Dataset Information

Impact of precipitation patterns on biomass and species richness of annuals in a dry steppe.

ABSTRACT: Annuals are an important component part of plant communities in arid and semiarid grassland ecosystems. Although it is well known that precipitation has a significant impact on productivity and species richness of community or perennials, nevertheless, due to lack of measurements, especially long-term experiment data, there is little information on how quantity and patterns of precipitation affect similar attributes of annuals. This study addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing how quantity and temporal patterns of precipitation affect aboveground biomass, interannual variation aboveground biomass, relative aboveground biomass, and species richness of annuals using a 29-year dataset from a dry steppe site at the Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Research Station. Results showed that aboveground biomass and relative aboveground biomass of annuals increased with increasing precipitation. The coefficient of variation in aboveground biomass of annuals decreased significantly with increasing annual and growing-season precipitation. Species richness of annuals increased significantly with increasing annual precipitation and growing-season precipitation. Overall, this study highlights the importance of precipitation for aboveground biomass and species richness of annuals.

SUBMITTER: Yan H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4407894 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Impact of precipitation patterns on biomass and species richness of annuals in a dry steppe.

Yan Hong H Liang Cunzhu C Li Zhiyong Z Liu Zhongling Z Miao Bailing B He Chunguang C Sheng Lianxi L

PloS one 20150423 4

Annuals are an important component part of plant communities in arid and semiarid grassland ecosystems. Although it is well known that precipitation has a significant impact on productivity and species richness of community or perennials, nevertheless, due to lack of measurements, especially long-term experiment data, there is little information on how quantity and patterns of precipitation affect similar attributes of annuals. This study addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing how quantity an ...[more]

PMID: 25906187

Similar Datasets

Project description:Aim:Common species contribute more to species richness patterns (SRPs) than rare species in most studies. Our aim was to test this hypothesis using a novel model system, species living exclusively in subterranean habitats. They consist of mainly rare species (small ranges), only a few of them being common (large ranges), and challenge whether rare species are less important for the development of SRPs in this environment. We separately analyzed aquatic and terrestrial species. Location:Western Balkans in southeastern Europe. Methods:We assembled two datasets comprising 431 beetle and 145 amphipod species, representing the model groups of subterranean terrestrial and aquatic diversity, respectively. We assessed the importance of rare and common species using the stepwise reconstruction of SRPs and subsequent correlation analyses, corrected also for the cumulative information content of the subsets based on species prevalence. We applied generalized linear regression models to evaluate the importance of rare and common species in forming SRPs. Additionally, we analyzed the contribution of rare and common species in species-rich cells. Results:Patterns of subterranean aquatic and terrestrial species richness overlapped only weakly, with aquatic species having larger ranges than terrestrial ones. Our analyses supported higher importance of common species for forming overall SRPs in both beetles and amphipods. However, in stepwise analysis corrected for information content, results were ambiguous. Common species presented a higher proportion of species than rare species in species-rich cells. Main Conclusion:We have shown that even in habitats with the domination of rare species, it is still common species that drive SRPs. This may be due to an even spatial distribution of rare species or spatial mismatch in hotspots of rare and common species. SRPs of aquatic and terrestrial subterranean organisms overlap very little, so the conservation approaches need to be habitat specific.

Project description:The ranges and abundances of species that depend on freshwater habitats are declining worldwide. Efforts to counteract those trends are often hampered by a lack of information about species distribution and conservation status and are often strongly biased toward a few well-studied groups. We identified the 3,906 vascular plants, macroinvertebrates, and vertebrates native to California, USA, that depend on fresh water for at least one stage of their life history. We evaluated the conservation status for these taxa using existing government and non-governmental organization assessments (e.g., endangered species act, NatureServe), created a spatial database of locality observations or distribution information from ~400 data sources, and mapped patterns of richness, endemism, and vulnerability. Although nearly half of all taxa with conservation status (n = 1,939) are vulnerable to extinction, only 114 (6%) of those vulnerable taxa have a legal mandate for protection in the form of formal inclusion on a state or federal endangered species list. Endemic taxa are at greater risk than non-endemics, with 90% of the 927 endemic taxa vulnerable to extinction. Records with spatial data were available for a total of 2,276 species (61%). The patterns of species richness differ depending on the taxonomic group analyzed, but are similar across taxonomic level. No particular taxonomic group represents an umbrella for all species, but hotspots of high richness for listed species cover 40% of the hotspots for all other species and 58% of the hotspots for vulnerable freshwater species. By mapping freshwater species hotspots we show locations that represent the top priority for conservation action in the state. This study identifies opportunities to fill gaps in the evaluation of conservation status for freshwater taxa in California, to address the lack of occurrence information for nearly 40% of freshwater taxa and nearly 40% of watersheds in the state, and to implement adequate protections for freshwater taxa where they are currently lacking.

Dataset Information

Impact of precipitation patterns on biomass and species richness of annuals in a dry steppe.

Publications

Impact of precipitation patterns on biomass and species richness of annuals in a dry steppe.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets