Spatial heterogeneity in soil particle size:does it affect the yield of plant communities with different species richness?

作     者：Wei Xue Lin Huang Fei-Hai Yu 

作者机构：School of Nature ConservationBeijing Forestry UniversityBeijing 100083China 

出 版 物：《Journal of Plant Ecology》 (植物生态学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2016年第9卷第5期

页      面：608-615页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 071001[理学-植物学] 07[理学] 

基　　金：Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(TD-JC-2013-1) NSFC(31570413) 

主　　题：diversity effect experimental communities environmental heterogeneity patch size soil particle heterogeneity spatial scale 

摘      要：Aims Soil heterogeneity is ubiquitous in many *** hypothesized that plant communities with higher species richness might be better adapted to soil heterogeneity and produce more biomass than those with lower *** is because there is niche differentiation among species and different species can complement each other and occupy a broader range of niches when plant species richness is ***,no study has tested how soil particle heterogeneity affects the yield of plant communities,and whether such effects depend on the spatial scale of the heterogeneity and the species richness within the *** In a greenhouse experiment,we sowed seeds of four-species or eight-species mixtures in three heterogeneous treatments consisting of 32,8 or 2 patches of both small(1.5 mm)and large quartz(3.0 mm)particles arranged in a chessboard manner and one homogeneous treatment with an even mixture of small and large quartz *** Findings Biomass production was significantly greater in the communities with high species richness than those with low species ***,soil particle heterogeneity or its interactions with patch scale or species richness did not significantly affect biomass production of the experimental *** work indicates that plant species richness may have a bigger impact on plant productivity than soil particle *** studies should consider multiple sets of plant species during longer time periods to unravel the potential mechanisms of soil heterogeneity and its interactions with the impacts of species richness on community yield and species coexistence.