Acridids as indicators of disturbance in dry deciduous forest of West Bengal in India

Acridid communities are sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance and the community structure of acridids plays vital role in functioning the forest ecosystem. They are potentially useful bioindicators for conservation planning and habitat disturbances. Acridid assemblages of three different habitat types based on degree of disturbance as follows five natural sites, five moderately disturbed sites and five highly disturbed sites in Chaupahari forest, West Bengal, India were studied. Diversity, abundance, equitability and species richness of acridid were observed in respect to undisturbed and disturbed habitats. The species richness and diversity of the sites tracked the intensity of disturbance, the greatest value being associated with the natural site followed by the moderately disturbed site and highly disturbed site. The highest species richness and diversity index indicate the suitable habitat for acridid population. Statistical analysis infers that different species show different behavior and the sites are also different in relation to different habitat types.     

Grazing and the vanishing complexity of plant association networks in grasslands

Interactions are key drivers of the functioning and fate of plant communities. A traditional way to measure them is to use pairwise experiments, but such experiments do not scale up to species-rich communities. For those, using association networks based on spatial patterns may provide a more realistic approach. While this method has been successful in abiotically-stressed environments (alpine and arid ecosystems), it is unclear how well it generalizes to other types of environments. We help fill this knowledge gap by documenting how the structure of plant communities changes in a Mediterranean dry grassland grazed by sheep using plant spatial association networks. We investigated how the structure of these networks changed with grazing intensity to show the effect of biotic disturbance on community structure. We found that these grazed grassland communities were mostly dominated by negative associations, suggesting a dominance of interference over facilitation regardless of the disturbance level. The topology of the networks revealed that the number of associations were not evenly-distributed across species, but rather that a small subset of species established most negative associations under low grazing conditions. All these aspects of spatial organization vanished under high level of grazing as association networks became more similar to null expectations. Our study shows that grazed herbaceous plant communities display a highly non-random organization that responds strongly to disturbance and can be measured through association networks. This approach thus appears insightful to test general hypotheses about plant communities, and in particular understand how anthropogenic perturbations affect the organization of ecological communities.     

Community structure and positive interactions in constraining environments

Spatial patterns in plant communities are thought to be controlled by the interplay of species interactions and environmental constraints. To evaluate the role of plant–plant interactions in shaping these communities we quantified species co-occurrence and interaction in seven environmentally distinct communities. These included four different semiarid habitats in southeast Spain, one alpine system in the Sierra Nevada range (Spain), and two sites in Venezuela, a secondary savanna near Caracas (Altos de Pipe), and a sclerophyllous shrubland in the Gran Sabana plateau. We expected that facilitation would be stronger at sites with more spatial associations. The four semiarid sites in Spain and the shrubland in Gran Sabana showed a high degree of positive species associations. Of the other two communities, one showed both positive and negative associations while negative ones predominated in Altos de Pipe. The direct experimental measure of neighbors' effect showed that positive interactions among species prevailed in communities where positive species associations dominated. The appearance of benefactor species in patches increased species richness compared with the surrounding inter-shrub spaces. Our results provide a link between spatial patterns and species interactions, where aggregation points to positive interactions and segregation to competitive or interference effects. Facilitation appears as a relevant process shaping communities under environmental constraints.     

大兴安岭沟谷冻土湿地植物群落分类、物种多样性和物种分布梯度

应用双向指示种分析法（TWINSPAN）和除趋势对应分析法（DCA）,对大兴安岭不同纬度的12个沟谷的冻土湿地植物群落之间的物种多样性和物种分布的环境梯度变化进行了分析．结果表明：研究区12个沟谷冻土湿地样地可划分为4个群丛组,分别位于不同的纬度范围;TWINSPAN的分类结果很好地反映了研究区沟谷冻土湿地植物群丛组的分布与纬度的关系,并在DCA二维排序图上得到了较好的验证．随着纬度的减小以及年均气温、年均降水量、1月平均气温和干燥度的增加,群落的物种多样性逐渐增大．研究区沟谷冻土湿地植物群落的灌木层和草本层的优势种和共优种多为适应湿地环境的沼生和湿生植物,随着纬度的减小,喜冷湿环境的沼生和湿生植物种类逐渐减少,甚至消失,而耐旱的中生植物的比重则逐渐加大.     

