Effects of plant species richness and evenness on soil microbial community diversity and function

Understanding the links between plant diversity and soil communities is critical to disentangling the mechanisms by which plant communities modulate ecosystem function. Experimental plant communities varying in species richness, evenness, and density were established using a response surface design and soil community properties including bacterial and archaeal abundance, richness, and evenness were measured. The potential to perform a representative soil ecosystem function, oxidation of ammonium to nitrite, was measured via archaeal and bacterial amoA genes. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the direct and indirect effects of the plant community on soil diversity and potential function. Plant communities influenced archaea and bacteria via different pathways. Species richness and evenness had significant direct effects on soil microbial community structure, but the mechanisms driving these effects did not include either root biomass or the pools of carbon and nitrogen available to the soil microbial community. Species richness had direct positive effects on archaeal amoA prevalence, but only indirect impacts on bacterial communities through modulation of plant evenness. Increased plant evenness increased bacterial abundance which in turn increased bacterial amoA abundance. These results suggest that plant community evenness may have a strong impact on some aspects of soil ecosystem function. We show that a more even plant community increased bacterial abundance, which then increased the potential for bacterial nitrification. A more even plant community also increased total dissolved nitrogen in the soil, which decreased the potential for archaeal nitrification. The role of plant evenness in structuring the soil community suggests mechanisms including complementarity in root exudate profiles or root foraging patterns.     

Community regulation by herbivore parasitism and density: Trait-mediated indirect interactions in the intertidal

The abundant herbivorous mud-snail Hydrobia ulvae is an ecosystem engineer in soft-bottom intertidal habitats due to its grazing and bioturbation activity. However, mud snails are commonly infected by trematodes that reduce their overall activity, which in turn may affect their impact on the surrounding benthic community. To test this hypothesis, we performed field experiments manipulating both the abundance of uninfected snails (0, 7500 and 15.000 ind. m^- 2) and the level of snail parasitism (0, 33 and 100% trematode prevalence) on a Danish mud-flat. The results showed that increasing snail abundance and parasitism generally had opposite effects on the community of microphytobenthos and zoobenthos. Increasing snail density increased the chlorophyll-a concentration in the substrate (enhancement), whereas increasing parasitism decreased it. In accordance, the benthic primary producers were generally less nutrient limited at high snail density and mostly so at high levels of snail parasitism. Moreover, epipsammic diatoms were favoured over epipelic diatoms at increasing snail density, whereas the opposite was evident at increasing snail parasitism. At the community level, increasing snail density increased evenness among epipelic diatoms, whereas increasing snail parasitism decreased evenness and species diversity. Probably through the action of trophic cascades and varying levels of disturbance, the zoobenthic community was influenced by experimental treatments as well. The indirect effects of snail parasitism influenced significantly the abundance of more faunal species (seven) than did snail density (two). At the community level, increasing snail density decreased evenness and lowest species richness coincided with intermediate snail density. In contrast, increasing snail parasitism resulted in increasing evenness and peaking species richness at intermediate level of parasitism. Together, the results show that parasites solely through their impact on the behaviour of a single community member can be significant indirect determinants of community organisation and function.     

基于地形因素的高寒草甸土壤温湿度和物种多样性与初级生产力关系研究

山地是高寒草甸的主要分布区,地形变化引起了土壤温湿度和物种的差异性分布,进而影响到草地生态系统生产功能。为明晰高寒草甸山地环境因子(土壤温湿度)和物种多样性(丰富度、多度、均匀度、优势度)与初级生产力的关系,本研究以青藏高原东北缘马牙雪山支脉的高寒草甸山体为研究对象,选择阶地、阴坡、山脊和阳坡与3个海拔梯度段,调查了189个样方的植物群落组成和土壤温湿度。采用线性回归法分析土壤温湿度和物种多样性与初级生产力之间的关系。结果表明:(1)以山地高寒草甸整体为研究单元,初级生产力只随物种多度的增加而显著增加(R~2=0.07 P=0.01)。(2)坡向影响初级生产力的因素不同,阴坡初级生产力与物种丰富度正线性相关;山脊初级生产力与土壤湿度正线性相关,也随物种丰富度增加而显著增加;阳坡初级生产力与物种多度正线性相关;阶地初级生产力随均匀度增加而显著增加,随优势度增加而显著降低。(3)只有低海拔区(2860-2910 m)初级生产力随物种多度和丰富度的增加而显著增加。综上所述,山地高寒草甸土壤温湿度和物种多样性与初级生产力关系受坡向比海拔的影响更大,且物种多样性对初级生产力的影响大于土壤温湿度。建议山地高寒草甸生态系统生产和生态管理过程中要重点考虑坡向对植物多样性和初级生产力的影响。     

