Al were also important measures of the soil-plant relationships. The Ca:Al ratio was inferior in this respect. Also exchangeable or acid soluble phosphate was significantly related to the distribution of several species, whereas soil organic matter content was almost unrelated.     

Field observed relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning during secondary succession in a tropical lowland rainforest

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) is one of the most concerned topics in ecology. However, most of the studies have been conducted in controlled experiments in grasslands, few observational field studies have been carried out in forests. In this paper, we report variations of species diversity, functional diversity and aboveground biomass (AGB) for woody plants (trees and shrubs) along a chronosequence of four successional stages (18-year-old fallow, 30-year-old fallow, 60-year-old fallow, and old-growth forest) in a tropical lowland rainforest recovered after shifting cultivation on Hainan Island, China. Fifty randomly selected sample plots of 20 m × 20 m were investigated in each of the four successional stages. Four functional traits (specific leaf area, wood density, maximum species height and leaf dry matter content) were measured for each woody plants species and the relationships between species/functional diversity and AGB during secondary succession were explored. The results showed that both plant diversity and AGB recovered gradually with the secondary succession. AGB was positively correlated with both species and functional diversity in each stage of succession. Consistent with many controlled experimental results in grasslands, our observational field study confirms that ecosystem functioning is closely related to biodiversity during secondary succession in species rich tropical forests.     

Spatial patterns in seed bank and vegetation of semi-natural mountain meadows

Soil seed bank composition and vegetative spatial patterns were studied in four mountain meadow communities in the Broto Valley (N. Spain), in order to analyse the differences that might exists between the two life forms. Soil and vegetation samples were taken at 1 m intervals from 10 m × 10 m quadrats in each meadow in one-year study. The spatial distribution of species was analysed along with the calculation of an autocorrelation coefficient which takes account of the relative position of samples: (Moran’s I). The results indicate that the abundance of the majority of the species in the seed bank and in the vegetation are randomly distributed, the percentage of species with a clumped distribution only exceeds 35% in the vegetation of one meadow and none of the taxa identified showed a uniform spatial organisation. The species that were distributed in the seed bank in a clumped pattern in more than one meadow were those of the pioneer species (Anagallis arvensis, Centaurium erythraea, Lamium purpureum and Stellaria media). All of these formed long-term persistent seed banks but were absent in the established vegetation in these meadows. According to the results, there exist not only differences between the spatial distribution of the species present in the same community, but also, that some species change their pattern of distribution according to the life form and to the grassland type in which they are found.     

Soil seed bank and species turnover in a limestone grassland

Abstract. The vegetation and soil seed bank in a limestone grassland in southern Sweden were studied in permanent 1-m² subplots which had been either grazed or not grazed for 17 yr. Of the 92 species recorded, 18 were present only in the seed bank, 28 were more frequent and 24 were less frequent in the seed bank than in the vegetation and 22 were not detected in the seed bank. Among the species present in the seed bank, therophytes were over-represented. Species turnover in the vegetation was estimated from presence/absence data collected in 1980, 1986 and 1990. Turnover was high, but there were no differences between grazed and ungrazed subplots. The turnover for individual species was also high in many cases. There was no clear relationship between the turnover of a species and its presence in the persistent seed bank.     

新疆阜康绿洲荒漠过渡带植物群落物种多样性与土壤环境因子的耦合关系

对新疆阜康绿洲荒漠过渡带植物群落4个物种多样性指数和3层土壤19个指标进行回归分析,结果表明,土壤酸碱度,全盐量,Cl^-,K^ Na^ ,Mg^2 ,土壤有机质,全N和速效P与物种多样性有显著相关关系（P＜0．05）。酸碱度和有机质与多样性的最好拟合为二项式,即高的物种多样性出现在梯度中间位置。其余6个指标与物种多样性为显著线形负相关关系。表明全盐量,Cl^-,K^ Na^ ,Mg^2 含量越多,物种多样性越小,全N和速效P与均匀度均呈显著负相关,表明全N和速效P含量上升,均匀度显著下降,植物个体数与土壤水盐的回归分析表明,植物多度受土壤水分和盐分影响显著（P＜0．01）。     

Disturbance effects on herbaceous layer vegetation and soil nutrients in Populus forests of northern lower Michigan

Abstract. Recent disturbance models have identified changes in resource availability as factors that control plant community response. Soil nutrient resources typically are assumed to change following forest disturbance, usually with nutrient availablity increasing initially and subsequently decreasing through later stages of succession. We examined the effects of disturbance (clearcut harvesting with a brief recovery period) on soil organic matter, pH and extractable soil nutrients in successional aspen forests of northern lower Michigan to determine relationships of these variables to changes in herbaceous layer vegetation. Two site types were identified: drymesic (glacial outwash sands, low in organic matter) and mesic (calcareous clay till, high in organic matter). Extractable nutrient concentrations were 1.5 to 3 times higher in the A₁ horizon of mesic sites than those of dry-mesic sites. Soil pH and cations increased after disturbance on mesic sites, but not on dry-mesic sites. Patterns of change with disturbance were less pronounced in lower horizons on both site types. Herblayer species diversity increased after disturbance on mesic sites, but with decreases in the importance of shade-tolerant tree species and Maianthemum canadense. Species characteristic of open habitats (e.g. Pteridium aquilinum, Rubus spp., Fragaria virginiana, and Diervilla lonicera), increased in importance. Soil factors, species composition and diversity on dry-mesic sites changed little after disturbance, with Pteridium aquilinum and ericaceous species remaining dominant in both mature (55–82 yr) and disturbed (≤ 15 yr) stands. These results suggest that soil nutrient resources do not always change through secondary succession and that patterns of change can be distinctly site-dependent. Disturbance response patterns in the herbaceous layer of these aspen forests are also site-dependent.     

半荒漠藻结皮中藻类的种类组成和分布

对宁夏沙坡头半荒漠藻结皮中22种藻(其中蓝藻10种,绿藻4种,硅藻6种,裸藻2种)进行了分离、鉴定;利用土壤磨片和电子探针揭示了藻体与基质间的结合方式;通过光镜、扫描电镜观察,从8个层次研究了藻类在结皮中的分布,并发现它们在微米间也呈"层片"分布规律,藻结皮由表及里依次为无机矿物质保护层(ca.0.02mm)、富藻层(ca.0.02～2.5mm)及疏藻层(2.5～5.0mm);藻丝通过胶鞘中多糖、蛋白质与粘土矿物质直接结合,或直接伸入矿物质内而网络、粘结着砂粒和土粒.     

Microhabitat differentiation in Chiuhuahuan Desert plant communities

The effects of microhabitat differentiation on small-scale plant community structure in the Chiuhuahuan Desert were studied using multivariate analysis. The results showed that microhabitats (i.e., kangaroo rat mounds, ant mounds, shrubs, half-shrubs, and open areas) played a critical role in structuring small-scale plant community structure and maintaining species diversity. Annual plants were much more sensitvive to the presence of differentiated microhabitats than perennials and winter annuals exhibited stronger microhabitat perferences than summer annuals. Species diversity was highest on ant mounds while open areas supported the lowest diversity during both winter and summer. Biomass was highest in the shrub habitats followed by kangaroo rat mounds, ant mounds, half-shrubs, and open areas. Much of the diversity of these plants could be explained by the individualistic responses of species to the biotic effect of other plants or to disturbance by animals, or individualistic responses of species to differences in microenvironments.     

物种多样性与人工生态系统稳定性探讨

通过40余年对人工群落的长期研究,探讨了一层一种的传统橡胶及茶树种植园,两层两种的橡胶-茶叶、橡胶-咖啡人工群落,三层三种的橡胶-萝芙木-千年健人工群落以及多层多种(5个层次100余种经济植物)的人工雨林的不同结构．从生物量、生产力及经济生产力,对群落环境(小气候、土壤等)的保护及改善能力和对自然灾害(如寒害、风害等)的抵抗力3个方面,比较了单一结构与复合结构在3个系统功能上的差异．结果表明,随着种类增加,层次复杂加大,系统在生物量及生产力上均有明显增加;小气候中随着结构的复杂化加大,相对湿度也随着增加,最高温度降低,最低温度升高,风速减少,土壤流失明显减少,对低温风害的抵抗力加强,表明人工生态系统结构明显影响了系统稳定性．     

Bird Community Changes in Response to Single and Repeated Fires in a Lowland Tropical Rainforest of Eastern Borneo

Our current understanding of bird community responses to tropical forest fires is limited and strongly geographically biased towards South America. Here we used the circular plot method to carry out complete bird inventories in undisturbed, once burned (1998) and twice burned forests (1983 and 1998) in East Kalimantan (Indonesia). Additionally, environmental variables were measured within a 25 m radius of each plot. Three years after fire the number of birds and bird species were similar for undisturbed and burned forests, but species diversity and turnover were significantly lower in the burned forests. The bird species composition also differed significantly between undisturbed and burned forests, with a strong decline of closed forest preferring bird species accompanied by a strong increase in degraded forest preferring species in burned forests. These differences were strongly related to differences in environmental conditions such as shifts in vegetation cover and layering and differences in ground and understorey vegetation structure. We also found significant shifts in body mass distribution, foraging height and feeding guilds between the bird communities in unburned and burned forests. Surprisingly, repeated burning did not lead to increasing impoverishment of the avifauna, and both once and twice burned forests still contained most of the bird species that were also present in undisturbed forest, even though their densities were considerably lowered.     

阿拉善干旱荒漠区不同植被类型土壤种子库研究

[1]兰州大学草地农业科技学院,兰州730020 [2]甘肃草原生态研究所,兰州730020 [3]内蒙古阿拉善盟草原站,巴彦浩特750360     

Community composition and tree population structure in a sub-tropical broad-leaved forest along a disturbance gradient

Floristic composition, diversity, dominance and distribution pattern of species and tree population structure were studied in three stands of a sub-tropical wet hill broad-leaved forest of Meghalaya, India, along a disturbance gradient. Tree species diversity declined with increasing disturbance. Disturbed stands showed low equitability or high dominance and the undisturbed stand exhibited high equitability or low dominance. Contagious distribution among the tree species increased with increasing intensity of disturbance. Species showing regular distribution were restricted only to the undisturbed stand. Effect of disturbance on tree population structure was analysed using density-diameter curves. In the disturbed stands tree species showed reverse J-shaped and/or negative exponential curves, while those in the undisturbed stand exhibited sigmoid to bimodal mound shaped curves.     

Impact of pocket gopher disturbance on plant species diversity in a shortgrass prairie community

Summary We examined the impact of pocket gopher disturbances on the dynamics of a shortgrass prairie community. Through their burrowing activity, pocket gophers (Thomomys bottae) cast up mounds of soil which both kill existing vegetation and create sites for colonization by competitively-inferior plant species. Three major patterns emerge from these disturbances: First, we show that 10 of the most common herbaceous perennial dicots benefit from pocket gopher disturbance; that is, a greater proportion of seedlings are found in the open space created by pocket gopher disturbance than would be expected based on the availability of disturbed habitat. Additionally, these seedlings exhibited higher growth rates than adjacent seedlings of the same species growing in undisturbed habitat. Second, we tested two predictions of the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis and found that species diversity was greatest for plots characterized by disturbances of intermediate age. However, we did not detect significant differences in diversity between plots characterized by intermediate and high levels of disturbance, indicating that many species are adapted to or at least tolerant of high levels of disturbance. Third, we noted that the abundance of grasses decreased with increasing disturbance, while the abundance of dicots increased with increasing disturbance.     

Inferring relationships between native plant diversity and Lonicera japonica in upland forests in north Mississippi,USA

Question: Do anthropogenic disturbances interact with local environmental factors to increase the abundance and frequency of invasive species, which in turn exerts a negative effect on native biodiversity? Location: Mature Quercus‐Carya and Quercus‐Carya‐Pinus (oak‐hickory‐pine) forests in north Mississippi, USA. Methods: We used partial correlation and factor analysis to investigate relationships between native ground cover plant species richness and composition, percent cover of Lonicera japonica, and local and landscape‐level environmental variables and disturbance patterns in mature upland forests. We directly measured vegetation and environmental variables within 34 sampling subplots and quantified the amount of tree cover surrounding our plots using digital color aerial photography. Results: Simple bivariate correlations revealed that high species richness and a high proportion of herbs were associated with low Lonicera japonica cover, moist and sandy uncompacted soils, low disturbance in the surrounding landscape, and periodic prescribed burning. Partial correlations and factor analysis showed that once we accounted for the environmental factors, L japonica cover was the least important predictor of composition and among the least important predictors of species richness. Hence, much of the negative correlation between native species diversity and this invasive species was explained by soil texture and local and landscape‐level land‐use practices. Conclusions: We conclude that negative correlations between the abundance of invasive species and native plant diversity can occur in landscapes with a gradient of human disturbance, regardless of whether there is any negative effect of invasive species on native species.     

Plant species diversity and ecological districts of the Sinai desert

Summary Lists of vascular plant species for each of the 12 ecological districts of Sinai were prepared. In all 78,000 observations on altogether 812 species were analyzed. The number of districts where each species occurred was also counted. Linear regressions were calculated for the log-transformed values of species/area, species/altitude and multiple regression of species on both area and altitude.The regression of species on area for the 12 ecological districts of Sinai gave the equation: log S = 1.0309+0.3 log A The value of z=0.3 is higher than 0.222—the measured overall value for the continents and higher than the values for the Sahara, California mainland, the British Isles, and the Netherlands. However, it is lower than the values for the Galápagos Archipelago and the California Islands.The number of species supported in districts characterized by fissured limestone, gravel plains, chalk, marl, sandstones, sands or fissured magmatic and metamorphic rocks is close to the regression of species on area, whereas large outcrops of smooth-faced rocks are relatively richer in total number of species as well as in stenotople species.It is suggested that the high gamma diversity of Sinai as compared with other parts of the world is primarily due to its environmental heterogeneity. Sinai being a meeting place of three phytogeographical regions and to past climatic changes. The effect of smooth-faced rock outcrops as conducive to providing refugia must also be taken into account.This work is based on a comprehensive study of the vegetation of Sinai directed by Prof. G. Orshan, with the collaboration of Dr. A. Shmida, the present author and the late Prof. N.H. Tadmor and Dr. G. Halevy.     

Scale dependence in desert plant diversity

The relationship between the number of species and the area sampled is one of the oldest and best-documented patterns in community ecology. An equation of the form S = cA ^z describing more precisely the species–area relation for plant species in smaller area is proposed as a result of intensive examination of species presence. Several study and field data from a wild range of plant and animal taxa suggest that the slope, z, of a graph of the logarithm of species richness against the logarithm of area is not a constant to the grassland or woodland community. We collected replicated and randomized plant data at 6 spatial scales from 1 m² to 1 km² in the desert region of northwest China to identify the scale dependence in desert plant biodiversity. The results showed that the slope of the log–log plot varied systematically with spatial scale. The value of z was high (0.37) at small scales from 1 to 10 m² and it decreased with increased spatial scale subsequently. When spatial scales varied from 1 m² to 1 km², the value of z varied from 0.37 to 0.035, suggesting that desert plant diversity has strongly scale-dependence at the small scales (less than 100 m²). The result is different from the research of grassland and woodland communities.     

