Response of species abundance distribution pattern of alpine meadow community to sampling scales
Minxia Liu A * , Lei Zhu B , Yibo Ma C , Yaya Zhang A , Lu Xu A , Mingxing Wang A and Cheng Liu A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
B School of Design and Art, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
C Carey School of Business, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC, USA.
* Correspondence to: xiaminl@163.com
The Rangeland Journal 44(1) 13-24 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ21034
Submitted: 24 June 2021 Accepted: 20 December 2021 Published: 24 March 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Rangeland Society.
Abstract
To analyse the variation of species abundance distribution (SAD) patterns with scale, and consider its formation mechanism and ecological process in alpine meadow in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of China, study areas were established, nine permanent plots were randomly selected, and 72 quadrats were investigated. Four diversity indices were selected, including species richness, the Margalef, Shannon–Wiener and Simpson indices and relative importance values to quantify community assembly and biodiversity. Species accumulation curves were used to describe the SADs of the alpine meadow, and three model types used to fit the SADs. The results showed the following: (1) the Cyperaceae families were the respective dominance family in alpine meadow in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of China; (2) at sampling scales from 0.25 to 2 m2, the total species richness and diversity indices increased; (3) total SADs were scale-dependent; the statistical model could not fit the SADs; the neutral theory model could explain SADs patterns at smaller spatial scales (0.25–1 m2), and the niche process gradually replaced the neutral process in importance and became the main mechanism for determining SADs with the increase of sampling scales (1.25–2 m2); (4) for common species, the niche model (geometric series model) could fit the SAD of common species at different sampling scales, which indicates that the niche process is the main mechanism to determine the SAD of common species; and (5) for rare species, with the change of sampling scale, the fitting model of rare species is different, which indicates that the SAD of rare species is affected by a variety of uncertain factors. In general, niche differentiation processes had a major effect on the biodiversity patterns of alpine meadow in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.
Keywords: common species, community structure, neutral theory model, niche model, spatial scaling, species abundance distribution, species diversity, rare species.
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