Different ecological processes determined the alpha and beta components of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity for plant communities in dryland regions of Northwest China.

ABSTRACT: Drylands account for more than 30% of China's terrestrial area, while the ecological drivers of taxonomic (TD), functional (FD) and phylogenetic (PD) diversity in dryland regions have not been explored simultaneously. Therefore, we selected 36 plots of desert and 32 plots of grassland (10 × 10 m) from a typical dryland region of northwest China. We calculated the alpha and beta components of TD, FD and PD for 68 dryland plant communities using Rao quadratic entropy index, which included 233 plant species. Redundancy analyses and variation partitioning analyses were used to explore the relative influence of environmental and spatial factors on the above three facets of diversity, at the alpha and beta scales. We found that soil, climate, topography and spatial structures (principal coordina

SUBMITTER: Wang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6330206 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature