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      Topography and soil content contribute to plant community composition and structure in subtropical evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forests

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          Abstract

          Topography and soil factors are known to play crucial roles in the species composition of plant communities in subtropical evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forests. In this study, we used a systematic quantitative approach to classify plant community types in the subtropical forests of Hubei Province (central China), and then quantified the relative contribution of drivers responsible for variation in species composition and diversity. We classified the subtropical forests in the study area into 12 community types. Of these, species diversity indices of three communities were significantly higher than those of others. In each community type, species richness, abundance, basal area and importance values of evergreen and deciduous species were different. In most community types, deciduous species richness was higher than that of evergreen species. Linear regression analysis showed that the dominant factors that affect species composition in each community type are elevation, slope, aspect, soil nitrogen content, and soil phosphorus content. Furthermore, structural equation modeling analysis showed that the majority of variance in species composition of plant communities can be explained by elevation, aspect, soil water content, litterfall, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. Thus, the major factors that affect evergreen and deciduous species distribution across the 12 community types in subtropical evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forests include elevation, slope and aspect, soil total nitrogen content, soil total phosphorus content, soil available nitrogen content and soil available phosphorus content.

          Highlights

          • Plant community structure and species composition were studied in evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forests in northwestern Hubei Province (central China).

          • We identified environmental factors, including topography and soil content, that drive plant community structure and species composition.

          • The major factors that affect species distribution in subtropical forests include elevation and soil available phosphorus content.

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          Multiple regression on distance matrices: a multivariate spatial analysis tool

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            The biogeochemical heterogeneity of tropical forests.

            Tropical forests are renowned for their biological diversity, but also harbor variable combinations of soil age, chemistry and susceptibility to erosion or tectonic uplift. Here we contend that the combined effects of this biotic and abiotic diversity promote exceptional biogeochemical heterogeneity at multiple scales. At local levels, high plant diversity creates variation in chemical and structural traits that affect plant production, decomposition and nutrient cycling. At regional levels, myriad combinations of soil age, soil chemistry and landscape dynamics create variation and uncertainty in limiting nutrients that do not exist at higher latitudes. The effects of such heterogeneity are not well captured in large-scale estimates of tropical ecosystem function, but we suggest new developments in remote sensing can help bridge the gap.
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              Stand age and soils as drivers of plant functional traits and aboveground biomass in secondary tropical dry forest

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Plant Divers
                Plant Divers
                Plant Diversity
                Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
                2096-2703
                2468-2659
                20 April 2021
                August 2021
                20 April 2021
                : 43
                : 4
                : 264-274
                Affiliations
                [a ]Key Laboratory for Environment and Disaster Monitoring and Evaluation, Hubei, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430077, China
                [b ]University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
                [c ]School of Resource and Environment, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, China
                Author notes
                []Corresponding author. wanglihui@ 123456whigg.ac.cn
                Article
                S2468-2659(21)00051-2
                10.1016/j.pld.2021.03.003
                8390922
                34485768
                1d0ab93f-abae-41bd-a630-e4707a94f118
                © 2021 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

                This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

                History
                : 20 September 2020
                : 23 March 2021
                : 27 March 2021
                Categories
                Research Paper

                environmental factors,plant community,two-way indicator species analysis,detrended correspondence analysis,evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forests,northwestern of hubei

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