Article
Ecology
Nicole A. Stewart, Tiffany A. Schriever
Summary: Understanding the role of environmental filtering and spatial processes in assembling and maintaining rare aquatic communities is crucial for conservation. This study examined the influence of environmental and spatial factors on the diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages in wetlands along the coastline of Lake Michigan. The results showed that species diversity and composition varied along the coastline due to environmental gradients, with high species replacement and correlation with local and regional environmental variables. The study emphasized the importance of considering coastline connectivity for maintaining freshwater biodiversity.
FRESHWATER BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jianping Yang, Peixi Su, Zijuan Zhou, Rui Shi, Xinjing Ding
Summary: This study investigates the assembly mechanism of plant communities in alpine meadows, indicating that environmental filtering plays a more significant role than dispersal limitation. The abundance of Compositae plants, which have a high niche breadth, is crucial for sustainable pastoral production.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Jianlei Wang, Xiao Yan, Fawei Zhang, Qihua Wu, Qingkang Li, Xingyu Liu, Yingnian Li, Guigang Lin
Summary: This study examined the assembly processes and co-occurrence networks of soil diazotrophs along an elevational gradient in Tibetan alpine meadows. The results showed that alpha-diversity of soil diazotrophs was lower at low elevations and dominant diazotrophic phyla shifted with elevation. Soil temperature, moisture, NH4+-N concentration, and pH were identified as factors influencing the diazotrophic community composition. The complexity of diazotrophic co-occurrence networks increased with increasing elevations. These findings highlight the change in soil diazotrophic communities along the elevation gradient and suggest the potential impacts of global change on soil diazotrophic community composition in montane ecosystems.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Raven L. Bier, Mate Vass, Anna J. Szekely, Silke Langenheder
Summary: Understanding the processes that determine community membership and abundance is crucial for ecology and conservation. This study used a spatiotemporal approach to investigate the influence of environmental fluctuations on the assembly processes of aquatic bacterial communities, finding that the effect varied with mesocosm size.
Article
Ecology
George P. Malanson, Elizabeth R. Pansing, Riccardo Testolin, Sylvain Abdulhak, Ariel Bergamini, Renata Custerevska, Corrado Marceno, Nevena Kuzmanovic, Dordije Milanovic, Eszter Ruprecht, Jozef Sibik, Kiril Vassilev, Wolfgang Willner, Borja Jimenez-Alfaro
Summary: The importance of environmental difference and dispersal limitation in explaining similarity of alpine vegetation at increasing distances between regions has been studied. Climate differences showed a unimodal pattern in explaining beta diversity, while dispersal limitation consistently rose on both substrates. On siliceous substrate, dispersal limitation explained more variation in beta diversity only at longer distances, while it was predominant at all distances on calcareous substrate.
Article
Plant Sciences
Yuan Li, Gensheng Bao, Peng Zhang, Xiaoyun Feng, Jingjuan Ma, Hainian Lu, Hongxiao Shi, Xiaoxing Wei, Bingming Tang, Kai Liu
Summary: This study examined the correlations between plant diversity and bud bank traits at different stages of alpine meadow degradation. The findings showed that grass biomasses and plant diversity were highest in moderately degraded meadows, while sedge biomasses were highest in lightly degraded meadows. The densities of bud banks were influenced by the level of disturbance, with undisturbed meadows having the highest bud bank density. The study also found that the densities and diversities of rhizome and tiller buds play crucial roles in facilitating the greater diversity of the plant community.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Ramiro Martin-Devasa, Sara Martinez-Santalla, Carola Gomez-Rodriguez, Rosa M. Crujeiras, Andres Baselga
Summary: This study aimed to assess the dependence between the form of the decrease in biological similarity with distance (distance-decay) and species range size, and introduced the use of a sigmoidal model, the Gompertz function, for fitting distance-decay models. The results showed that the functional form of distance-decay patterns depends on species range size, and the Gompertz function accommodates different frequency distributions of species range size.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Yandi She, Xilai Li, Chengyi Li, Pengnian Yang, Zihan Song, Jing Zhang
Summary: Plant diversity plays a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem stability. This study found a positive correlation between species diversity and community stability in alpine meadow ecosystems. Plant communities with higher species diversity were more stable.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zelong Zhao, Hongjun Li, Yi Sun, Qing Yang, Jinfeng Fan
Summary: This study investigated the metacommunity dynamics of phytoplankton and zooplankton in the Bohai Sea, China, and found clear geographic patterns in both communities. The zooplankton communities were primarily governed by species sorting rather than dispersal limitation, and exhibited broader habitat niche breadths and dispersal abilities compared to phytoplankton. Additionally, environmental pollution affected high trophic organisms by altering the abundance of phytoplankton and modifying the zooplankton that feed on them.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Qi-peng Zhang, Ru-yao Fang, Cui-yan Deng, Hong-juan Zhao, Meng -Han Shen, Qian Wang
Summary: Slope aspect has a significant impact on the characteristics of plant communities and soil physical and chemical properties in alpine meadows. There are significant differences in plant functional groups and plant diversity among different slope aspects. The physical and chemical properties of the soil vary with the slope aspect and are significantly correlated with plant functional groups and plant diversity.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Yunga Wu, Cao Hao, Zhijing Xie, Yufeng Zhang, Pingting Guan, Donghui Wu, Stefan Scheu
Summary: Distance-decay of similarity is observed in both environmental and geographic distance for soil and earthworm gut bacteria. The foregut of earthworms is most affected by environmental changes. These findings suggest that the gut passage of earthworms contributes to the similarity of soil microbial communities.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Heraldo L. Vasconcelos, Karen C. Neves, Alan N. Andersen
Summary: In this study, the researchers evaluated the variation of vertical stratification of ant assemblages along a latitudinal climatic gradient in the Brazilian savanna. They found that species richness on the ground increased faster with latitude than in trees. Overall, the results suggest that as the climate becomes hotter and drier, ant assemblages in the savanna may become less diverse on the ground and more homogeneous vertically.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Luyao Kang, Leiyi Chen, Dianye Zhang, Yunfeng Peng, Yutong Song, Dan Kou, Ye Deng, Yuanhe Yang
Summary: Understanding the biogeographical patterns and underlying processes of belowground community assembly is crucial for predicting soil functions and their responses to global environmental change. Research in alpine ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau has shown differences in belowground community assembly among trophic levels, with stochastic processes playing a primary role in regulating community assembly.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Lloyd D. Potts, Alex Douglas, Luis J. Perez Calderon, James A. Anderson, Ursula Witte, James Prosser, Cecile Gubry-Rangin
Summary: Acute environmental perturbations cause changes in microbial community composition and selection of different phylotypes, while chronic perturbations maintain community stability and can lead to the establishment of alternative stable states. This study also demonstrates the functional resilience of ecosystem following environmental perturbations.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Akifumi Nishida, Mayuko Nakagawa, Masayuki Yamamura
Summary: The assembly of microbial communities is influenced by both deterministic and stochastic processes, with large environmental changes leading to a more deterministic microbial community assembly.