Species diversity reduces invasion success in pathogen‐regulated communities

The loss of natural enemies is thought to explain why certain invasive species are so spectacularly successful in their introduced range. However, if losing natural enemies leads to unregulated population growth, this implies that native species are themselves normally subject to natural enemy regulation. One possible widespread mechanism of natural enemy regulation is negative soil feedbacks, in which resident species growing on home soils are disadvantaged because of a build‐up of species‐specific soil pathogens. Here we construct simple models in which pathogens cause resident species to suffer reduced competitive ability on home soils and consider the consequences of such pathogen regulation for potential invading species. We show that the probability of successful invasion and its timescale depend strongly on the competitive ability of the invader on resident soils, but are unaffected by whether or not the invader also suffers reduced competitive ability on home soils (i.e. pathogen regulation). This is because, at the start of an invasion, the invader is rare and hence mostly encounters resident soils. However, the lack of pathogen regulation does allow the invader to achieve an unusually high population density. We also show that increasing resident species diversity in a pathogen‐regulated community increases invasion resistance by reducing the frequency of home‐site encounters. Diverse communities are more resistant to invasion than monocultures of the component species: they preclude a greater range of potential invaders, slow the timescale of invasion and reduce invader population size. Thus, widespread pathogen regulation of resident species is a potential explanation for the empirical observation that diverse communities are more invasion resistant.     

历山森林群落物种多样性与群落结构研究

采用多样性指数、丰富度指数和均匀度指数对山西历山森林群落物种多样性进行了研究.结果表明,各群落类型的物种多样性指数的顺序为：青榨槭＋五角枫林>青榨槭＋鹅耳枥林>辽东栎林>栓皮栎林>华山松＋红桦林>油松＋栎林>白桦林>侧柏＋栓皮栎林>红桦林>华山松林>侧柏林>油松林>红桦＋山杨林;森林群落灌木层多样性指数和丰富度指数大于草本层和乔木层,而均匀度指数在乔木层、灌木层和草本层则表现出多样化的趋势;海拔1 000～1 920 m之间,Shannon-Wiener指数、Hill多样性指数及物种丰富度与海拔梯度均呈正相关(P<0.05),海拔大于1 920 m则呈现负相关;这些指数沿海拔梯度的变化呈现出“中间高度膨胀”的规律,即中等海拔高度上物种多样性高而低海拔和高海拔物种多样性低.这主要是由于在中海拔（约1 900 m）地段水热条件组合较好,人类活动干扰较少所致.     

Identifying and evaluating causes of alternative community states in wetland plant communities

Ecological communities can vary greatly in species composition. Often this variation is discontinuous, in that abrupt changes in composition occur over small distances in space or short periods of time. A wide range of hypotheses from different subfields of ecology have been proposed to explain these patterns. I suggest a framework to quantitatively evaluate these hypotheses with observational data by characterizing 1) how community composition varies across sites in space, 2) how community composition varies through time, and 3) the possible drivers of this variation. I applied this approach to understand the community composition of producers in temporary and semipermanent wetlands in Michigan, USA. I identified several distinct community states which were variously dominated by particular plant functional groups (submerged, floating or emergent plants) or had no plants throughout a season. Evaluating possible hypotheses to explain this variation, I found that similar communities were not necessarily clustered near each other, suggesting that dispersal was not limited for these plants. Some sites exhibited a great deal of change in plant composition among years, shifting between two community states, but there was relatively little change at sites within a year. Moreover, these shifts did not occur in a particular order to suggest directional change or repeating cycles. Community composition was associated with several environmental variables such as pH, light and depth, and multivariate analyses suggested that species had complex, nonlinear responses to these possible drivers. Alternative stable states and interactions among multiple nonlinear drivers best explained the patterns observed in these wetlands. By formalizing initial data collection in other systems with the framework suggested here, we may gain insight into the causes of alternative community states beyond wetlands and the role of climate change and other anthropogenic forces in precipitating transitions between states.     

Plant diversity,herbivory and resistance of a plant community to invasion in Mediterranean annual communities

Several components of the diversity of plant communities, such as species richness, species composition, number of functional groups and functional composition, have been shown to directly affect the performance of exotic species. Exotics can also be affected by herbivores of the native plant community. However, these two possible mechanisms limiting invasion have never been investigated together. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between plant diversity, herbivory and performance of two annual exotics, Conyza bonariensis and C. canadensis, in Mediterranean annual communities. We wanted to test whether herbivory of these exotics was influenced either by species richness, functional-group richness or functional-group composition. We also studied the relationship between herbivory on the exotic species and their performance. Herbivory increased with increasing species and functional-group richness for both Conyza species. These patterns are interpreted as reflecting a greater number of available herbivore niches in a richer, more complex, plant community. The identities of functional groups also affected Conyza herbivory, which decreased in the presence of Asteraceae or Fabaceae and increased in the presence of Poaceae. Increasing herbivory had consequences for vegetative and demographic parameters of both invasive species: survival, final biomass and net fecundity decreased with increasing herbivory, leading to a loss of reproductive capacity. We conclude that communities characterised by a high number of grass species instead of Asteraceae or Fabaceae may be more resistant to invasion by the two Conyza species, in part due to predation by native herbivores.     

Species diversity in deep-sea communities

Recent extensive quantitative sampling of the deep-sea bottom has revealed communities much richer in species than previously thought. In situ experiments and more precise sampling using free-vehicle instruments and submersibles have provided a more accurate assessment of spatial and temporal variation on the sea floor. These studies have demonstrated the importance of small patches (millimeters to meters) of biogenic disturbance and food input separated on spatial scales of meters to kilometers. In this respect, the processes maintaining deep-sea diversity are similar to those in other species-rich environments such as rain forests.     

Species diversity in local neutral communities

We extend the neutral theory of macroecology by deriving biodiversity models (relative species abundance and species-area relationships) in a local community-metacommunity system in which the local community is embedded within the metacommunity. We first demonstrate that the local species diversity patterns converge to that of the metacommunity as the size (scale) of the embedded local community increases. This result shows that in continuous landscapes no sharp boundaries dividing the communities at the two scales exist; they are an artificial distinction made by the current spatially implicit neutral theory. Second, we remove the artificial restriction that speciation cannot occur in a local community, even if the effects of local speciation are small. Third, we introduce stochasticity into the immigration rate, previously treated as constant, and demonstrate that local species diversity is a function not only of the mean but also of the variance in immigration rate. High variance in immigration rates reduces species diversity in local communities. Finally, we show that a simple relationship exists between the fundamental diversity parameter of neutral theory and Simpson's index for local communities. Derivation of this relationship extends recent work on diversity indices and provides a means of evaluating the effect of immigration on estimates of the fundamental diversity parameter derived from relative species abundance data on local communities.     

Detection of alternative stable states in marine communities

During the last 20 years there have been several attempts to test the theory of alternative stable states using marine systems. The results have been mixed, and there have been conflicting interpretations of the outcomes. In an attempt to resolve some of the problems, the theory and evidence for alternative stable states are reviewed. There are several different views of what is meant by alternative stable states, and so the key elements of the theory of alternative stable states are set in the context of marine systems. Appropriate experimental designs for detecting alternative states are discussed, and recent experimental studies in coral reefs, rocky intertidal systems, soft-sediment beds, and subtidal systems are briefly reviewed. Suggestions for improving experimental designs are proposed and unresolved issues are highlighted.     

Species identity, diversity and microbial carbon flow in reassembling macrobenthic communities

Intense disturbance may locally destroy patches of habitat and shape the landscape into a mosaic of reassembling communities. The development of ecosystem properties during such community reassembly is poorly understood. In intertidal bare sediments, trophic relations between microphytobenthos or heterotrophic bacteria and macrofauna invertebrates may guarantee fundamental ecosystem properties such as carbon flow through the food web. We studied the dynamic relation between reassembling macrofauna communities and such microbial carbon flow during recovery after severe disturbance. We deliberately induced prolonged hypoxia in winter and early summer and allowed recolonisation for periods of two and five months. Carbon flow was quantified from basal resources (microphytobenthos and bacteria) to intermediate consumers using ¹³C as a tracer. Within the period of study (5 months), microbial carbon flow fully recovered, although macrofauna diversity was still very low compared to the natural communities (ranging from 6 to 17 species). More than 90% of microbial carbon flow to macrofauna was due to the consumers that recolonised within two months. Two of these species were dominant contributors to microphytobenthos carbon transfer to fauna. Furthermore, at an early stage of reassembly, this ecosystem property was remarkably similar when disturbance took place at different times of the year (winter or early summer), although there were differences in assemblage composition and functional diversity. We conclude that species assemblages and ecosystem function developed relatively independently in this benthic system. We discuss which ecological factors may have caused such non-parallel development of macrofaunal communities and carbon flow.     

Species pools,community completeness and invasion: disentangling diversity effects on the establishment of native and alien species

Invasion should decline with species richness, yet the relationship is inconsistent. Species richness, however, is a product of species pool size and biotic filtering. Invasion may increase with richness if large species pools represent weaker environmental filters. Measuring species pool size and the proportion realised locally (completeness) may clarify diversity‐invasion relationships by separating environmental and biotic effects, especially if species’ life‐history stage and origin are accounted for. To test these relationships, we added seeds and transplants of 15 native and alien species into 29 grasslands. Species pool size and completeness explained more variation in invasion than richness alone. Although results varied between native and alien species, seed establishment and biotic resistance to transplants increased with species pool size, whereas transplant growth and biotic resistance to seeds increased with completeness. Consequently, species pools and completeness represent multiple independent processes affecting invasion; accounting for these processes improves our understanding of invasion.     

新疆博格达山地面生苔藓植物物种多样性研究

采用相似性系数和物种多样性指数对新疆博格达山地面生苔藓植物的物种多样性进行了研究．结果表明,博格达山地区苔藓植物区系具有丰富性和复杂性的特点,共有地面生苔藓植物32科73属186种(含变种、变型);山地荒漠带和山地草原带苔藓植物物种相似性最高,为0．6809,山地森林带和高山垫状植被带相似性最低,仅为0．1342;山地森林带苔藓植物在整个博格达山地面生苔藓植物群落中占据优势地位;山地森林带苔藓植物物种多样性最为丰富,为该山地苔藓植物多样性的分布中心,是苔藓植物多样性保护的关键地区．     

Species evenness and invasion resistance of experimental grassland communities

Concern for biodiversity loss coupled with the accelerated rate of biological invasions has provoked much interest in assessing how native plant species diversity affects invasibility. Although experimental studies extensively document the effects of species richness on invader performance, the role of species evenness in such studies is rarely examined. Species evenness warrants more attention because the relative abundances of species can account for substantially more of the variance in plant community diversity and tend to change more rapidly and more frequently in response to disturbances than the absolute numbers of species. In this study, we experimentally manipulated species evenness within native prairie grassland mesocosms. We assessed how evenness affected primary productivity, light availability and the resistance of native communities to invasion. The primary productivity of native communities increased significantly with species evenness, and this increase in productivity was accompanied by significant decreases in light availability. However, evenness had no effect on native community resistance to invasion by three common exotic invasive species. In this study, niche complementarity provides a potential mechanism for the effects of evenness on productivity and light availability, but these effects apparently were not strong enough to alter the invasibility of the experimental communities. Our results suggest that species evenness enhances community productivity but provides no benefit to invasion resistance in otherwise functionally diverse communities.     

Species diversity patterns in some present and prehistoric rodent communities

Summary Comparisons of prehistoric (A.D. 1100–1400) and extant cricetine-dominated rodent faunas from two locations in New Mexico and one in Arizona reveal temporal changes in both species diversity and taxonomic composition. The archaeological context of the prehistoric faunas permitted them to be dated rather accurately; paleoenvironmental inferences generated from other materials recovered in the excavations such as pollen samples, agricultural remains, and tree-ring specimens provided evidence about prehistoric environmental conditions in the study areas. Both richness and evenness components of diversity are lower in the present day faunas than in their prehistoric counterparts. At the beta (between-habitat or valley-wide) level of diversity the increased prehistoric species richness as well as the nature of the differences in present and prehistoric taxonomic composition can be accounted for by small climatic shifts which were occurring between A.D. 1100 and 1300 in the Southwest and the resultant biogeogrphic responses of certain rodent species. Alpha (or within-habitat) diversity is similar for all analyzed faunas. This suggests basic similarities in very local species packing despite observed spatial and temporal variation in valley-wide diversities. Environmental changes stemming from climatic shifts provide a reasonable explanation of the observed patterns of rodent species occurrence and diversity. Habitat destruction resulting from agricultural practies of prehistoric human populations appears to have had only a limited impact on these rodent communities.     

松嫩平原南部主要群落植物多样性的比较研究

应用Ｍａｒｇａｌｅｆ（Ｒ１）和Ｍｅｎｈｉｎｉｃｋ（Ｒ２）丰富度指数、Ｈｉｌｌ多样性指数（Ｎ１,Ｎ２）和Ｐｉｅｌｏｕ均匀度指数（Ｅ）比较研究了松嫩平原南部１４个主要群落的植物多样性、生活型多样性及植物多样性与群落演替的关系结果表明,分布于低平原的羊草－蔓萎陵菜群落的植物多样性和丰富度指数最大,Ｒ１为１１．９６,Ｒ２为５．２４,Ｎ１为１３．９２,Ｎ２为８．７６,分布于固定砂丘的榆树疏林和贝加尔针茅等４个群落有较高的植物多样性,而分布于碱化草甸的角碱蓬等群落植物多样性最小,Ｒ１为１．３１,Ｒ２为０７１,Ｎ１为１．８４,Ｎ２为１．４６．具有较高植物多样性的群落其植物生活型多样性指数也较高．在演替系列中,羊草群落的植物多样性指数介于演替初期和中期阶段之间．     

Species diversity and community structure in neotropical fruit-feeding butterflies

Chemical secretions that are explicitly tied to species recognition may potentially be informative for phylogenetic reconstruction, especially when traditional morphological or molecular characters lack resolution. Anal sac secretions from 16 species within the family Felidae (order Carnivora) were chemically analysed and their utility as phylogenetic characters was assessed. Results were generally consistent across the different chemical data types (e.g. glycolipids, neutral lipids, or phospholipids). Two major clades were indicated, falling out according to body size: one for species greater than 30 kg (Panthera, Uncia, and Puma) and another for those less than 12 kg (remaining species). The primary solutions agreed with respect to the species pairs Prionailurus + Leptailurus, Caracal + Lynx, Oncifelis+Leopardus, Otocolobus+Felis, Panthera leo + P pardus, and P. tigris + Uncia. The only area of disagreement between chemical types was the positioning of the mountain lion (Puma concolor); however, this species appears to cluster with the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in the Tjig cat clade. Although our solutions differ from six previously proposed hypotheses of felid phylogeny (morphological and molecular), the previous estimates all differ strongly amongst themselves reflecting the historical uncertainty regarding felid systematics. Phytogenies derived from the lipid data were very robust and decisive. Few equally most parsimonious trees were obtained, consistency indices were much higher than their expected values, and bootstrap and Bremer support values were also high. Thus, our findings illustrate the species-specific nature of chemical signals and their usefulness as phylogenetic characters.     

Species diversity and dominance in a tropical grassland community

Plant species diversity and dominance patterns were studied in a tropical grassland comunity at Berhampur, India during 1977–1978. Diversity (?Σpilnpi) and dominance [Σ(ni/N) ²] indices were calculated and compared with basic data as the number of individuals versus basic data as biomass units.     

Species diversity in postglacial diatom lake communities of Finland

Species diversity in three sections of Flandrian sediment from the Finnish Lake District was studied, together with orthodox diatom stratigraphy, to analyse the pattern of change in diatom communities over the postglacial time.The general agreement of the two approaches is clear, and in particular there is a positive direct relationship between the temporal development of these aquatic systems and changes in the diatom diversity.As indicated by both the quantitative inventory and the species diversity, these diatom communities consisted of few species immediately after glaciation at 10 000 radiocarbon years B.P. The minimum diversity at 9 000 B.P. coincides with the maximum of Melosira islandica ssp. helvetica. A trend to development of a larger number of equally abundant species, and higher total diversity followed isolation of the lake from the Baltic Sea at 8 000 B.P. This is consistent with earlier results of Duthie and Sreenivasa that the number of individuals and total diversity of the samples increase over the postglacial time.     

