Environmental determinants of woody plant diversity at a regional scale in China.

ABSTRACT: Understanding what drives the geographic variation of species richness across the globe is a fundamental goal of ecology and biogeography. Environmental variables have been considered as drivers of global diversity patterns but there is no consensus among ecologists on what environmental variables are primary drivers of the geographic variation of species richness. Here, I examine the relationship of woody plant species richness at a regional scale in China with sixteen environmental variables representing energy availability, water availability, energy-water balance, seasonality, and habitat heterogeneity. I found that temperature seasonality is the best predictor of woody species richness in China. Other important environmental variables include annual precipitation, mean temperature of

SUBMITTER: Qian H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3784393 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature