Point pattern analysis of different age-classes of Larix principis-rupprechtii in Luya Mountain Reserve, Shanxi Province, China

Larix principis-rupprechtii forest is an important vegetation formation and has a large distribution area in Luya Mountain Reserve, China. Spatial pattern analysis on individual trees in different age-classes of Larix principis-rupprechtii was made in this paper. Here, we employed the technique of point pattern analysis, which could analyze patterns under all scales along a gradient. It was based on spatial mapped points of individual distribution. The results of this study showed that the densities of the five age-classes varied in the order: age-class 3 > age-class 4 > age-class 5 > age-class 2 > age-class 1. Although age-classes 1 and 2 have much fewer individuals than other three age-classes do, the population was stable at present. However, it would be necessary to take some measures for improving population regeneration for a long-time view. The individuals of all age-classes focused on clumping distribution in space; however, their distribution pattern varied with the change of scale. This mainly depended on biological features of Larix principis-rupprechtii and forest environments, but it also meant that the scale was an important factor in controlling spatial distribution pattern of tree individuals. The feature of clumping distribution became more significant with the increase of age. The relationships between individuals in different age-classes were almost all significantly correlated with each other. These associations became more significant within the older age-classes. This suggested that the individuals of different age-classes were interdistributed, by which the population could get benefits in resource utilization. The technique of point pattern analysis is effective and easy to be used in species pattern study. Its results are more closer to the reality, especially for community structure. Translated from Acta Ecologica Sinica, 2004, 24(1): 35–40 [译自: 生态学报]     

格氏栲自然保护区常绿阔叶林群落的数量分类

基于对群落22个样地的调查,以群落样地中乔木层树种的重要值为指标,采用纸条排队法、群落相似系数分类法、最近邻体法和组平均法对格氏栲自然保护区常绿阔叶林群落进行数量分类。结果表明:4种分类结果基本相似,格氏栲自然保护区常绿阔叶林群落样地可分为格氏栲群系、米槠群系、甜槠群系、刨花楠群系、沉水樟群系、观光木群系和闽楠群系等7个群系,并论述了各群系的群落学特征,各群系基本处于稳定的顶极阶段。     

A comparison of sites suitable for the seedling establishment of two co-occurring species, Swintonia glauca and Stemonurus scorpioides, in a tropical peat swamp forest

Spatial and temporal ground-surface dynamics are major factors that affect regeneration and species coexistence in tropical peat swamp forests. We studied the seedling survivorship and morphological features of two tree species that play important roles in maintaining the ground-surface dynamics of a peat swamp forest in Sumatra. Large Swintonia glauca trees form mounds, whereas large Stemonurus scorpioides trees occupy non-mounds. We monitored the demography of naturally dispersed Swintonia and Stemonurus seedlings that germinated in 2000. Survivorship of Swintonia seedlings was high under conditions of late germination, high-light environment, and elevated ground surface, and was negatively affected by distance to the nearest conspecific adult. Survivorship of Stemonurus was high under conditions of early germination and high conspecific seedling density, and was also negatively affected by distance to the nearest conspecific adult. The allometric features of Stemonurus seedlings indicated characteristics of stress tolerance, that is, low growth rate and thick, porous roots. Stemonurus, which has large wingless seeds, regenerated in non-mounds around the parental trees, while winged Swintonia seeds dispersed farther from the parent and established in patchily distributed gaps and mounds. Thus, Swintonia seedlings can survive on non-mound sites within gaps and possibly create mounds, while Stemonurus seedlings tend to maintain non-mounds around the parental trees.     

车八岭山地常绿阔叶林冰灾后林木受损的生态学评估

从植物生态学的角度对2008年初南方冻雨冰雪灾害对典型的亚热带山地常绿阔叶林造成的损害情况做了研究。对12个优势种和亚优势种的受灾情况做了对比分析, 对不同径级和不同地形因子下林木抵抗冻雨灾害的差异做了对比。统计检验结果显示林木受损程度存在显著的种间差异、径级差异和地形级差异。优势种米槠(Castanopsis carlesii)比多数亚优势种受害更严重; 各树种抗冻雨灾害能力以山茶科和樟科的种较强, 而壳斗科的多个种, 如米槠、栲(C. fargesii)受灾较为严重; 林木的受损比例随着胸径(diameter at breast height, DBH)增加而增大; 在未受灾的各级林木中, 超过70%的个体集中在最小一级径阶(1-5 cm)。χ²检验显示坡度、坡向、坡位等地形因子对林木受损状况有显著的影响, 随着坡位上升, 林木受损程度逐渐加重, 上坡位的林木受损比例最大, 下坡位最小, 这可能与随着坡位升高, 迎风面降温效果更迅速有关。对于坡向和坡度而言, 位于半阳坡的林木受灾比例显著高于半阴坡, 位于坡度级III (15°-25°)、IV (25°-35°)、V (35°-45°)上的林木受灾最严重。该研究结果对于亚热带常绿阔叶林的保育和应对未来可能再次发生的冰雪灾害有重要意义; 同时对于森林恢复和演替、乡土阔叶树种的选育及森林经营等方面的研究和应用也有重要的参考价值。     

Evolutionary processes driving spatial patterns of intraspecific genetic diversity in river ecosystems

Describing, understanding and predicting the spatial distribution of genetic diversity is a central issue in biological sciences. In river landscapes, it is generally predicted that neutral genetic diversity should increase downstream, but there have been few attempts to test and validate this assumption across taxonomic groups. Moreover, it is still unclear what are the evolutionary processes that may generate this apparent spatial pattern of diversity. Here, we quantitatively synthesized published results from diverse taxa living in river ecosystems, and we performed a meta‐analysis to show that a downstream increase in intraspecific genetic diversity (DIGD) actually constitutes a general spatial pattern of biodiversity that is repeatable across taxa. We further demonstrated that DIGD was stronger for strictly waterborne dispersing than for overland dispersing species. However, for a restricted data set focusing on fishes, there was no evidence that DIGD was related to particular species traits. We then searched for general processes underlying DIGD by simulating genetic data in dendritic‐like river systems. Simulations revealed that the three processes we considered (downstream‐biased dispersal, increase in habitat availability downstream and upstream‐directed colonization) might generate DIGD. Using random forest models, we identified from simulations a set of highly informative summary statistics allowing discriminating among the processes causing DIGD. Finally, combining these discriminant statistics and approximate Bayesian computations on a set of twelve empirical case studies, we hypothesized that DIGD were most likely due to the interaction of two of these three processes and that contrary to expectation, they were not solely caused by downstream‐biased dispersal.     

Methane emissions reduce the radiative cooling effect of a subtropical estuarine mangrove wetland by half

The role of coastal mangrove wetlands in sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and mitigating climate change has received increasing attention in recent years. While recent studies have shown that methane (CH₄) emissions can potentially offset the carbon burial rates in low‐salinity coastal wetlands, there is hitherto a paucity of direct and year‐round measurements of ecosystem‐scale CH₄ flux (F_CH4) from mangrove ecosystems. In this study, we examined the temporal variations and biophysical drivers of ecosystem‐scale F_CH4 in a subtropical estuarine mangrove wetland based on 3 years of eddy covariance measurements. Our results showed that daily mangrove F_CH4 reached a peak of over 0.1 g CH₄‐C m^?2 day^?1 during the summertime owing to a combination of high temperature and low salinity, while the wintertime F_CH4 was negligible. In this mangrove, the mean annual CH₄ emission was 11.7 ± 0.4 g CH₄‐C m^–2 year^?1 while the annual net ecosystem CO₂ exchange ranged between ?891 and ?690 g CO₂‐C m^?2 year^?1, indicating a net cooling effect on climate over decadal to centurial timescales. Meanwhile, we showed that mangrove F_CH4 could offset the negative radiative forcing caused by CO₂ uptake by 52% and 24% over a time horizon of 20 and 100 years, respectively, based on the corresponding sustained‐flux global warming potentials. Moreover, we found that 87% and 69% of the total variance of daily F_CH4 could be explained by the random forest machine learning algorithm and traditional linear regression model, respectively, with soil temperature and salinity being the most dominant controls. This study was the first of its kind to characterize ecosystem‐scale F_CH4 in a mangrove wetland with long‐term eddy covariance measurements. Our findings implied that future environmental changes such as climate warming and increasing river discharge might increase CH₄ emissions and hence reduce the net radiative cooling effect of estuarine mangrove forests.     

Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity

Neutral and niche theories give contrasting explanations for the maintenance of tropical tree species diversity. Both have some empirical support, but methods to disentangle their effects have not yet been developed. We applied a statistical measure of spatial structure to data from 14 large tropical forest plots to test a prediction of niche theory that is incompatible with neutral theory: that species in heterogeneous environments should separate out in space according to their niche preferences. We chose plots across a range of topographic heterogeneity, and tested whether pairwise spatial associations among species were more variable in more heterogeneous sites. We found strong support for this prediction, based on a strong positive relationship between variance in the spatial structure of species pairs and topographic heterogeneity across sites. We interpret this pattern as evidence of pervasive niche differentiation, which increases in importance with increasing environmental heterogeneity.     

Functional diversity of macromycete communities along an environmental gradient in a Mexican seasonally dry tropical forest

Macromycetes are important for ecosystem functioning due to their role in the nutrient cycling, and their function as pathogens and mutualists. Diversity metrics based on functional traits are robust predictors of ecosystem functionality since they incorporate an evolutionary and ecologic background. We examined diversity patterns of macrofungi using functional trait-based metrics of diversity along an altitudinal gradient in a seasonally dry tropical forest in southern Mexico. Our findings show that: (1) functional diversity varies with elevation, relating more to climatic variables than to vegetation structure; (2) functional diversity indexes exhibited contrasting patterns, so measures reflecting heterogeneity on trait abundance and niche complementarity tend to increase with elevation, whereas the measure of trait evenness decreases; and (3) functional diversity patterns depend on the type of functional trait considered and how they respond to environmental conditions. Our results indicate that functional diversity analyses help understanding of how macrofungal communities respond to environmental variation.