1. Spatial scale changes the relationship between beta diversity, species richness and latitude
- Author
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Sandra L. Yap, Keping Ma, Fangliang He, Christine Fletcher, Wusheng Xiang, Li-Wan Chang, I. A. U. Nimal Gunatilleke, Xihua Wang, Perry S. Ong, Vojtech Novotny, Richard Condit, I-Fang Sun, Xiangcheng Mi, Rachakonda Sreekar, Mingxi Jiang, Guochun Shen, Yide Li, Akihiro Nakamura, Xiujuan Qiao, Masatoshi Katabuchi, C. V. Savitri Gunatilleke, Ke Cao, George D. Weiblen, Xiankun Li, J. W. Ferry Slik, Warren Y. Brockelman, Han Xu, Sylvester Tan, Min Cao, Rhett D. Harrison, Richard T. Corlett, and Lian Pin Koh
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Ecology (disciplines) ,Beta diversity ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Tree diversity ,Latitude ,pairwise dissimilarity ,tree diversity ,β-deviation ,lcsh:Science ,ForestGEO ,Multidisciplinary ,Ecology ,Null model ,010604 marine biology & hydrobiology ,null model ,Biology (Whole Organism) ,15. Life on land ,Spatial ecology ,lcsh:Q ,Species richness ,Research Article - Abstract
The relationship between β-diversity and latitude still remains to be a core question in ecology because of the lack of consensus between studies. One hypothesis for the lack of consensus between studies is that spatial scale changes the relationship between latitude and β-diversity. Here, we test this hypothesis using tree data from 15 large-scale forest plots (greater than or equal to 15 ha, diameter at breast height ≥ 1 cm) across a latitudinal gradient (3–30 o ) in the Asia-Pacific region. We found that the observed β-diversity decreased with increasing latitude when sampling local tree communities at small spatial scale (grain size ≤0.1 ha), but the observed β-diversity did not change with latitude when sampling at large spatial scales (greater than or equal to 0.25 ha). Differences in latitudinal β-diversity gradients across spatial scales were caused by pooled species richness (γ-diversity), which influenced observed β-diversity values at small spatial scales, but not at large spatial scales. Therefore, spatial scale changes the relationship between β-diversity, γ-diversity and latitude, and improving sample representativeness avoids the γ-dependence of β-diversity.
- Published
- 2018