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Pattern of β-Diversity and Plant Species Richness along Vertical Gradient in Northwest Himalaya, India

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Elevation has a significant impact on the distribution of plant species. However, the structure and distribution patterns of Himalayan vegetation are poorly explored, and research on species composition along an elevation gradient in these mountain ranges is still deficient. Plant species richness is supposed to diminish with altitude, although numerous scientists have found a peak in species richness at mid-elevation, yielding a humped relationship. Many studies along the Himalayan altitudinal gradients have been conducted in order to better understand large-scale biogeographical patterns as well as what drives them, but no clear pattern has emerged. In order to understand how elevation affects plant species, we focused on species diversity, species composition and β-diversity, which allow for the interpreting of different patterns along the elevations. It was found that all these components of diversity vary significantly with the change in altitude.

Abstract

The structure and distribution patterns of Himalayan vegetation are poorly explored, and research on species composition along the elevation gradient in these mountain ranges is still deficient. The current study was undertaken to analyze the variation and pattern of plant species composition along a vertical gradient in northwestern Himalaya, India. A total of 18 sites were selected along an elevation gradient ranging from 2200 to 3900 m asl positioned at an interval of 100 m. The Renyi diversity profile, non-metric multidimensional scaling based on the Bray–Curtis dissimilarity metric and beta diversity components among the elevation belts were calculated. Furthermore, to study the influence of altitude on species richness and diversity, a generalized additive model was created. Two hundred and ten plant species representing 66 families and 147 genera were recorded. The Renyi diversity profiles show that the lower and mid-altitudes had rich species diversity. The results of the non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis show a considerable variation in the total plant species composition among the studied elevation belts. The observed multiple-site Sorensen dissimilarity index across the studied elevation belts was very high. The contribution of species replacement or the turnover component to the observed dissimilarity was much higher than the nestedness component. Furthermore, the herbaceous and tree richness showed a significant decrease with increase in elevation; however, the richness of shrubs showed a bimodal pattern. The present study increases our understanding of the trends and patterns of species richness along the vertical gradient in the Himalayan region.

SUBMITTER: Wani Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9312975 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundSeed endophytic bacteria are beneficial to plants. They improve seedling growth by enhancing plant nutrient uptake, modulating stress-related phytohormone production, and targeting pests and pathogens with antibiotics. Seed endophyte composition can be influenced by pollination, plant cultivar, and soil physicochemical conditions. However, the effects of plant community richness on seed endophytes are unknown. To investigate the effects of increasing plant species richness on the diversity and composition of the seed microbiome, we made use of a well-established long-term biodiversity experiment in Germany (The Jena Experiment). We sampled seeds from different Plantago lanceolata blossoms in a plant diversity gradient ranging from monoculture to 16 species mixtures. The seeds were surface sterilized to remove seed surface-associated bacteria and subjected to a metabarcoding approach to assess bacterial community structure.ResultsOur data indicate a very stable core microbiome, which accounted for more than 90% of the reads and was present in all seeds independent of the plant richness level the seeds originated from. It consisted mainly of reads linked to Pseudomonas rhizosphaerae, Sphingomonas faeni and Pirellulla spp. 9% of the obtained reads were not part of the core microbiome and were only present in plots of specific diversity levels. The number of unique ASVs was positively correlated with plant richness. Interestingly, most reads described as non-core members belonged to the same genera described as the core microbiome, indicating the presence of different strains or species with possibly different functional properties important for seed performance.ConclusionOur data indicate that Plantago lanceolata maintains a large seeds core microbiome across the plant richness gradient. However, the number of unique ASVs increases alongside the plant community richness, indicating that ecosystem biodiversity also mitigates diversity loss in seed endophytes.

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Pattern of β-Diversity and Plant Species Richness along Vertical Gradient in Northwest Himalaya, India

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