宁夏沙湖4种干旱区群落中主要植物种间关系的格局分析

格局分析是研究群落结构、种群特征、种内种间关系以及生物与环境间相互作用的重要手段。应用Ripley’s K函数的双变量点格局分析技术, 对宁夏沙湖4种干旱区群落中主要植物种间的空间关联关系进行了研究; 同时, 根据关联物种间相对位置的规则性, 基于Ripley’s K函数, 提出一种用于检测种间格局控制关系的技术方法。研究结果表明: 1) 沙枣(Elaeagnus angustifolia)-芨芨草(Achnatherum splendens)、芨芨草-苦豆子(Sophora alopecuroides)、白刺(Nitraria tangutorum)-芨芨草3个群落中, 主要物种间在个体大小、根系特点和生态习性等方面存在较大的差异, 并分别在一定的尺度范围内存在正关联关系; 而在物种生态需求和形态大小等方面相对一致的红砂(Reaumuria soongorica)-盐爪爪(Kalidium foliatum)群落中, 红砂和盐爪爪之间在整个观测尺度内(0~15 m)存在负关联关系。2) 格局控制分析表明, 在主要物种间存在空间正关联关系的3个群落中, 均检测出主要物种间在一定尺度范围内存在格局控制关系, 其中格局控制种一般个体较大、生境改造能力较强; 而在主要物种生活型相似的红砂-盐爪爪群落中, 未检测到主要物种间的格局控制关系。     

Relating belowground microbial composition to the taxonomic,phylogenetic, and functional trait distributions of trees in a tropical forest

The complexities of the relationships between plant and soil microbial communities remain unresolved. We determined the associations between plant aboveground and belowground (root) distributions and the communities of soil fungi and bacteria found across a diverse tropical forest plot. Soil microbial community composition was correlated with the taxonomic and phylogenetic structure of the aboveground plant assemblages even after controlling for differences in soil characteristics, but these relationships were stronger for fungi than for bacteria. In contrast to expectations, the species composition of roots in our soil core samples was a poor predictor of microbial community composition perhaps due to the patchy, ephemeral, and highly overlapping nature of fine root distributions. Our ability to predict soil microbial composition was not improved by incorporating information on plant functional traits suggesting that the most commonly measured plant traits are not particularly useful for predicting the plot‐level variability in belowground microbial communities.     

Patterns of species associations in woody plants in forest communities of Putuoshan Island,Zhejiang, China

Aims Interspecific associations can reflect how species are assembled into communities. The objectives of this study were to examine the patterns of woody species co-occurrence and to determine how species’ abundance would affect species associations. Methods Data from a total of 23 plots were used to test the interspecific associations of 93 woody plant species in forest communities of Putuoshan Island in Zhejiang Province. We compared the observed species associations with the expected patterns at random, and correlated interspecific association intensities with co-dominance propensity of species pairs. Important findings Species distribution co-varied among plots at the spatial scale of either 10 m × 10 m or 20 m × 20 m, but the majority of the 4 278 species pairs were not significantly associated. Interspecific association intensities were positively correlated with co-dominance propensity of species pairs, indicating that species abundance is a key factor affecting the interspecific co-occurrence. The observed values of variance ratio and the proportion of significantly associated species pairs consistently fell outside of the 2.5th-97.5th percentiles of random expectations (i.e. randomly permuting species across plots), suggesting that deterministic processes also play a role in species associations on the Putuoshan Island. We conclude that the pattern of woody species co-occurrence on Putuoshan Island are structured by both niche and stochastic processes.     

民勤绿洲荒漠过渡带植物群落数量分类和排序研究

绿洲-荒漠过渡带作为绿洲与荒漠的连接区域,在干旱区生态环境退化与恢复研究中具有重要意义。该研究以民勤绿洲荒漠过渡带为例,在47个植物群落调查样地的基础上,应用双向指示种分类法(TWINSPAN)和除趋势对应分析法(DCA)对研究区典型植物群落进行数量分类和排序,并讨论了影响植物群落类型及空间分布的环境因子。结果表明:(1)研究区植物群落结构简单,植物种以旱生耐盐植物为主。(2)TWINSPAN分类将研究区的植物群落划分为11个群丛类型,即白刺+盐生草群丛、白刺+芦苇群丛、白刺+盐爪爪群丛、盐爪爪+黑果枸杞群丛等,分类结果在空间上反映了民勤绿洲荒漠过渡带植物群落的演替变化趋势。(3)DCA排序结果验证了TWINSPAN分类结果的合理性,同时指出制约民勤绿洲荒漠过渡带植物群落类型及空间分布的重要环境因子是地下水埋深和地貌形态。     

Changes in semi-arid plant species associations along a livestock grazing gradient

In semi-arid ecosystems, vegetation is heterogeneously distributed, with plant species often associating in patches. These associations between species are not constant, but depend on the particular response of each species to environmental factors. Here, we investigated how plant species associations change in response to livestock grazing in a semi-arid ecosystem, Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in South East Spain. We established linear point-intercept transects at four sites with different grazing intensity, and recorded all species at each point. We investigated plant associations by comparing the number of times that each pair of species occurred at the same spatial point (co-occurrences), with the expected number of times based on species abundances. We also assessed associations for each shrub and grass species by considering all their pairs of associations and for the whole plant community by considering all pairs of associations on each site. At all sites, the plant community had a negative pattern of association, with fewer co-occurrences than expected. Negative association in the plant community increased at maximum grazing intensity. Most species associated as expected, particularly grass species, and positive associations were most important at intermediate grazing intensities. No species changed its type of association along the grazing gradient. We conclude that in the present plant community, grazing-resistant species compete among themselves and segregate in space. Some shrub species act as refuges for grazing-sensitive species that benefit from being spatially associated with shrub species, particularly at intermediate grazing intensities where positive associations were highest. At high grazing intensity, these shrubs can no longer persist and positive associations decrease due to the disappearance of refuges. Spatial associations between plant species and their response to grazing help identify the factors that organize plant communities, and may contribute to improving management of semi-arid ecosystems.     

Disentangling the role of management,vegetation structure,and plant quality for Orthoptera in lowland meadows

Seminatural grasslands provide habitats for various species and are important for biodiversity conservation. The understanding of the diverse responses of species and traits to different grassland managenient methods is therefore urgently needed. We disentangled the role of grassland management (fertilization and irrigation), vegetation structure (biomass, sward height) and plant quality (protein and fiber content) for Orthoptera communities in lowland hay meadows in Germany. We found vegetation structure to be the most important environmental category in explaining community structure of Orthoptera (species richness, total individuals, fiinctional diversity and species composition). Intensively used meadows (fertilized, irrigated, high plant biomass) were characterized by assemblages with few species, low functional diversity, and low conservation value. Thereby, the relatively moderate fertilizer inputs in our study system of up to -75 kg N/ha/year reduced functional diversity of Orthoptera, while this negative effect of fertilization was not detectable when solely considering taxonomic aspects. We found strong support for a prominent role of plant quality in shaping Orthoptera communities and especially the trait composition. Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of considering both taxonomic and functional comp on ents (functio nal diversity) in biodiversity research and we suggest a stronger involvement of plant quality measures in Orthoptera studies.     

Nectar robbing: a common phenomenon mainly determined by accessibility constraints,nectar volume and density of energy rewards

Nectar robbers use a hole made in the perianth to extract nectar. Since robbers may modify plant fitness, they play an important role by driving evolution on floral traits, shaping population structure and influencing community dynamics. Although nectar robbing is widespread in angiosperms, the causes and ecological implications of this behaviour on large ecological scales are still unexplored. Our aim is to study the frequency of nectar robbing in plants of temperate and tropical regions and examine its association with plant traits. We characterised the levels of nectar robbing in 88 species of Mediterranean, Alpine, Antillean and Andean plant communities and identified the most important nectar robbers. We analysed associations between the levels of robbing and floral morphology, production and density of energy rewards, mechanisms of protection against nectar robbers, plant life form and geographic origin. Nectar robbing was present at all sampling sites. Within communities two patterns of robbing levels related to the diversity and specialization of robbers were detected. In most communities one plant species presented very high levels of robbing while other species had intermediate to low robbing levels. There, nectar robbers are opportunists, robbing highly rewarding plants. In the Andean community the high specialization of several co‐existing flowerpiercers produced an even pattern of robbing levels in the plant community. Plants with long flowers, abundant nectar and a high energy density are more likely to be robbed by both insects and birds. A high aggregation of the flowers within the plants and the presence of long calyxes and bracts are associated to low robbing rates by insects and to a lesser extent by birds. Besides the morphological constraints that operate on a single flower basis, nectar robbing is a phenomenon dependent upon the density of energy rewards reflecting the presence of mechanisms on higher ecological scales.     

Accounting for environmental variation in co‐occurrence modelling reveals the importance of positive interactions in root‐associated fungal communities

Understanding the role of interspecific interactions in shaping ecological communities is one of the central goals in community ecology. In fungal communities, measuring interspecific interactions directly is challenging because these communities are composed of large numbers of species, many of which are unculturable. An indirect way of assessing the role of interspecific interactions in determining community structure is to identify the species co‐occurrences that are not constrained by environmental conditions. In this study, we investigated co‐occurrences among root‐associated fungi, asking whether fungi co‐occur more or less strongly than expected based on the environmental conditions and the host plant species examined. We generated molecular data on root‐associated fungi of five plant species evenly sampled along an elevational gradient at a high arctic site. We analysed the data using a joint species distribution modelling approach that allowed us to identify those co‐occurrences that could be explained by the environmental conditions and the host plant species, as well as those co‐occurrences that remained unexplained and thus more probably reflect interactive associations. Our results indicate that not only negative but also positive interactions play an important role in shaping microbial communities in arctic plant roots. In particular, we found that mycorrhizal fungi are especially prone to positively co‐occur with other fungal species. Our results bring new understanding to the structure of arctic interaction networks by suggesting that interactions among root‐associated fungi are predominantly positive.     

深圳南山区天然植物群落的聚类分析

运用组平均聚类法,以44个样方中80个种的重要值为数据,对深圳南山区天然植物群落进行聚类分析。根据聚类结果,南山区天然植物群落可划分为8个群系19个群丛,较全面地反映了群落的组成结构以及群落的生境,为南山区植物群落的保护和管理提供了科学依据。     

浙江天童枫香树群落不同垂直层次物种间的联结性与相关性

种间关系是植物群落重要的数量和结构特征之一, 分析群落不同垂直层次物种的种间联结和相关性对于理解群落结构、动态和分类等具有重要的生态意义。该研究选取浙江省天童处于演替前期的枫香树(Liquidambar formosana)群落乔木层3个物种、亚乔木层3个物种以及灌木层28个物种为研究对象, 应用基于二元数据的方差比率法、χ²统计量检验和基于数量数据的Spearman秩相关系数检验研究了3个垂直层次间物种的联结性与相关性。结果发现: (1)乔木层与亚乔木层物种总体间存在不显著正联结, 乔木层与亚乔木层主要物种间相互独立的种对较多, 较少种对显著联结或相关; (2)乔木层与灌木层物种总体显著正联结, 显著关联或相关的种对较多, 种对间依赖性较强; (3)亚乔木层与灌木层物种总体同样存在显著正联结, 种对间关系较为紧密。该研究结果表明: 群落垂直层次间物种生态习性和对生境适应的趋同性, 以及在垂直方向上对生境要求的互补性差异是决定演替前期种对关系的主要因素。     

Species association and correlation between vertical layers in the Liquidambar formosana community in Tiantong region,Zhejiang Province

Aims Interspecific relationship is one of the most important properties in plant communities. Analyzing species association and correlation between vertical layers in plant communities is ecologically crucial for understanding community structure, dynamics and classification. The objective of this study was to test how plant species in contrasting vertical layers of plant communities associate and correlate. Methods The study sites are located in Tiantong region in Zhejiang Province. Community structure and species composition were measured in an early successional community of Liquidambar formosana. Interspecific relationships were examined between 3 tree species and 3 sub-tree species, between 3 tree species and 28 shrub species, and between 3 sub-tree species and 28 shrub species. Interspecific relationships were analyzed by using χ²-test for 2 × 2 contingency table, variance ratio (VR) test and spearman rank correlation test.Important findings With respect to tree and sub-tree layers, positive significant association was not observed for overall species. Species were independent with each other for most species pairs. Few species pairs showed significant association or correlation. Regarding tree and shrub layers, there were significant positive associations between overall species. Species between tree and shrub layers were more dependent on each other, with the most species showing significant association or correlation. Similarly, positive significant association existed for overall species between sub-tree and shrub layers, displaying a close interspecific relationship. These results suggest that the convergences of species behavior and habitat acclimatization, and complementary differences in habitat requirement over species between vertical layers might be the main driver affecting patterns of species association and correlation in the early successional community.     

Biogeographical study of West Siberian hemiboreal forest associations with species range overlay methods

The geographical distributions of plant communities are usually inferred from mapping relevés. Here, we study another approach to map the ranges of associations and higher syntaxa: the joint distribution of the constant species of the associations, i.e. those species most frequently found in the relevés. We ask whether the joint distribution of the species reflects the distribution of the associations and higher syntaxa. Because of limited availability of plant distribution maps we consider species occurring in more than 40% of the relevés of four associations belonging to Western and Central Siberian hemiboreal forests of the class Brachypodio pinnati–Betuletea pendulae. Those species are the most informative for syntaxonomic considerations. The joint distribution is established by overlaying the distribution maps of the species and numerically compared with the mapped distribution of the vegetation communities using Cohen's Kappa. Most species occurring in the associations have a small to mid-sized range. The range size distribution of the contributing species approaches a normal distribution after logarithmic transformation of the range sizes. The geographical extents of the associations are well reflected by the overlays of all constant species. Removing sequentially the species beginning with those having the smallest distribution ranges from the overlay leads to progressive loss of similarity between mapped and modelled range of the associations. For the higher syntaxa (order and class) the similarity between mapped and modelled range increases first but drops at the end of the removal procedure. The less widespread species are particularly important for the recognition of a local plant community, i.e. the association. In contrast, more widespread species allow the definition of the ranges of higher syntaxa and reveal more large-scale geographic relationships of the vegetation. From our quantitative assessment of mapped and modelled maps of the distribution of plant communities, we conclude that the overlay method is useful to infer the geographical extent of plant communities.     