种、种的多样性及退化生态系统功能的恢复和维持研究

物种多样性是生态系统的重要特征并维持系统的功能支行,生物种和不同种类构成的群落为人类提供诸如营养物质循环、生物生产力、营养功能等形式的重要生态服务,特种多样性与生态系统抵御逆境和干扰的能力紧密相关,多样性的提高会增加系统的稳定性,与单个种和种类的数量相比,功能群和功能多样性对生态系统功能的影响效应要大得多,且易于被用来测度稳定性和预测群落变化,本文提出并探讨了种对生态系统功能作用的几种形式,理解物种多样性与生态系统的功能关系能指导退化生态系统恢复和维持其功能的实践活动,尤其为恢复的初始阶段进行群落的“种类组装”提供生态理论基础。     

Species richness, diversity and biomass production of desert annuals in an ungrazed Rhanterium epapposum community over three growth seasons in Kuwait

Two blocks, each consisting of twelve 0.25 m²permanent plots, were established in a community dominated by desert annuals inan area of Kuwait protected from grazing, and community attributes wereinvestigated over three growth seasons. A linear relationship was found betweenestimated desert annual cover and biomass production. Species frequency wasassessed by the number of 100 cm² subplots occupied byaspecies in a block (block incidence). Over the three seasons,vegetation features varied considerably. The first season (spring 1997) wascharacterised by very sparse vegetation cover, low vegetation block incidence(sum of individual block incidences of each species present in a block) and lowspecies richness. The second season (spring 1998) had high vegetation cover,relatively low vegetation block incidence, but high species richness. In thethird season (spring 2000), vegetation cover was very sparse (as in 1997), butboth blocks had the highest vegetation block incidence of the three years andspecies richness was moderately high, although individual plants were verysmall. The growth period was much shorter in the very productive andspecies-rich 1998 season than in 2000. Fluctuations in biomass and speciesincidence coincided with pronounced variation in key meteorological variables,in particular the onset of the first rains, the amount of rainfall during thegrowing season and its temporal distribution. Species composition, however,appears mainly to be determined by the amount and possibly the timing of thefirst rainfalls of the season to trigger germination. There was little evidenceto suggest that particularly favourable or unfavourable microsites existed inplots for more than one vegetation period, either for individual species or fordiversity in general. Despite substantial between-season fluctuations inincidence, the relative abundances of the more frequent species to each otherremained broadly similar over the three seasons, with Plantagoboissieri being the predominant species and accounting for thelargest proportion of biomass.     

Soil seed banks and post-fire seed deposition across a forest - fynbos ecotone in the Cape Province

Abstract. The relative sizes and composition of soil seed banks, the influence of fire and the post-fire deposition of seeds were investigated in a riparian forest and adjacent fynbos and transitional vegetation in Swartboskloof. Brief complementary studies of soil seed banks were conducted in poorly-developed forest and scree forest soils. Numbers of species in each vegetation type were very similar, but there were fewer seeds in riparian forest soil than in the transitional and fynbos zones. These patterns were not repeated in poorly-developed forest and scree forest. No effects of fire on soil seed banks were detected. Forest soil had relatively large numbers of seeds stored at 10 to 15 cm deep, with many zoochorous and few myr-mecochorous seeds. Anemochorous and ornithochorous seeds of forest species formed a major component of seed deposition within the transitional and fynbos zones in the first year after fire. The numbers of anemochorous forest seeds in the fynbos declined with distance from the forest edge. The deposition of ornithochorous forest seeds was less closely related to distance from the source, and was not exclusively associated with the presence of tall or fruit-bearing shrubs. Regeneration after canopy-destroying disturbance in the forest is likely to emanate from the soil seed banks of pioneer species which now or previously occurred on forest margins. Seed availability does not appear to limit colonization of fynbos by forest species soon after fire.