Beta-diversity of central European forests decreases along an elevational gradient due to the variation in local community assembly processes

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F18%3A00101644" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/18:00101644 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.02809" target="_blank" >https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.02809</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

—

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Beta-diversity of central European forests decreases along an elevational gradient due to the variation in local community assembly processes

Original language description

Beta-diversity has been repeatedly shown to decline with increasing elevation, but the causes of this pattern remain unclear, partly because they are confounded by coincident variation in alpha- and gamma-diversity. We used 8795 forest vegetation-plot records from the Czech National Phytosociological Database to compare the observed patterns of beta diversity to null-model expectations (beta-deviation) controlling for the effects of alpha- and gamma-diversity. We tested whether beta-diversity patterns along a 1200 m elevation gradient exclusively depend on the effect of varying species pool size, or also on the variation of the magnitude of community assembly mechanisms determining the distribution of species across communities (e.g. environmental filtering, dispersal limitation). The null model we used is a novel extension of an existing null-model designed for presence/absence data and was specifically designed to disrupt the effect of community assembly mechanisms, while retaining some key features of observed communities such as average species richness and species abundance distribution. Analyses were replicated in ten subregions with comparable elevation ranges. Beta-diversity declined along the elevation gradient due to a decrease in gamma-diversity, which was steeper than the decrease in alpha-diversity. This pattern persisted after controlling for alpha- and gamma-diversity variation, and the results were robust when different resampling schemes and diversity metrics were used. We conclude that in temperate forests the pattern of decreasing beta-diversity with elevation does not exclusively depend on variation in species pool size, as has been hypothesized, but also on variation in community assembly mechanisms. The results were consistent across resampling schemes and diversity measures, thus supporting the use of vegetation-plot databases for understanding patterns of beta-diversity at the regional scale.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10619 - Biodiversity conservation

Project

<a href="/en/project/GB14-36079G" target="_blank" >GB14-36079G: Plant diversity analysis and synthesis centre (PLADIAS)</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Ecography

ISSN

0906-7590

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

41

Issue of the periodical within the volume

6

Country of publishing house

DK - DENMARK

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

1038-1048

UT code for WoS article

000434091800015

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85034240110