Composition and ecological drivers of the kwongan scrub and woodlands in the northern Swan Coastal Plain,Western Australia

The nature of community patterns and environmental drivers in kwongan mediterranean‐type shrubland on nutrient‐poor soils occurring in Western Australia remain poorly examined. We aimed to determine whether (i) classification of the kwongan vegetation of the northern Swan Coastal Plain would be ecologically informative and (ii) which environmental drivers underpin the plant community patterns. The study area was positioned on the northern Swan Coastal Plain, locality of Cooljarloo (30°39′ S, 115°22′ E), situated 170 km north of Perth, Western Australia. Compositional (518 species × 337 relevés) and environmental data set (29 variables × 87 relevés) describing time since last fire, soil chemical and physical properties, and terrain characteristics were analysed using classification and ordination techniques. OptimClass assisted in the selection of a robust data transformation, resemblance function and clustering algorithm to identify the vegetation patterns. Major ecological drivers of the vegetation patterns were detected using distance‐based redundancy analysis (db‐RDA). Classification revealed major groupings of Wet Heath and Banksia Woodland distinguishable by the high prevalence of myrtyoid and proteoid taxa, respectively. On floristic‐sociological grounds, we recognised four Wet Heath and two Banksia Woodland communities. The Wet Heath was constrained to areas of higher litter depth (db‐RDA axis 1: 9%). Soil chemical and physical properties explained the highest proportion (17%) of the compositional variance, while the terrain‐ and fire‐related variables explained 2% and <0.001%, respectively. While fire explained little compositional variance overall, a separate db‐RDA analysis found that it may play an important pattern‐structuring role within Banksia Woodlands. Fine‐scale compositional patterns correspond only to a small extent to environmental data; the substantial unexplained variance may be due to slow‐acting neutral and stochastic processes.     

Increase in nonnative understorey vegetation cover after nonnative conifer removal and passive restoration

Nonnative conifers are widespread in the southern hemisphere, where their use as plantation species has led to adverse ecosystem impacts sometimes intensified by invasion. Mechanical removal is a common strategy used to reduce or eliminate the negative impacts of nonnative conifers, and encourage native regeneration. However, a variety of factors may preclude active ecological restoration following removal. As a result, passive restoration – unassisted natural vegetation regeneration – is common following conifer removal. We asked, ‘what is the response of understorey cover to removal of nonnative conifer stands followed by passive restoration?' We sampled understorey cover in three site types: two‐ to ten‐year‐old clearcuts, native forest and current plantations. We then grouped understorey species by origin (native/nonnative) and growth form, and compared proportion and per cent cover of these groups as well as of bare ground and litter between the three site types. For clearcuts, we also analysed the effect of time since clearcut on the studied variables. We found that clearcuts had a significantly higher average proportion of nonnative understorey vegetation cover than native forest sites, where nonnative vegetation was nearly absent. The understorey of clearcut sites also averaged more overall vegetation cover and more nonnative vegetation cover (in particular nonnative shrubs and herbaceous species) than either plantation or native forest sites. Notably, 99% of nonnative shrub cover in clearcuts was the invasive nonnative species Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius). After ten years of passive recovery since clearcutting, the proportion of understorey vegetation cover that is native has not increased and remains far below the proportion observed in native forest sites. Reduced natural regeneration capacity of the native ecosystem, presence of invasive species in the surrounding landscape and land‐use legacies from plantation forestry may inhibit native vegetation recovery and benefit opportunistic invasives, limiting the effectiveness of passive restoration in this context. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.     

2000-2017年新疆天山植被水分利用效率时空特征及其与气候因子关系分析

水分利用效率(WUE)是衡量生态系统碳水循环耦合程度的重要指标, 估算新疆天山及南北主要绿洲的植被WUE并分析其时空变化规律, 探索其影响因素, 对该区域生态系统保护、农业水资源的合理利用与开发等方面具有重要的意义。基于MODIS遥感数据、气象数据和土地利用类型数据, 分析新疆天山近18年植被WUE时空变化特征以及与气候因子的关系。结果表明: (1) 2000-2017年新疆天山植被WUE变化范围为0.84-1.34 g·mm ^-1·m ^-2, 多年均值为1.11 g·mm ^-1·m ^-2, 整体呈减少趋势, 变化率为-0.014 1 g·mm ^-1·m ^-2·a ^-1; 空间分布具有较强的垂直地带性规律, 1 000 m以上的区域随着海拔的升高而减少。(2)植被WUE年内变化呈单峰型变化格局, 具有明显的季节性差异, 表现为: 夏季>春季>秋季>冬季。(3)相关分析和统计结果表明, 新疆天山植被WUE时空变化受到气温影响的区域占33.23%, 受降水影响的区域占8.57%, 受气温和降水综合强影响的区域占5.63%, 气温和降水综合弱影响的区域占13.13%; 因此气候因素中气温在新疆天山植被WUE的变化中起到主导作用。(4)水田与旱地水分利用效率随着时间变化呈持续减少趋势, 并且这些区域基本上受到非气候因子的影响, 说明当地人类活动存在不合理性。     

泌桐高速公路生态护坡不同草灌混播10a后的植被群落特征

稳定的边坡群落是公路边坡生态防护的目标,为探究高速公路生态护坡工程10 a演替后群落特征,该研究以泌桐高速公路为依托,布设自然恢复、单一狗牙根播种和5个不同播种密度的草灌混播生态防护措施,分析不同恢复方式对边坡群落组成、生活型和物种多样性的影响。结果表明:(1)调查样方内共有52种植物,分属于17科49属。禾本科、菊科和豆科植物共26属29种,占种总数的55.77%,表明这三大科植物在边坡群落演替过程中起着重要作用。(2) 10 a演替后不同恢复方式下群落中多年生植物比例高于一年生草本植物。(3)在草灌混播样地中,群落物种多样性指数随着播种密度的增加呈先增加后降低的单峰变化趋势,在播种密度为每平方米500株时达到最大。(4)草灌混播的生态恢复效果优于纯草本种植和自然恢复方式。(5)播种密度对草灌混播群落类型,地上生物量和物种多样性指数没有显著影响。从植物的生长效果及成本方面考虑,初播密度每平方米为500~600株的草灌混播可构建较为稳定的边坡植物群落,实现最佳的边坡恢复效果,可应用于类似区域边坡生态恢复工程。     

黔西北地区不同演替阶段植物群落结构与物种多样性特征

该文采用"空间代替时间"的方法,研究了贵州省威宁县喀斯特地区植被演替过程中的群落结构、物种组成、生活型谱和物种多样性的变化规律。结果表明:(1)该调查共记录到种子植物174种,隶属于52科117属,物种分布较多的有菊科、蔷薇科、禾本科、杜鹃花科、小檗科、唇形科、蓼科。(2)随着植被的正向演替,物种丰富度逐渐增加,群落结构趋于复杂,高位芽植物所占比例逐渐增大。(3)随着植被的恢复,群落层次分化逐渐明显,大径级植株所占比例呈现增加趋势。(4)随着植被的恢复,群落各层次的ShannonWiener多样性指数(H)、Simpson多样性指数(DS)、均匀度指数(J)和Margalef丰富度指数(DM)逐渐增加;不同演替阶段植物群落之间的Srensen相似系数呈现先上升后下降的趋势,Cody指数则表现为逐渐增加的趋势。黔西北地区不同演替阶段植物群落结构和物种多样性不同,建群种和关键种发生了明显变化,不同演替阶段植物群落结构和物种多样性的研究对喀斯特地区植被演替规律的认识和生态恢复具有重要意义。     

Site fertility drives temporal turnover of vegetation at high latitudes

Experimental evidence shows that site fertility is a key modulator underlying plant community changes under climate change. Communities on fertile sites, with species having fast dynamics, have been found to react more strongly to climate change than communities on infertile sites with slow dynamics. However, it is still unclear whether this generally applies to high‐latitude plant communities in natural environments at broad spatial scales. We tested a hypothesis that vegetation of fertile sites experiences greater changes over several decades and thus would be more responsive under contemporary climate change compared to infertile sites that are expected to show more resistance. We resurveyed understorey communities (vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens) of four infertile and four fertile forest sites along a latitudinal bioclimatic gradient. Sites had remained outside direct human disturbance. We analyzed the magnitude of temporal community turnover, changes in the abundances of plant morphological groups and strategy classes, and changes in species diversity. In agreement with our hypothesis, temporal turnover of communities was consistently greater on fertile sites compared to infertile sites. However, our results suggest that the larger turnover of fertile communities is not primarily related to the direct effects of climatic warming. Furthermore, community changes in both fertile and infertile sites showed remarkable variation in terms of shares of plant functional groups and strategy classes and measures of species diversity. This further emphasizes the essential role of baseline environmental conditions and nonclimatic drivers underlying vegetation changes. Our results show that site fertility is a key determinant of the overall rate of high‐latitude vegetation changes but the composition of plant communities in different ecological contexts is variously impacted by nonclimatic drivers over time.     

Urbanization and Mismatch with Protected Areas Place the Conservation of a Threatened Species at Risk

In this work, we report the predicted distribution of the threatened fluminense swallowtail butterfly, Parides ascanius (Cramer 1775), and correlate it to the presence of urban and protected areas within its range. The distribution was modeled using a genetic algorithm. The predicted distribution of the fluminense swallowtail shows high agreement within Rio de Janeiro state, in a near-continuous strip of 2,038,253 ha along the coastal lowlands, 17.8 percent of which is within urban areas. Only 8.7 percent (178,187 ha) of the remaining (nonurban) predicted model overlapped at least partially with protected areas (19 in all). Almost half of these protected areas also overlapped with urban areas, resulting in an additional loss of 58,751 ha. In seven of 19 protected areas, the distribution of P. ascanius was predicted by less than 50 percent of the models; five of the remaining protected areas are less restrictive reserves. Despite the wide distribution predicted by the models, only two of the observed occurrence points matched the predicted distribution within protected areas. Modeling threatened species distribution is a useful tool for highlighting gaps in networks of protected areas and should aid in planning to fill these gaps. However, in several developing countries with high biodiversity, there is insufficient basic biological information for many threatened species. In these cases, prospecting field studies are urgently needed.