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Qiao X, Zhang J, Wang Z, Xu Y, Zhou T, Mi X, Cao M, Ye W, Jin G, Hao Z, Wang X, Wang X, Tian S, Li X, Xiang W, Liu Y, Shao Y, Xu K, Sang W, Zeng F, Ren H, Jiang M, Ellison AM. Foundation species across a latitudinal gradient in China. Ecology 2020; 102:e03234. [PMID: 33107020 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2020] [Revised: 08/10/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Foundation species structure forest communities and ecosystems but are difficult to identify without long-term observations or experiments. We used statistical criteria--outliers from size-frequency distributions and scale-dependent negative effects on alpha diversity and positive effects on beta diversity--to identify candidate foundation woody plant species in 12 large forest-dynamics plots spanning 26 degrees of latitude in China. We used these data (1) to identify candidate foundation species in Chinese forests, (2) to test the hypothesis--based on observations of a midlatitude peak in functional trait diversity and high local species richness but few numerically dominant species in tropical forests--that foundation woody plant species are more frequent in temperate than tropical or boreal forests, and (3) to compare these results with data from the Americas to suggest candidate foundation genera in northern hemisphere forests. Using the most stringent criteria, only two species of Acer, the canopy tree Acer ukurunduense and the shrubby treelet Acer barbinerve, were identified in temperate plots as candidate foundation species. Using more relaxed criteria, we identified four times more candidate foundation species in temperate plots (including species of Acer, Pinus, Juglans, Padus, Tilia, Fraxinus, Prunus, Taxus, Ulmus, and Corlyus) than in (sub)tropical plots (the treelets or shrubs Aporosa yunnanensis, Ficus hispida, Brassaiopsis glomerulata, and Orophea laui). Species diversity of co-occurring woody species was negatively associated with basal area of candidate foundation species more frequently at 5- and 10-m spatial grains (scale) than at a 20-m grain. Conversely, Bray-Curtis dissimilarity was positively associated with basal area of candidate foundation species more frequently at 5-m than at 10- or 20-m grains. Both stringent and relaxed criteria supported the hypothesis that foundation species are more common in mid-latitude temperate forests. Comparisons of candidate foundation species in Chinese and North American forests suggest that Acer be investigated further as a foundation tree genus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiujuan Qiao
- Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences [CAS], Wuhan, 430074, China.,Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Gardens, CAS, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Jiaxin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences [CAS], Wuhan, 430074, China.,Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Gardens, CAS, Wuhan, 430074, China.,University of CAS, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Zhong Wang
- Department of Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
| | - Yaozhan Xu
- Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences [CAS], Wuhan, 430074, China.,Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Gardens, CAS, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Tianyang Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences [CAS], Wuhan, 430074, China.,Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Gardens, CAS, Wuhan, 430074, China.,University of CAS, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Xiangcheng Mi
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany (CAS), Beijing, 100093, China
| | - Min Cao
- Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (CAS), Kunming, 650023, China
| | - Wanhui Ye
- South China Botanical Garden (CAS), Guangzhou, 510650, China
| | - Guangze Jin
- Center for Ecological Research, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China
| | - Zhanqing Hao
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129, China
| | - Xugao Wang
- Institute of Applied Ecology (CAS), Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Xihua Wang
- Department of Environmental Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China
| | - Songyan Tian
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Forestry Ecological Engineering of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, 150040, China
| | - Xiankun Li
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Plant Conservation and Restoration Ecology in Karst Terrain, Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guilin, 541006, China
| | - Wusheng Xiang
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Plant Conservation and Restoration Ecology in Karst Terrain, Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guilin, 541006, China
| | - Yankun Liu
- National Positioning Observation Station of Mudanjiang Forest Ecosystem in Heilongjiang Province, Mudanjiang, 157500, China
| | - Yingnan Shao
- Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Forestry Ecological Engineering of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, 150040, China
| | - Kun Xu
- Lijiang Forest Ecosystem Research Station, Kunming Institute of Botany (CAS), Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Weiguo Sang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany (CAS), Beijing, 100093, China.,Minzu University of China, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Fuping Zeng
- Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (CAS), Changsha, 410125, China
| | - Haibao Ren
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany (CAS), Beijing, 100093, China
| | - Mingxi Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences [CAS], Wuhan, 430074, China.,Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Gardens, CAS, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Aaron M Ellison
- Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, Massachusetts, 01366, USA
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Yin ZY, Zeng L, Luo SM, Chen P, He X, Guo W, Li B. Examining the patterns and dynamics of species abundance distributions in succession of forest communities by model selection. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0196898. [PMID: 29746516 PMCID: PMC5944961 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2016] [Accepted: 04/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
There are a few common species and many rare species in a biological community or a multi-species collection in given space and time. This hollow distribution curve is called species abundance distribution (SAD). Few studies have examined the patterns and dynamics of SADs during the succession of forest communities by model selection. This study explored whether the communities in different successional stages followed different SAD models and whether there existed a best SAD model to reveal their intrinsic quantitative features of structure and dynamics in succession. The abundance (the number of individuals) of each vascular plant was surveyed by quadrat sampling method from the tree, shrub and herb layers in two typical communities (i.e., the evergreen needle- and broad-leaved mixed forest and the monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest) in southern subtropical Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve, South China. The sites of two forest communities in different successional stages are both 1 ha in area. We collected seven widely representative SAD models with obviously different function forms and transformed them into the same octave (log2) scale. These models are simultaneously confronted with eight datasets from four layers of two communities, and their goodness-of-fits to the data were evaluated by the chi-squared test, the adjusted coefficient of determination and the information criteria. The results indicated that: (1) the logCauchy model followed all the datasets and was the best among seven models; (2) the fitness of each model to the data was not directly related to the successional stage of forest community; (3) according to the SAD curves predicted by the best model (i.e., the logCauchy), the proportion of rare species decreased but that of common ones increased in the upper layers with succession, while the reverse was true in the lower layers; and (4) the difference of the SADs increased between the upper and the lower layers with succession. We concluded that the logCauchy model had the widest applicability in describing the SADs, and could best mirror the SAD patterns and dynamics of communities and their different layers in the succession of forests. The logCauchy-modeled SADs can quantitatively guide the construction of ecological forests and the restoration of degraded vegetation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zuo-Yun Yin
- College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Forest Breeding, Protection and Utilization, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Guangdong Forest Research Institute (Guangdong Academy of Forestry), Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Ecological Complexity and Modeling Laboratory, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (ZYY); (SML); (XH)
| | - Lu Zeng
- Guangdong Ecological Engineering Vocational College, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Shao-Ming Luo
- Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- * E-mail: (ZYY); (SML); (XH)
| | - Ping Chen
- College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiao He
- College of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics (formerly Guangdong University of Business Studies), Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- * E-mail: (ZYY); (SML); (XH)
| | - Wei Guo
- College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Bailian Li
- Ecological Complexity and Modeling Laboratory, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California, United States of America
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Alroy J. The shape of terrestrial abundance distributions. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2015; 1:e1500082. [PMID: 26601249 PMCID: PMC4643760 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2015] [Accepted: 07/29/2015] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Ecologists widely accept that the distribution of abundances in most communities is fairly flat but heavily dominated by a few species. The reason for this is that species abundances are thought to follow certain theoretical distributions that predict such a pattern. However, previous studies have focused on either a few theoretical distributions or a few empirical distributions. I illustrate abundance patterns in 1055 samples of trees, bats, small terrestrial mammals, birds, lizards, frogs, ants, dung beetles, butterflies, and odonates. Five existing theoretical distributions make inaccurate predictions about the frequencies of the most common species and of the average species, and most of them fit the overall patterns poorly, according to the maximum likelihood-related Kullback-Leibler divergence statistic. Instead, the data support a low-dominance distribution here called the "double geometric." Depending on the value of its two governing parameters, it may resemble either the geometric series distribution or the lognormal series distribution. However, unlike any other model, it assumes both that richness is finite and that species compete unequally for resources in a two-dimensional niche landscape, which implies that niche breadths are variable and that trait distributions are neither arrayed along a single dimension nor randomly associated. The hypothesis that niche space is multidimensional helps to explain how numerous species can coexist despite interacting strongly.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Alroy
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia. E-mail:
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Harte J, Zillio T, Conlisk E, Smith AB. Maximum entropy and the state-variable approach to macroecology. Ecology 2009; 89:2700-11. [PMID: 18959308 DOI: 10.1890/07-1369.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 172] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The biodiversity scaling metrics widely studied in macroecology include the species-area relationship (SAR), the scale-dependent species-abundance distribution (SAD), the distribution of masses or metabolic energies of individuals within and across species, the abundance-energy or abundance-mass relationship across species, and the species-level occupancy distributions across space. We propose a theoretical framework for predicting the scaling forms of these and other metrics based on the state-variable concept and an analytical method derived from information theory. In statistical physics, a method of inference based on information entropy results in a complete macro-scale description of classical thermodynamic systems in terms of the state variables volume, temperature, and number of molecules. In analogy, we take the state variables of an ecosystem to be its total area, the total number of species within any specified taxonomic group in that area, the total number of individuals across those species, and the summed metabolic energy rate for all those individuals. In terms solely of ratios of those state variables, and without invoking any specific ecological mechanisms, we show that realistic functional forms for the macroecological metrics listed above are inferred based on information entropy. The Fisher log series SAD emerges naturally from the theory. The SAR is predicted to have negative curvature on a log-log plot, but as the ratio of the number of species to the number of individuals decreases, the SAR becomes better and better approximated by a power law, with the predicted slope z in the range of 0.14-0.20. Using the 3/4 power mass-metabolism scaling relation to relate energy requirements and measured body sizes, the Damuth scaling rule relating mass and abundance is also predicted by the theory. We argue that the predicted forms of the macroecological metrics are in reasonable agreement with the patterns observed from plant census data across habitats and spatial scales. While this is encouraging, given the absence of adjustable fitting parameters in the theory, we further argue that even small discrepancies between data and predictions can help identify ecological mechanisms that influence macroecological patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Harte
- Energy and Resources Group, University of California, 310 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
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Species abundance distributions and numerical dominance in gastrointestinal helminth communities of fish hosts. J Helminthol 2008; 82:193-202. [PMID: 18544177 DOI: 10.1017/s0022149x08982626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
The abundances of different species in a parasite community are never similar: there is typically one or a few numerically dominant species and many species with low abundance. Here, we determine whether basic features of parasite communities are associated with strong dominance by one or a few species, among 39 component communities of gastrointestinal helminths in marine fishes from Brazil. First, we tested whether the shape of the species abundance distribution in these communities fits that predicted by several theoretical models, using a goodness-of-fit procedure. Only the canonical lognormal model could be rejected for 5 out of 39 communities; all other comparisons of observed and predicted abundance distributions showed no significant differences, although this may be due to limited statistical power. Second, we used the ratio between the abundance of the most abundant species and either the second or third most abundant species, as indices of dominance; these show, for instance, that the dominant species in a community is typically twice, but sometimes over ten times, as abundant as the next most abundant species. We found that these ratios were not influenced by either the community's species richness, the mean number of individual parasites per host, or the taxonomic identity of the dominant species. However, the abundance ratio between the first and third most abundant species in a community was significantly correlated with an independent index of species interactivity, based on the likelihood that the different parasite species in a component community co-occur in the same host individuals: the difference in abundance between the dominant and third most abundant species was greater in communities characterized by weak interactions. These findings suggest that strong interactions may lead to greater evenness in the abundance of species, and that numerical dominance is more likely to result from interspecific differences in recruitment rates.
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