The relationship between species richness and evenness in plant communities along a successional gradient: a study from sub-alpine meadows of the Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China.

ABSTRACT: The relationship between species richness and evenness across communities remains an unsettled issue in ecology from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. As a result, we do not know the mechanisms that could generate a relationship between species richness and evenness, and how this responds to spatial scale. Here we examine the relationship between species richness(S) and evenness (Pielou's J' evenness) using a chronosequence of successional sub-alpine meadow communities in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. These meadows range from natural community (never farmed), to those that have been protected from agricultural exploitation for periods ranging from 1 to 10 years. A total of 30 sampling quadrats with size of 0.5 m×0.5 m were laid out along two transects at each meadow. Usin

SUBMITTER: Zhang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3494667 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature