Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal dominance on taxonomic and phylogenetic beta diversity across vertical strata in a subtropical forest.

ABSTRACT: Vertical stratification in forests creates important environmental gradients that shape biodiversity patterns. While beta diversity (β-diversity) quantifies community assembly mechanisms, the relative contributions of core ecological processes, specifically biotic interactions, dispersal limitation, and habitat filtering, to taxonomic (TBD) and phylogenetic (PBD) β-diversity across vertical strata remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we quantified TBD and PBD to disentangle the relative influences of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) dominance (as a proxy for biotic interactions), geographic distance (as a proxy for dispersal limitation), and elevation distance (as a proxy for habitat filtering) across four vertically stratified layers (i.e., canopy, subcanopy, shrub, herb la

SUBMITTER: Yu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12518276 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature