Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Abstract

Although there are growing attentions on how human activities alter plant communities, little is known about the consequences of these changes on the shape of species assemblages and biodiversity patterns. Using three vegetation types (a Pinus yunnanensis man-made forest, a Eucalyptus smithii man-made forest, and a natural secondary forest) from mid- Yunnan,China, we mainly aim at: (1) testing the patterns in plant communities at the level of species and traits and examining the community assembly rules; (2) revealing the difference between species and functional diversity relationship; (3) understanding the relationship between soil nutrients and trait dispersion and biodiversity. The results showed that: (1) species co-occurrence patterns in the Pinus yunnanensis forest and natural secondary forest were non-random when applying the fixed-equiprobable algorithm. Specific leaf area in the Eucalyptus smithii forest and leaf nitrogen concentration in the Pinus yunnanensis forest were both over-dispersion through mean Euclidean neighbor distance in trait space. (2) The difference was significant between the species and functional diversity in man-made and natural forests, but overall a low covariation was found in the Pinus yunnanensis and natural secondary forests. (3) Soil phosphorus content was positively related to the functional diversity in all plots, suggesting that it may play an important role in patterning functional diversity.

Biography

Fu Denggao has completed his Ph.D. at the age of 32 years from Yunnan University School of Life Science. Plant ecology is his research specialty. He has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals and has been teaching as a lecturer of ecology in Yunnan University