Distinguishing the importance between habitat specialization and dispersal limitation on species turnover.

ABSTRACT: Understanding what governs community assembly and the maintenance of biodiversity is a central issue in ecology, but has been a continuing debate. A key question is the relative importance of habitat specialization (niche assembly) and dispersal limitation (dispersal assembly). In the middle of the Loess Plateau, northwestern China, we examined how species turnover in Liaodong oak (Quercus wutaishanica) forests differed between observed and randomized assemblies, and how this difference was affected by habitat specialization and dispersal limitation using variation partitioning. Results showed that expected species turnover based on individual randomization was significantly lower than the observed value (P < 0.01). The turnover deviation significantly depended on the environmental and geo

SUBMITTER: Wang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3797498 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature