Spatial processes and environmental control are the two distinct,yet not mutually exclusive forces of community structuring,but the relative importance of these factors is controversial due to the speciesspecific dispersal ability,sensitivity towards environmental variables,organism’s abundance and the effect of spatial scale.In the present paper,we explored spatial versus environmental control in shaping community composition(i.e.b-diversity)and species turnover(i.e.change of b-diversity)at an alpine meadow along a slope aspect gradient on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau at different spatial scales of sampling(quadrats and plots),by taking account of seed dispersal mode and abundance.Methods We examined the relative importance of spatial processes and environmental factors using all species and four additional subsets of selected species.Moreover,we attempted to explore the effect of scale(quadrat refers to scale of;0.3 m and plot of;8 m)on their counter balance.The data were analyzed both by variation partitioning and multiple regressions on distance matrices.The spatial structure was modelled using Moran’s eigenvector maps(MEM).Important Findings Both spatial processes and environmental factors were important determinants of the community composition and species turnover.The community composition in the alpine meadow was controlled by spatially structured environment(17.6%),space independent of environment(18.0%)and a negligible effect of environment independent of space(4.4%)at the scale of quadrats.These three components contributed 21.8,9.9 and 13.9%,respectively,at the scale of plots.The balance between the forces at different spatial scales drove community structures along the slope aspect gradient.The importance of environmental factors on b-diversity at alpine meadow increased with scale while that of spatial processes decreased or kept steady,depending on dispersal mode and abundance of species comprising the subset.But the‘pure’effect of spatial processes on species turnover increased with scale
Qi LiXue YangJanne SoininenCheng-Jin ChuJie-Qi ZhangKai-Liang YuGang Wang
Aims The process of facilitation,where a species increases the survival,growth,and fitness of another species,is becoming increasingly recognized as a critical factor in shaping the structure of plant communities.This process is particularly important in stressful environments.Yet few studies have attempted to incorporate positive interactions into community ecological theories such as the neutral theory of biodiversity.Here,we use an equalizing trade-off model as a foundation to study the potential impact of facilitation on species richness and community temporal turnover.Methods Based on a spatially explicit birth–death trade-off model,we assume that the occurrence of facilitation is dependent on the presence of interspecific neighbours.We further propose that the realized birth rate for a given individual subject to facilitation is proportional to the number of interspecific neighbours within its neighbourhood.Thus,in our model,the individuals of rare species will benefit more from the existence of heterospecific individuals than common species.Important Findings As the facilitative coefficient increased,the species richness for simulated communities at the dynamically stochastic equilibrium was also increasing.Simulations also demonstrated that facilitation could increase the replacement of species through time:communities with facilitation become more dissimilar(i.e.have smaller Bray–Curtis similarity values)than communities without or with a lower degree of facilitation after the same time interval.Facilitation from interspecific neighbours on rare species increased their population sizes and consequently made them less prone to extinction,thus enhancing species richness.Meanwhile,in a saturated community,with the increase of species richness,mean population size of entire communities decreased,making species more prone to extinction on average,and thus increased the community temporal turnover.Our results suggest that future experimental work on the effect of facilitation on community-level properties