四川大巴山巴山水青冈群落的物种多样性特征

巴山水青冈(Fagus pashanica)是川、陕、鄂、渝四省市交界处的特有植物。巴山水青冈林集中分布在四川省东北部的大巴山区。目前关于巴山水青冈群落的资料极其匮乏。作者在大巴山区通过对7个样地39个样方调查数据的分析, 探讨了巴山水青冈群落的物种多样性特征。主要结果有: (1) 巴山水青冈群落物种组成丰富, 共记录到维管束植物77科142属217种。乔木层物种集中于壳斗科、杜鹃花科、蔷薇科、山矾科等科; 灌木层物种集中于蔷薇科、忍冬科、壳斗科、槭树科等科; 草本层植物个体数量以苔草属(Carex)植物和普通鹿蹄草(Pyrola decorata)占绝对优势。(2) 群落乔木层物种多度对数呈倒“J”型分布, 灌木层与草本层的物种多度近似对数正态分布。群落物种丰富度由大到小依次为灌木层>草本层>乔木层; Shannon指数与Simpson指数的顺序为灌木层>乔木层>草本层; 均匀度指数的顺序为乔木层>灌木层>草本层。(3) 东坡、南坡的植物物种多样性高于北坡。乔木层Shannon指数与土壤第二层厚度回归关系显著; 草本层Shannon指数与土壤第一层厚度的回归关系显著; 灌木层的物种数和Shannon指数与土壤第一层有机质回归关系显著。(4) 群落建群种和乔木层主要树种重要值与物种多样性主要表现为负相关关系, 但与灌木层的物种多样性关系不显著(P≥0.05)。结果表明, 灌木层物种多样性主要受到环境因素的影响, 而乔木层和草本层物种多样性受到环境因子和群落自身特征的双重影响。     

紫茎泽兰入侵对土壤细菌的群落组成和多样性的影响

外来生物入侵可能对生物群落结构和生态系统功能产生多种影响, 但入侵植物与土壤微生物群落组成和多样性的关系尚不清楚。为了揭示外来植物紫茎泽兰(Eupatorium adenophorum)入侵对土壤化学性质和细菌群落组成及多样性的影响, 本研究利用第二代高通量测序技术, 比较了紫茎泽兰不同入侵程度的生境(本地植物群落、紫茎泽兰与本地植物混生群落、紫茎泽兰单优群落)土壤中细菌群落的差异。土壤化学性质分析表明, 土壤pH值、有机质、全N和全K随着紫茎泽兰的入侵而逐渐降低, 而土壤全P则在入侵程度最高的生境土壤中最高。通过测序共获得7,755个细菌OUT (operational taxonomic unit)。结果表明, 紫茎泽兰入侵对土壤的细菌多样性影响较小, ACE和Chao指数在3种不同生境间的差异不显著。细菌在紫茎泽兰与本地植物混生群落中的Shannon指数最低, 即细菌的多样性在中等入侵程度的生境最低。此外, 紫茎泽兰入侵改变了土壤细菌组成和结构, 酸杆菌门(Acidobacteria)和疣微菌门(Verrucomicrobia)的相对丰度, 从本地植物群落、混合群落到紫茎泽兰单优群落, 呈现出先增加后减少的趋势。可见, 紫茎泽兰入侵一定程度上改变了土壤微生物的多样性和群落结构, 并改变了土壤的化学性质。     

桂西不同灌丛植物群落物种组成及其多样性

该研究通过野外设定样方、每木检尺的方法,调查了桂西9个市县的10种不同灌丛类型群落,分析了灌丛群落优势种重要值、物种组成、生长指标和物种多样性指数等生物学特征。结果表明：桂西灌丛资源丰富、分布广泛、类型多样,在调查的10个群落类型中,共有灌木树种87种,隶属于47科78属,以大戟科、蔷薇科和马鞭草科的树种较多;草本56种,隶属于31科48属,以禾本科、菊科和蔷薇科为主。灌丛群落主要分为灌木层和草本层,灌木层盖度为30％~70％,灌木的平均高度介于0.75~3.25 m之间,一般不超过5 m;草本层盖度为3％~90％,草本的平均高度在0.4~1.3 m之间,一般在1 m以下。不同灌丛群落的优势种重要值、物种多样性均不同,单优势种群落的优势种重要值普遍较高;而多优势种群落的物种多样性指数较高,即多优势种群落的物种数量多、分布均匀、结构更加复杂和稳定。物种丰富度S、多样性指数H′、优势度指数D和均匀度指数E之间存在显著的正相关性。综合分析,群落9(白栎＋马桑＋火棘灌丛)和群落10(黄荆＋灰毛浆果楝灌丛)的组成丰富、多样性水平较高。