Spatial patterns in cushion‐dominated plant communities of the high Andes of central Chile: How frequent are positive associations?

Question: In stressful abiotic environments positive plant interaction is expected to be a frequent and an important process driving community composition and structure. In the high Andes in central Chile, the cushion plant Azorella madreporica dominates plant communities and appears to benefit the assemblage of species that grows within it. However, there are also many other species that grow outside this nurse cushion plant, which may or may not interact with this species. What is the prevailing type of spatial associations among the plant species that are not growing inside the nurse plant? What is the type of interactions between cushion plants and those species growing outside them? Location: Molina River basin (33°20'S, 70°16’ W, 3600 m a.s.l.), in the Andes of central Chile, ca. 50 km east of Santiago. Methods: Two accurate mapping plots of individual plants of different species were located at two summits (Franciscano and Tres Puntas sites). The spatial distributions and associations between species growing outside cushions and within cushions at each site were estimated by point‐pattern analyses using the univariate and bivariate transformations of Ripley's K‐functions. Results: We found both positive and, especially, negative spatial associations (8 out of 12 species in Franciscano site) between A. madreporica cushions and plants growing outside them. However, most of the species showed positive spatial associations among them. The variation in spatial association was site‐specific and also depended on the type of plants involved. Adesmia spp., the second most abundant non‐cushion species, displayed negative associations with cushions and positive associations with other species growing outside cushions. Conclusions: Our study suggests very complex interactions among species, which ranged from positive to negative, and are also affected by abiotic environmental conditions.     

Applications of self-organizing map for patterning macrofungal diversity of xerothermic swards

Macrofungal communities were investigated in four associations of xerothermic swards: Festucetum pallentis, Origano-Brachypodietum, Adonido-Brachypodietum pinnati and Diantho-Armerietum elongatae in a Jurassic area of the Częstochowa Upland (southern Poland). A total of 47 species were recorded. The self-organising map (SOM)—an unsupervised algorithm for artificial neural networks—was used to recognise patterns in the macrofungal communities of diverse xerothermic swards. Only two associations were mycologically similar: Origano-Brachypodietum and Adonido-Brachypodietum pinnati. Species with high and significant IndVal (the species indicator value) for each investigated phytocoenoses are presented. The presence of macrofungal species and the participation of indicator species were connected with habitat factors of plant associations, as documented by the IndVal application. In the least fertile phytocoenoses, macrofungal communities were poor with few indicator species. The more fertile phytocoenoses had richer and more varied communities of macrofungi with higher numbers of indicator species. The ordering methods applied in this study were very effective for analyzing the macrofungal communities existing in plant associations.     

An unfortunate alliance: Native shrubs increase the abundance,performance, and apparent impacts of Bromus tectorum across a regional aridity gradient

Interspecific facilitation contributes to the assembly of desert plant communities. However, we know little of how desert communities invaded by exotic species respond to facilitation along regional-scale aridity gradients. These measures are essential for predicting how desert plant communities might respond to concomitant plant invasion and environmental change. Here, we evaluated the potential for Bromus tectorum (a dominant invasive plant species) and the broader herbaceous plant community to form positive associations with native shrubs along a substantial aridity gradient across the Great Basin, Mojave, and San Joaquin Deserts in North America. Along this gradient, we sampled metrics of abundance and performance for B. tectorum, all native herbaceous species combined, all exotic herbaceous species combined, and the total herbaceous community using 180 pairs of shrub and open microsites. Across the gradient, B. tectorum formed strong positive associations with native shrubs, achieving 1.6–2.2 times greater abundance, biomass, and reproductive output under native shrubs than away from shrubs, regardless of relative aridity. In contrast, the broader herbaceous community was not positively associated with native shrubs. Interestingly, increasing B. tectorum abundance corresponded to decreasing native abundance, native species richness, exotic species richness, and total species richness under but not away from shrubs. Taken together, these findings suggest that native shrubs have considerable potential to directly (by increasing abundance and performance) and indirectly (by increasing competitive effects on neighbors) facilitate B. tectorum invasion across a large portion of the non-native range.