Relationships between arthropod richness,evenness, and diversity are altered by complementarity among plant genotypes

Biodiversity is quantified via richness (e.g., the number of species), evenness (the relative abundance distribution of those species), or proportional diversity (a combination of richness and evenness, such as the Shannon index, H′). While empirical studies show no consistent relationship between these aspects of biodiversity within communities, the mechanisms leading to inconsistent relationships have received little attention. Here, using common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) and its associated arthropod community, we show that relationships between arthropod richness, evenness, and proportional diversity are altered by plant genotypic richness. Arthropod richness increased with O. biennis genotypic richness due to an abundance-driven accumulation of species in response to greater plant biomass. Arthropod evenness and proportional diversity decreased with plant genotypic richness due to a nonadditive increase in abundance of a dominant arthropod, the generalist florivore/omnivore Plagiognathas politus (Miridae). The greater quantity of flowers and buds produced in polycultures—which resulted from positive complementarity among O. biennis genotypes—increased the abundance of this dominant insect. Using choice bioassays, we show that floral quality did not change in plant genotypic mixtures. These results elucidate mechanisms for how plant genotypic richness can modify relationships between arthropod richness, evenness, and proportional diversity. More broadly, our results suggest that trophic interactions may be a previously underappreciated factor controlling relationships between these different aspects of biodiversity.     

Species richness and evenness respond in a different manner to propagule density in developing prairie microcosm communities

Diversity has two basic components: richness, or number of species in a given area, and evenness, or how relative abundance or biomass is distributed among species. Previously, we found that richness and evenness can be negatively related across plant communities and that evenness can account for more variation in Shannon’s diversity index (H′) than richness, which suggests that relationships among diversity components can be complex. Non-positive relationships between evenness and richness could arise due to the effects of migration rate or local species interactions, and relationships could vary depending on how these two processes structure local communities. Here we test whether diversity components are equally or differentially affected over time by changes in seed density (and associated effects on established plant density and competition) in greenhouse communities during the very early stages of community establishment. In our greenhouse experiment, we seeded prairie microcosms filled with bare field soil at three densities with draws from a mix of 22 grass and forb species to test if increased competition intensity or seedling density would affect the relationships among diversity components during early community establishment. Increased seed density treatments caused diversity components to respond in a different manner and to have different relationships with time. Richness increased linearly with seed density early in the experiment when seedling emergence was high, but was unrelated to density later in the experiment. Evenness decreased log-linearly with seed densities on all sampling dates due to a greater dominance by Rudbeckia hirta with higher densities. Early in the experiment, diversity indices weakly reflected differences in richness, but later, after the competitive effects of Rudbeckia hirta became more intense, diversity indices more strongly reflected differences in evenness. This suggests that species evenness and diversity indices do not always positively covary with richness. Based on these results, we suggest that evenness and richness can be influenced by different processes, with richness being more influenced by the number of emerging seedlings and evenness more by species interactions like competition. These results suggest that both diversity components should be measured in plant diversity studies whenever it is possible.     

北京松山自然保护区森林群落物种多样性及其神经网络预测

物种多样性是群落结构和功能复杂性的一种度量,物种多样性的空间分布格局受许多环境因子的影响.运用多样性指数,多层感知器网络,分析了松山保护区森林群落物种多样性与群落类型、结构和生境之间的关系.结果表明:(1)大果榆+山杨混交林、油松+青杨混交林物种丰富度、多样性和均匀度均较高,而大果榆林、华北落叶松林的各项指数值均较低.Patrick指数和Shannon-Weiner指数在森林群落中均表现为草本层＞灌木层＞乔木层;Pielou指数在榆林中表现为草本层＞乔木层＞灌木层,而在其他森林群落中表现为灌木层＞草本层＞乔木层.(2)功能层物种多样性在海拔梯度上的变化趋势不同,在乔木层,丰富度、多样性和均匀度随海拔的升高逐渐降低;在灌木层,丰富度、多样性和均匀度均呈比较明显的单峰曲线变化趋势;在草本层,丰富度和多样性随海拔的升高都呈下降趋势,而在草本层,均匀度变化不大.(3)用多层感知器网络预测功能层多样性效果很好,结果发现坡向对乔木层和灌木层物种多样性的影响最大,而海拔高度对草本层物种多样性的影响最大.     

Effects of maternal genotypic identity and genetic diversity of the red mangrove Rhizophora mangle on associated soil bacterial communities: A field‐based experiment

Loss of plant biodiversity can result in reduced abundance and diversity of associated species with implications for ecosystem functioning. In ecosystems low in plant species diversity, such as Neotropical mangrove forests, it is thought that genetic diversity within the dominant plant species could play an important role in shaping associated communities. Here, we used a manipulative field experiment to study the effects of maternal genotypic identity and genetic diversity of the red mangrove Rhizophora mangle on the composition and richness of associated soil bacterial communities. Using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T‐RFLP) community fingerprinting, we found that bacterial community composition differed among R. mangle maternal genotypes but not with genetic diversity. Bacterial taxa richness, total soil nitrogen, and total soil carbon were not significantly affected by maternal genotypic identity or genetic diversity of R. mangle. Our findings show that genotype selection in reforestation projects could influence soil bacterial community composition. Further research is needed to determine what impact these bacterial community differences might have on ecosystem processes, such as carbon and nitrogen cycling.     

Recovery of Native Plant Community Characteristics on a Chronosequence of Restored Prairies Seeded into Pastures in West‐Central Iowa

Restored grasslands comprise an ever‐increasing proportion of grasslands in North America and elsewhere. However, floristic studies of restored grasslands indicate that our ability to restore plant communities is limited. Our goal was to assess the effectiveness of restoration seeding for recovery of key plant community components on former exotic, cool‐season pastures using a chronosequence of six restoration sites and three nearby remnant tallgrass prairie sites in West‐Central Iowa. We assessed trends in Simpson's diversity and evenness, richness and abundance of selected native and exotic plant guilds, and mean coefficient of conservatism (mean C). Simpson's diversity and evenness and perennial invasive species abundance all declined with restoration site age. As a group, restoration sites had greater richness of native C₃ species with late phenology, but lower richness and abundance of species with early phenology relative to remnant sites. Total native richness, total native abundance (cover), mean C, and abundance of late phenology C₃ plants were similar between restoration and remnant sites. Observed declines in diversity and evenness with restoration age reflect increases in C₄ grass abundance rather than absolute decreases in the abundance of perennial C₃ species. In contrast to other studies, restoration seeding appears to have led to successful establishment of tallgrass prairie species that were likely to be included in seeding mixtures. While several floristic measures indicate convergence of restoration and remnant sites, biodiversity may be further enhanced by including early phenology species in seeding mixes in proportion to their abundance on remnant prairies.     

Effects of species evenness and dominant species identity on multiple ecosystem functions in model grassland communities

Ecosystems provide multiple services upon which humans depend. Understanding the drivers of the ecosystem functions that support these services is therefore important. Much research has investigated how species richness influences functioning, but we lack knowledge of how other community attributes affect ecosystem functioning. Species evenness, species spatial arrangement, and the identity of dominant species are three attributes that could affect ecosystem functioning, by altering the relative abundance of functional traits and the probability of synergistic species interactions such as facilitation and complementary resource use. We tested the effect of these three community attributes and their interactions on ecosystem functions over a growing season, using model grassland communities consisting of three plant species from three functional groups: a grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), a forb (Plantago lanceolata), and a N-fixing forb (Lotus corniculatus). We measured multiple ecosystem functions that support ecosystem services, including ecosystem gas exchange, water retention, C and N loss in leachates, and plant biomass production. Species evenness and dominant species identity strongly influenced the ecosystem functions measured, but spatial arrangement had few effects. By the end of the growing season, evenness consistently enhanced ecosystem functioning and this effect occurred regardless of dominant species identity. The identity of the dominant species under which the highest level of functioning was attained varied across the growing season. Spatial arrangement had the weakest effect on functioning, but interacted with dominant species identity to affect some functions. Our results highlight the importance of understanding the role of multiple community attributes in driving ecosystem functioning.     

Assessment of site specific benthic impact of floating cage farming in the eastern Hios island, Eastern Aegean Sea, Greece

The site specific impact on the benthic fauna was assessed within a 4.64 km² area of intensive aquaculture situated on the eastern side of Hios island (Aegean Sea, Greece) at 11 stations seasonally between November 2000 and October 2001. The benthic fauna showed marked changes in species numbers, diversity and faunal abundance between farm and control sites. The polychaetes Nereis diversicolor, Scolelepis fuliginosa and Capitella capitata were the most dominant species at the farm sites (35% of the total abundance), whilst the most dominant species at the control sites were the polychaete Hyalinoecia brementi and the sipunculid Aspidosiphon muelleri (23% of the total abundance). Species richness, diversity and evenness were higher at the control sites whereas numerical abundance was higher at the farm sites. K-dominance curves suggest a minor impact on the benthic community at the farm sites and temporal changes on macrobenthic assemblages.     

Temporal variations and pond age effect on plankton communities in semi-intensive freshwater marron (Cherax cainii,Austin and Ryan, 2002) earthen aquaculture ponds in Western Australia

The abundance and diversity of the plankton community represents the health of the aquatic ecosystem, and plays an important role in the growth of cultured animals under aquaculture conditions. The temporal variations of plankton abundance, taxonomic composition, diversity, evenness and species richness were studied in three old and three new semi-intensive marron (Cherax cainii, Austin and Ryan, 2002) ponds. Water parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, TAN, nitrite, nitrate and reactive phosphate were recorded, and plankton samples were collected every two months, for one year of juvenile production cycle. A total of twenty-six phytoplankton and seven zooplankton genera were recorded. Chlorophyceae was the dominant class of phytoplankton throughout the year, followed by Trebouxiophyceae. Rotifera comprised 49.8% of the total zooplankton community (individuals L^?1), the largest proportion of any group. Temporal variations impacted the plankton abundance and community structure, and plankton abundance were more abundant during summer. The pond age did not influence the phytoplankton abundance, whereas zooplankton abundance was higher in older ponds.     

田湾核电站海域浮游动物生态特征

2009年8月在田湾核电站附近海域进行了海洋浮游动物及环境因子的调查,在14个调查站位共鉴定浮游动物10大类43种.其中原生动物5种,水螅水母类17种,栉水母类2种,枝角类2种,桡足类11种,糠虾2种,樱虾类1种,磷虾1种,毛颚类1种,被囊类1种.浮游动物的丰度范围为99-2546个/m3,平均值为834个/m3.主要优势种为薮枝螅水母、太平洋纺锤水蚤、背针胸刺水蚤、鸟喙尖头潘、异体住囊虫、汤氏长足水蚤、强壮箭虫.优势度分别为0.804、0.586、0.569、0.485、0.197、0.140、0.116.各类指数变幅较大(种类数为9-17,丰富度指数为0.913-1.770,多样性指数为1.170-3.212,均匀度指数为0.369-0.803).多样性指数均值为2.188,均匀度指数均值为0.587,丰富度指数均值为1.336.相关性分析表明,水温与浮游动物丰度及种类数之间具有显著的相关性,相关系数(r)分别为-0.615和-0.574,P＜0.05;种类数与多样性指数、丰富度指数及均匀度指数有显著的正相关,相关系数(r)分别为0.730、0.759(P＜0.01)和0.552( P＜0.05),水温升高使浮游动物种类数减少;水温与氨氮含量之间有极显著的正相关性,氨氮含量与浮游动物种类数之间有极显著的负相关性,水温升高使氨氮上升引起浮游动物种类数下降,温排水导致调查海域水温升高引起了浮游动物群落多样性指数、丰富度指数及均匀度指数的下降.调查海域水质状况的生物多样性指数评价显示,目前该海域水质总体处于轻度污染.     

Comparison of the Levels of Bacterial Diversity in Freshwater,Intertidal Wetland,and Marine Sediments by Using Millions of Illumina Tags

Sediment, a special realm in aquatic environments, has high microbial diversity. While there are numerous reports about the microbial community in marine sediment, freshwater and intertidal sediment communities have been overlooked. The present study determined millions of Illumina reads for a comparison of bacterial communities in freshwater, intertidal wetland, and marine sediments along Pearl River, China, using a technically consistent approach. Our results show that both taxon richness and evenness were the highest in freshwater sediment, medium in intertidal sediment, and lowest in marine sediment. The high number of sequences allowed the determination of a wide variety of bacterial lineages in all sediments for reliable statistical analyses. Principal component analysis showed that the three types of communities could be well separated from phylum to operational taxonomy unit (OTU) levels, and the OTUs from abundant to rare showed satisfactory resolutions. Statistical analysis (LEfSe) demonstrated that the freshwater sediment was enriched with Acidobacteria, Nitrospira, Verrucomicrobia, Alphaproteobacteria, and Betaproteobacteria. The intertidal sediment had a unique community with diverse primary producers (such as Chloroflexi, Bacillariophyta, Gammaproteobacteria, and Epsilonproteobacteria) as well as saprophytic microbes (such as Actinomycetales, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes). The marine sediment had a higher abundance of Gammaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria, which were mainly involved in sulfate reduction in anaerobic conditions. These results are helpful for a systematic understanding of bacterial communities in natural sediment environments.     

Impact of exotic invasion on the temporal stability of natural annual plant communities

Much work in ecology has focused on understanding how changes in community diversity and composition will affect the temporal stability of communities (the degree of fluctuations in community abundance or biomass over time). While theory suggests diversity and dominant species can enhance temporal stability, empirical work has tended to focus on testing the effect of diversity, often using synthetic communities created with high species evenness. We use a complementary approach by studying the temporal stability of natural plant communities invaded by a dominant exotic, Erodium cicutarium. Invasion was associated with a significant decline in community diversity and change in the identity of the dominant species allowing us to evaluate predictions about how these changes might affect temporal stability. Community temporal stability was not correlated with community richness or diversity prior to invasion. Following invasion, community stability was again not correlated with community richness but was negatively correlated with community diversity. Before and after invasion, community stability was positively correlated with the stability of the most dominant species in the community, even though the identity of the dominant species changed from a native (prior to invasion) to an exotic species. Our results demonstrate that invasion by a dominant exotic species may reduce diversity without negatively affecting the temporal stability of natural communities. These findings add support to the idea that dominant species can strongly affect temporal stability, independent of community diversity.     

浙江大雷山夏蜡梅群落植物物种多样性及其与土壤因子相关性

分别采用物种丰富度、物种多样性指数和群落均匀度等指标对浙江省大雷山夏蜡梅群落植物物种多样性进行测定,并通过相关分析对各种指数与土壤因子的关系进行研究。据10个样地统计,共有维管植物74科、165属、193种。从种子植物属的地理成分来看,温带分布的类型居多。不同群落木本植物的物种丰富度和多样性指数以杉木+木荷林最高,群落均匀度以杉木林最高,毛竹林的各项指数最低。草本植物的物种丰富度以杉木+马尾松林最高,杉木林最低;多样性指数和群落均匀度以竹林最高,短柄枹+格药柃林最低。在不同群落的垂直结构中,乔木层的物种丰富度和多样性指数均小于灌木层,草本层的物种多样性在不同群落间变化较大。相关分析表明,夏蜡梅群落物种多样性与土壤有机质含量相关性较大,其中,木本植物物种多样性与有机质含量显著正相关,草本植物与有机质含量显著负相关。     

Algal invasions,blooms and biodiversity in lakes: Accounting for habitat-specific responses

Range expansions of species comprise a pervasive environmental problem worldwide and can cause substantial ecological and economic impact. However, the magnitude of impact may vary across habitats, highlighting the need to account for spatial heterogeneity in assessment studies. Here we compare invertebrate community structure in three habitats (littoral, sublittoral, and profundal) of boreal lakes that suffer recurring blooms of a regionally expanding, nuisance flagellate, Gonyostomum semen (Raphidophyta), with the assemblage structure in lakes were no blooms occur. We contrast community structure over a 6-year period using univariate metrics (total abundance, community evenness, species richness, and Simpson diversity) and multivariate community similarity to infer habitat-specific associations of local (alpha) diversity. We also calculated indices of multivariate dispersion to infer associations with beta diversity; i.e., whether or not habitats in bloom lakes show faunal homogenisation. Results show that the magnitude of assemblage alteration in bloom relative to bloom-free lakes varied with habitat and increased from the littoral to the profundal habitats. Littoral assemblages in bloom and bloom-free lakes shared similar alpha (taxon richness, evenness and Simpson diversity) and beta diversity characteristics, despite differing in multivariate community similarity. By contrast, alteration of assemblage structure was most severe in the profundal and manifested in reduced diversity and faunal homogenisation (i.e. decreased beta diversity) in bloom relative to bloom-free lakes. This was due to numerical dominance of the predatory phantom midge, Chaoborus flavicans, in the profundal of bloom lakes. Not only do the results highlight that spatial heterogeneity should be accounted for to assess the potential broader impact of nuisance species on biodiversity within lakes; more generally, the dominance of a single species suggests a reduced overall resilience of bloom lakes, making them more susceptible to environmental perturbation.     

Biodiversity and tallgrass prairie decomposition: the relative importance of species identity, evenness, richness, and micro-topography

Biodiversity has been declining in many areas, and there is great interest in determining whether this decline affects ecosystem functioning. Most biodiversity—ecosystem functioning studies have focused on the effects of species richness on net primary productivity. However, biodiversity encompasses both species richness and evenness, ecosystem functioning includes other important processes such as decomposition, and the effects of richness on ecosystem functioning may change at different levels of evenness. Here, we present two experiments on the effects of litter species evenness and richness on litter decomposition. In the first experiment, we varied the species evenness (three levels), identity of the dominant species (three species), and micro-topographic position (low points [gilgais] or high points between gilgais) of litter in three-species mixtures in a prairie in Texas, USA. In a second experiment, we varied the species evenness (three levels), richness (one, two, or four species per bag), and composition (random draws) of litter in a prairie in Iowa, USA. Greater species evenness significantly increased decomposition, but this effect was dependent on the environmental context. Higher evenness increased decomposition rates only under conditions of higher water availability (in gilgais in the first experiment) or during the earliest stages of decomposition (second experiment). Species richness had no significant effect on decomposition, nor did it interact with evenness. Micro-topographic position and species identity and composition had larger effects on decomposition than species evenness. These results suggest that the effects of litter species diversity on decomposition are more likely to be manifested through the evenness component of diversity than the richness component, and that diversity effects are likely to be environmentally context dependent.     

Presence of cushion plants increases community diversity in the high equatorial Andes

Cushion plants are a common growth form in the equatorial páramo vegetation and their surfaces are often colonized by other plants. This paper analyzes the effect of the cushion plants on the community diversity at 4650 m on the eastern slope of the Iliniza volcano in Ecuador. Ninety sample plots of 1 m² size were located in the study area and were divided into 25 subplots in which presence and abundance of plant species was recorded. The community diversity was expressed as species richness, Simpson's diversity index, and evenness. Correlation between the cushion species and the composition of the colonists was measured with the CCA ordination analysis, correlation between the cushion cover and community diversity was measured by means of correlation analysis. Randomized species–area curves were used to compare richness of plant communities with and without the cushions. A total of 32 species were found including five cushion plants. Most species preferred to grow on the cushion surface whereas only a few species were able to colonize open ground. Species richness and Simpson's index were significantly correlated to the cushion area but no correlation was found for evenness. The cushions were usually composed of more than one species which hampered the examination of the cushion–colonist specific relationships. Nevertheless, cushions of Azorella and Arenaria seemed to provide more favorable habitat for colonization than the other cushion species. Comparison with an earlier study made on Iliniza indicates that the presence of the cushions significantly increases the richness of the plant community.     

Plant species richness,identity and productivity differentially influence key groups of microbes in grassland soils of contrasting fertility

The abundance of microbes in soil is thought to be strongly influenced by plant productivity rather than by plant species richness per se. However, whether this holds true for different microbial groups and under different soil conditions is unresolved. We tested how plant species richness, identity and biomass influence the abundances of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), saprophytic bacteria and fungi, and actinomycetes, in model plant communities in soil of low and high fertility using phospholipid fatty acid analysis. Abundances of saprophytic fungi and bacteria were driven by larger plant biomass in high diversity treatments. In contrast, increased AMF abundance with larger plant species richness was not explained by plant biomass, but responded to plant species identity and was stimulated by Anthoxantum odoratum. Our results indicate that the abundance of saprophytic soil microbes is influenced more by resource quantity, as driven by plant production, while AMF respond more strongly to resource composition, driven by variation in plant species richness and identity. This suggests that AMF abundance in soil is more sensitive to changes in plant species diversity per se and plant species composition than are abundances of saprophytic microbes.     

三亚岩相潮间带底栖海藻群落结构及其季节变化

为了解三亚潮间带大型海藻生态现状,布设6条岩相断面,于2008年1—11月进行了四季野外的调查,并使用物种多样性指数与聚类分析研究了潮间带大型海藻四季的群落结构和多样性变化。调查共鉴定出大型底栖藻类130种,隶属于4门75属,其中红藻门41属67种、褐藻门16属31种、绿藻门15属29种、蓝藻门3属3种。潮间带海藻种类数季节变化不大,并呈低潮带>中潮带>高潮带的垂直分布特征,且中低潮带有共同分布种,夏季尤为普遍。潮间带海藻夏冬两季平均生物量高于春秋两季,但并无显著差异。优势种季节变化明显:春季有波利团扇藻Padina boryana、日本仙菜Ceramium japonicum、半叶马尾藻Sargassum hemiphyllum、海柏Polyopes polyideoides,夏季有波状软凹藻Chondrophycus undulates、冠叶马尾藻Sargassum cristaefolium、宽扁叉节藻Amphiroa dilatata、石花菜Gelidium amansii,秋季有冠叶马尾藻、波状软凹藻、叶状铁钉菜Ishige foliacea,冬季有瓦氏马尾藻Sargassum vachellianum、苔状鸭毛藻Symphyocladia marchantioides、珊瑚藻Corallina officinalis、波利团扇藻、日本仙菜。群落多样性冬高夏低:Shannon多样性和Margalef丰富度指数最大值出现在冬季,Shannon多样性和Pielou均匀度指数最低值出现在夏季。区域底栖藻类以暖水性热带-亚热带种为主,其次为温水性的暖温带种类,基本符合南海南区暖水区系特点。研究表明,尽管三亚潮间带底栖海藻种类数与生物量上并无显著的季节差异,但群落结构与多样性均显示出一定的季节变化。