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Functional diversity versus species diversity: relationships with habitat heterogeneity at multiple scales in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest

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Ecological Research

Abstract

Understanding the relationship between functional and species diversity as well as their association with habitat heterogeneity can help reveal the mechanisms of species coexistence in ecological communities. However, these interactions have been poorly studied in subtropical forests. In this paper, we evaluated functional diversity (as measured by Rao’s Q) and traditional species diversity (based on Simpson’s index) in a 24 ha forest plot in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest (EBLF) in China. We compared the sensitivities of functional and species diversity to topographic variables (elevation, convexity, slope and aspect) at multiple spatial scales based on 10 × 10, 20 × 20, 40 × 40 and 50 × 50 m quadrats. Functional and species diversity were found to have different distribution patterns along a topographical gradient, with functional diversity better explained by topography than was species diversity using a spatial autocorrelation regression error model. Furthermore, functional diversity had a significantly greater association with topographic variables than species diversity in both adult and young trees; in both cases, the strength of the diversity-habitat association increased with quadrat size. We conclude that functional diversity reflects a greater diversity-habitat association in EBLF than does species diversity, and that the association depends on the spatial scale and life stages of the woody plants under evaluation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Gufeng Zhao, Scott Chang, Pierre Legendre, Christian Wirth, Fangliang He and Bernhard Schmid for constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and to Chaozong Zheng for helping us classify the species’ functional traits. We also thank Keping Ma, I-Fang Sun, Xiangcheng Mi, Guochun Shen and Jianhua Chen for their contribution to plot establishment. We acknowledge support from the Administration Bureau of the Gutianshan National Nature Reserve. This work was supported by the Key Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-430) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30200034).

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Correspondence to Mingjian Yu.

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G. Hu and Y. Jin contributed equally to this paper.

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Hu, G., Jin, Y., Liu, J. et al. Functional diversity versus species diversity: relationships with habitat heterogeneity at multiple scales in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest. Ecol Res 29, 897–903 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-014-1178-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-014-1178-6

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