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Vascular plant species richness on wetland remnants is determined by both area and habitat heterogeneity

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Abstract

There is an ongoing ecological debate on whether area per se or habitat heterogeneity is the main driver for species richness. The wetland remnants in the Sanjiang Plain, NE China harbor a high biodiversity and play an important role for local ecosystems. Fifty-one wetland remnants were sampled to examine the effect of area and habitat heterogeneity on vascular plant species richness. Number of community types, elevation, water heterogeneity and soil resource heterogeneity were employed as habitat heterogeneity variables, but only water heterogeneity was identified as the proper surrogate for habitat heterogeneity. Compared with the classic species-area model, the choros model achieved better fitness when water heterogeneity and elevation were employed as habitat heterogeneity variables. Nevertheless, elevation was poorly correlated with species richness. It suggests, without a comprehensive analysis of habitat heterogeneity variables, the choros model might result in a misleading result. In this study, species richness was significantly influenced by water heterogeneity, area and number of community types. Water heterogeneity and area both controlled the number of community types, and they were the two main determinants of species richness. As area was significantly and positively correlated with water heterogeneity, the variance in species richness was mainly related to the mutual effect of area and water heterogeneity. The results of this study confirmed that the relationship between the area per se hypothesis and the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis was conjunct rather than mutually exclusive. In addition, it is critical that both area and water heterogeneity should be taken into account for biodiversity conservation and management in wetland remnants.

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Abbreviations

NCT:

Number of community types

CV:

Coefficient of variation

WC:

Water condition

SQI:

Soil quality index

EC:

Electrical conductivity

OM:

Organic matter

TN:

Total nitrogen

AN:

Available nitrogen

TP:

Total phosphorus

AP:

Available phosphorus

TK:

Total potassium

AK:

Available potassium

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40671182). We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jimei Road 1799, 361021, Xiamen, China

    Jianmin Shi, Keming Ma & Jingzhu Zhao

  2. College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Zhimin Road 1066, 330045, Nanchang, China

    Jianmin Shi

  3. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, 100085, Beijing, China

    Keming Ma

  4. Institute of Natural Resource and Ecology, Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences, Harping Road 103, 150040, Harbin, China

    Jifeng Wang

  5. Department of Biological Sciences, Murray State University, Murray, KY, 42071, USA

    Kate He

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  1. Jianmin Shi
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  2. Keming Ma
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  4. Jingzhu Zhao
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Correspondence to Keming Ma.

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Shi, J., Ma, K., Wang, J. et al. Vascular plant species richness on wetland remnants is determined by both area and habitat heterogeneity. Biodivers Conserv 19, 1279–1295 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9757-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9757-5

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