Asian monsoon shaped the pattern of woody dicotyledon richness in humid regions of China.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how geographical patterns of plant richness are established is a key scientific question in ecology and biogeography. Climate factors, such as environmental energy, water availability, and rainfall seasonality, have been widely proposed to account for geographical patterns of plant richness at large scales. Using a compiled distribution data set of 3166 native woody dicotyledons across 732 calibration grids at the county level in humid regions of China, we explored the geographical pattern of woody dicotyledon richness and its relationship to climatic variations, especially the Asian monsoonal climate. We found that species richness decreases with increasing latitude. Our study indicates that water availability (particularly mean annual precipitation, MAP) is the major abioti

SUBMITTER: Chen WY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7361432 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature