title: Beta diversity determinants in Badagongshan, a subtropical forest in central China.
abstract: Niche and neutral theories emphasize different processes contributing to the maintenance of species diversity. In this study, we calculated the local contribution to beta diversity (LCBD) of every cell, using variation partitioning in combination with spatial distance and environmental variables of the 25-ha Badagongshan plot (BDGS), to determine the contribution of environmentally-related variation versus pure spatial variation. We used topography and soil characteristics as environmental variables, distance-based Moran's eigenvectors maps (dbMEM) to describe spatial relationships among cells and redundancy analysis (RDA) to apportion the variation in beta diversity into three components: pure environmental, spatially-structured environmental, and pure spatial. Results showed LCBD values were negatively related to number of common species and positively related to number of rare species. Environment and space jointly explained ~60% of the variation in species composition; soil variables alone explained 21.6%, slightly more than the topographic variables that explained 15.7%; topography and soil together explained 27%, slightly inferior to spatial variables that explained 34%. The BDGS forest was controlled both by the spatial and environmental variables, and the results were consistent across different life forms and life stages.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiujuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qianxi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qinghu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Junmeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639, USA.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Center for Ecological Research and Education, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiyao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qinggang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jiaxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Dachuan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yili
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yaozhan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Mingxi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D002681:China; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D065928:Forests; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D013045:Species Specificity; D014197:Trees / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D012987:Soil